HeleninFrance: May 22 - Cont - Loubressac - on list of most beautiful villages

As much as we might liked to have stayed longer in Autoire where at the top of one of the streets we heard strains of a violin, perhaps practice for the evening concert, we were already booked into a small village overlooking the Dordogne Valley.

So, we moved on to one of the towns listed on the list of most beautiful towns in France - Loubressac. Perhaps we did not stay long enough, but we wondered later in the trip why this town had been added to that list. Certainly a plus for us was that there were not many tourists. There were no cars around except in a parking on the central square leading to the town proper.

It's difficult to imagine how some of the vehicles ever get through these narrow streets not built for anything except pedestrian traffic, or perhaps at the very most, horse and cart. At least some of the farm implements seem to have a narrower body than those we use in the States.

There seems little in this town that is geared for tourists. The view over the valley shows just how rural this place is. We ate lunch (still enchanted with the wonderful cheeses we had bought the day before on the way to Rocamadour).

The small restaurant in the town square was full of day laborers in work clothes. In addition to the restaurant, there were three picnic tables under the large plantane treees. Near our picnic table there was a French couple about our age with their dog tied (leash attached) to the foot of the table. Suddenly another local dog walked a little too close, and the dog tied to the table upended it and it fell on top of the wife who was stitting on a park bench. Another French couple was at the third table and they rushed over to see if they could help. Probably there were no broken bones, but help was called for from the "local" fire department. We stayed around for about 20 minutes but it appears that help in this area doesn't come in a very timely fashion.