Le Bugue: Our Home Base in Dordogne

Le Bugue is a lovely little town, with lots of activity on both sides of le Vézère River which winds through the middle of town.

Our home in  Le Bugue was actually two homes side-by-side, and quite comfortable for a place that's apparently 1000 years old! (although as you can see, one of the houses had been updated very recently.)

 

The town proved to be a perfect location for exploring all the highlights that this area of the Dordogne is famous for – the prehistoric caves, the monumental cliffs, the foie gras (which may be banned in LA but certainly isn’t here!) and all kinds of other edible delicacies. One of the most notable is magret, which is the breast of the ducks that have been “prepared” to provide foie gras. It's often presented with or around a mound of foie gras - talk about adding insult to injury! Another is confit, which is duck leg that has been preserved and cooked in duck fat (and has absolutely no calories!).

There's also salade gésiers (salad with fried duck gizzards, which sounds much worse than it tastes), and lots of wonderful fresh produce, particularly the walnuts, which were superb and warranted the purchase of a Dordogne nutcracker so we could enjoy them with the other delights we found around the area.

 But along with serving as a great hub for our adventures, Le Bugue offered a number of surprises, the first being a huge market, which takes over most of the town on Tuesday mornings. We were warned not to bother trying to leave town before 1:30 and when we arrived at the market, we understood why - it was enormous and filled with all kinds of foods, clothes, jewelry, crafts and odds and ends.

Le Bugue also surprised us by offering a number of delightful restaurants, a few of which we sampled in between sojourns to caves and castles.

It was also full of beautiful photo ops, as we all discovered, but especially Michael who enjoyed experimenting with the different settings on his camera.

Although getting around town was fairly easy, we did run into some unexpected obstacles, which one can only find in France. Yes, that crane is lowering a little bulldozer down onto the street from the work site above. And then the crane operator zipped down the street with little concern about the proximity of the parked cars or buildings.

And one night, we attended their Repas Gourmand, for which the town square was converted into an outdoor dining hall, and all kinds of food stations were set up around the long rows of tables. We could pick whatever we wanted for incredibly reasonable prices. A big plate of paella or Basque chicken was only 7 Euros, and  bottles of local wine were equally reasonable  - and tasty.

It was festive and fun and friendly, and everyone left well stuffed. Truly, one of our most memorable evenings, topped off by music and dancing and a nearby carnival with bumper cars!

As mentioned, foie gras is a staple in this area and Mario found out that the best place to buy it in bulk was from the source – a farm just outside of town. When we arrived, we were greeted by a flock of geese who seemed to have issues with Mario, and with good reason!

They knew what he was going inside to buy!

All in all, we agreed that Le Bugue was the perfect choice as our home base during our stay in Dordogne. Although there are some locals who are probably hoping at least one of us never returns!