February 25: Chacun son château

I pick up my rental car--10 minutes to figure out how to set the reverse gear. From then on, I enjoy my first driving experience in Europe. I pretend I understand all the traffic signs. Cars tailgate me as I speed along the road wending through Perigord’s rolling landscape. Is the speed limit what is posted?

I reach Les Eyzies to visit the Grotte de Font de Gaumes. This is the only polychrome cave in the area where visits are still permitted.

The best of the day is not the drive in chateau dotted valleys, nor the cave paintings that I have come to see, but an unforgettable dining experience, unique for its spontaneity and adventurous offerings. I stop by the tourist office. “Where can I get a good meal with truffles?” I am directed to Le Grand Bleu in Sarlat la Caneda, a local restaurant recognized by Guide Michelin. I drive into the honey coloured village and head straight for the restaurant.

“No, I don’t have a reservation.”

“Can the chef make something vegetarian?”

“Can I have truffles?”

I expect a hastily whipped up truffle specked omelet. Instead, what transpires is one of those rare sublime meals.

“Yes, the chef can do a vegetarian truffle menu”.

I expect an appetizer, main course and dessert. Instead, I get 6 stunning dishes with my bonus truffle topped butter (I know I am being gauche requesting butter but the bread is too good not to eat with freshly churned butter--made on premise, no less). I really won’t say more--I’ll let the photos do the talking (along with the following descriptions).

Amuse bouche: blini topped with beets and truffle slice, dill fritters, lightly vinegared cabbage slaw

Appetizer: Parsnip cream topped with savoury pumpkin sorbet garnished with truffles (yes, that is a blanket of black Perigord truffle slices)

First main course (I didn’t realize that there would be two): Truffade with lightly poached egg garnished with truffles and greens

Second main course: Truffled rice in chard rolls topped with truffles

Dessert: French toast topped with truffle slices with truffle ice cream (not the chocolate variety--the real thing) with truffle specked quince reduction and truffle caviar

To finish: Basil macarons, anise flavoured tuiles, and caneles (local chewy cake).

Lunch lasts 2 1/2 hours through the 6 robust courses. I work off a teeny fraction of the meal with a quick tour of the town’s medieval quarters.

With no reservations for Lascaux (the original reason for a visit to the region), I rush off to up my chance of a viewing of these famed cave paintings--or at least the fascimile of them. I first heard about Lascaux in 1985 when my sphere coincided with that of Tito Scaiano, a research scientist at the National Research Council laboratories, one of 3 people admitted into the original cave. That fact and viewing of Lascaux II (a replica of the cave 200 metres away) is as close as I will get to the real thing.

I stop off to shop at mega-supermarket Carrefour: Cote d’Or chocolate enrobing sesame seeds and violet fig jam to tote back to Toronto.