Day 1 at Château Marouatte: Beth’s Plan for Périgueux

 Day 1 at Château Marouatte: Beth’s Plan for Périgueux

Our first evening at Château Marouatte included the all-important orientation from Beth: when to eat, when to leave, what to carry, where we’re going, and—perhaps most importantly—how not to lose one another once we get there.

Tomorrow is our first full day.

Breakfast at the Château

Breakfast is generally around 8:00 a.m., although Beth explained that it is casual rather than a strict sit-down affair. Breakfast is buffet style, with food set out in the kitchen—croissants, eggs, yogurt, porridge, coffee, tea, and other simple breakfast choices.

In other words, there is no need for everyone to appear at precisely 8:00. We can wander in, make coffee, find something to eat, and get ourselves organized for the day.

And we will need to be organized, because our departure time is firm:

9:30 a.m.

That may be the single most important piece of information from tonight’s briefing.

Tomorrow: Périgueux

Our first excursion is to Périgueux, and our timing is especially good because tomorrow is one of the city’s market days.

Beth explained that the market spreads through several streets in the historic center. Food is the main attraction, with local produce and specialties filling the market area and plenty of opportunities for photography.

We will begin together, but after that, we are free to wander.

That seems to be the philosophy for the day: Beth will get us oriented, point us toward the important places, and then we can explore Périgueux at our own pace.

We won’t necessarily have lunch together. There are many little restaurants and cafés throughout the old city, and as everyone begins following whatever catches their eye—or their camera—we will inevitably scatter.

Miles will provide us with lunch money, and we can choose where and when we want to eat.

What We Should See

Beth has already given us historical information about Périgueux, and she has also created locations for us in Google Maps, which should make independent exploring considerably easier.

One of the major landmarks is the Cathédrale Saint-Front, which Beth says deserves time both inside and outside. Its unusual domes make it one of the defining sights of Périgueux and an obvious photographic destination.

For anyone willing to walk a little farther, there is also the Vesunna area and the remains of the Roman Tour de Vésone—evidence of the much older Roman city beneath modern Périgueux.

And then there is simply the pleasure of wandering: old streets, pedestrian passages, markets, shops, cafés, architecture, food, and whatever unexpected scenes appear along the way.

That, of course, is usually where the best photographs come from.

One Important Rule: Carry What You Need

There was an important logistical question tonight:

Can we leave things in the vans and come back for them during the day?

Essentially, no.

One of the vans may be moving during the day, so we should not assume we will have access to anything left behind.

That means tomorrow morning we need to think carefully about what goes into our bags. Cameras, lenses, phone, batteries, water, rain gear, medications, or anything else we expect to need must stay with us.

Whatever we take, we carry.

That alone is a good argument for packing lightly.

Finding Our Way Back

Beth will establish a final meeting place where we will regroup in the afternoon before getting into the vans for the trip back to Château Marouatte.

The location will also be pinned in our Google Maps information, so even if we have wandered deep into the old city, we should be able to navigate our way back.

At least, that’s the theory.

There was quite a bit of discussion tonight about phones, airplane mode, cellular service, Wi-Fi, offline Google Maps, and WhatsApp.

WhatsApp will be our primary way of communicating with Beth and one another. It also allows us to share locations or drop a pin—an extremely useful feature if someone sends the inevitable message:

“I’m lost. Here I am.”

Beth can then see the location and help guide that person back.

Given our adventures simply finding one another at the train station, this seems less like an optional technology lesson and more like an essential survival skill.

Beth also suggested downloading this part of France into Google Maps for offline use. That way, the maps themselves remain available even when there is no cellular data connection.

A Little Train-Station Humor

Our discussion eventually drifted back to yesterday’s train adventure and the challenge of nine people trying to identify one another in a French railway station.

Apparently, at one point someone was actually dispatched with instructions to:

“Go find Ladee.”

There was just one problem.

How exactly do you find Ladee when you’ve never met Ladee?

The proposed strategy was to look for people with lots of luggage and cameras who appeared to fit the profile of a group of American photographers.

A surprisingly reasonable plan.

Except we were all scattered around different parts of the station.

Eventually everyone was found, the canceled train was dealt with, we reached Angoulême, and Miles and Beth managed to collect their wandering photographers.

Now we are safely inside the château gates.

And So Day 1 Begins

Tomorrow morning the château will wake slowly.

Coffee in the kitchen.

Croissants and breakfast.

Camera bags packed.

Batteries checked.

Phones charged.

WhatsApp hopefully functioning.

And at 9:30 a.m., we leave Château Marouatte for Périgueux.

After all the airports, canceled trains, railway stations, luggage, searching for one another, and getting ourselves across France, tomorrow feels different.

Tomorrow we finally begin what we came here to do.

We go exploring with our cameras.