A long day from Beynac to Maisse

We left Beynac-et-Cazenac behind with a great deal of sadness. We really loved our two weeks in Beynac; and, in addition, it’s the last two-week-in-one-place stretch we’ll have until October.
Of course, we almost didn’t manage to leave. It turns out that there is “Beynac-et-Cazenac” where we were staying and then there is “Beynac” where we were not staying. Beynac is two hours closer to Poitiers where we are dropping off our car and catching the TGV to Paris. So we had been planning a leisurely departure at 10:00am after breakfast and some schoolwork. Luckily Jennifer checked the times and, shock and horror, we discovered it’s a four-hour drive away.
So after a 6am wake-up and 7am start, we’re now comfortably ensconced in a cafe at Poitiers station.
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Driving North to Poitiers reminded us of how quickly France changes. There are sunflower fields around here too, but the sunflowers are only waist-high, not the towering triffids of further south. Fields of wheat are not yet ripe up here.
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It feels a little strange being back up here in Poitiers. It’s made a big circle of the last four months; we were last here in April. In fact we had a meal in the same cafe we’re now siting in before catching the train down to Italy and Cinqe Terre. As we have only one more week in Europe we’re getting the feeling that a phase of our trip is coming to an end. (We’re also realising that from here on out it’s going to get colder for us very quickly.)
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Finally, the best part of twelve hours after leaving Beynac-et-Cazenac we arrived in Maisse. We thought we’d have to walk to our house, but were greeted at the station by our absolutely charming host who drove us there via a guided tour of the village (which pretty much amounted to telling us which of the two boulangeries made better bread).