Back to the Château for Lunch

 Back to the Château for Lunch

Photos posted later

After a busy morning wandering through the Friday market in Ribérac, we climbed back into the van and headed toward Château Marouatte.

The drive back was another reminder of just how agricultural this part of France is. The road carried us through a patchwork of rolling fields, some still intensely green and others already fading toward the muted golds and browns of late summer.

[PHOTO: Cornfield along the road]

We passed fields of corn stretching almost to the roadside, followed by enormous fields of sunflowers that had long since lost their brilliant yellow petals. Their dark, heavy heads were bowed toward the ground, the plants drying in preparation for harvest.

[PHOTO: Field of mature sunflowers]

It is quite a contrast to the cheerful yellow sunflower fields we usually imagine. At this stage, however, the plants are doing exactly what they are supposed to do. The seeds are maturing and the plants are drying naturally before harvest.

The landscape kept opening into beautiful long views across the Dordogne countryside. Cultivated fields followed the contours of the hills rather than fighting them, with irregular lines of trees dividing one piece of farmland from another.

[PHOTO: Wide view across the rolling farmland]

And in one of those views, there was something familiar.

Look carefully at the landscape photograph and you can see our château sitting on the hill in the distance.

[PHOTO: Landscape with Château Marouatte visible on the hill]

It was fun to suddenly recognize it from so far away. After only a few days, that extraordinary medieval château on the hill was already beginning to feel like “home.”

We passed one wonderfully French country intersection where the signs pointed toward Périgueux, Lisle, Tocane-Saint-Apre, Verteillac and Grand-Brassac. A small herd of cattle grazed beside the road, seemingly unconcerned about where anyone was going.

[PHOTO: Country intersection with directional signs and cattle]

Then it was back to the château.

And lunch.

[PHOTO: Lunch overlooking the château grounds]

We ate outside, with the château grounds and one of the stone towers in the distance. After the bustle of the market, it was wonderfully peaceful.

Lunch was simple and absolutely delicious. A generous slice of tomato tart or quiche was served with several salads, including a colorful crunchy slaw, a creamy potato salad, and other fresh accompaniments. There was also a soft, creamy cheese and a vivid beet-colored spread on the plate.

Nothing fussy. Just fresh ingredients, wonderful flavors and exactly the kind of lunch that tastes particularly good after a morning spent walking through a French market.

And then there is the setting.

One moment you are driving past cornfields and cattle. The next you are sitting beneath an umbrella eating lunch while looking across the grounds of a medieval château.

[PHOTO: Great Hall prepared for the meal]

Even inside, the château continues to remind us that this is no ordinary place to come home to. The long table stretches through the Great Hall beneath ancient timber beams, surrounded by carved furniture, heraldic shields, tapestries, paintings and a massive stone fireplace.

Market in the morning.

A drive through the French countryside.

Lunch overlooking a castle tower.

Not a bad way to spend a Friday in France.