Even though I was first in line for customs, I was sent to the back of the queue as the officials did not have their “stamp” for those of us that are non EU! They had to go to another building to retrieve it. Anyway when the customs official came out of the airport hangar with me (it was a small airport)…Sue said, “she’s in trouble already” in french, which made the official laugh. Always good to have dour officials laugh! 
40 mins later, we are sitting on the Wintersgill’s patio sipping a cold rosé, enjoying the warmth of summer in the Perigord region and looking forward to supper.
Now a brief history of the area…..
In the 1st century, Perigord was under Julius Caesar’s Roman rule, part of Gaul ( ‘Aquitania’), an area extending from the Pyrenees to the Garonne River. A Visigothic province in the 5th century, Aquitaine came under Frankish rule in the 6th century, retaining a measure of provincial identity exploited by local rulers. Long resistant, Aquitaine was finally subdued in the 8th century by Charlemagne, who bestowed it as a kingdom upon his son Louis (the future emperor Louis I). It remained a kingdom under Louis’s son Pippin 1 and grandson Pippin 11.
Devastation by the Normans in the 9th century resulted in political and social upheavals during the course of which various feudal domains were established. The title of duke of Aquitaine, was assumed at the end of the 9th century by William 1(the Pious), and the founder of the abbey of Cluny. The powerful house of the counts of Poitiers retained Aquitaine during the 10th and 11th centuries.
In the 12thC, Eleanor, daughter of William V111 of Poitiers, united Aquitaine to the kingdom of France by her marriage with Louis V11. When Louis divorced her, she married English Henry 11, who gave it to his son, Richard the Lion Heart. He spent most of his his life in Aquitaine, ‘subduing rebellious vassals’! These regions were completely reunited to France by the end of the Hundred Years’ War, in the mid-15th century.
Today I visited the magnificent Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum: which has 22 themed galleries displaying an astonishing 8000 objects, brought together from across Glasgow Museums’ rich and varied collection. Walked into the beautiful Victorian entrance hall while an organ concert was in full performance. 
… Her miraculous, feather-like flight, seems to defy the law of gravitation’. Anna made her debut as soloist with the Imperial Russian Ballet in 1899, but gained fame when she danced with Nijinsky in Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in Paris in 1909.
The Art Gallery houses Salvador Dali’s Christ of St John of the Cross. Painted in 1951 and purchased by the City of Glasgow in 1952, Dali’s iconic painting has become one of the best-loved in the entire collection, amongst Glaswegians and visitors. The painting was one of the more controversial purchases made by Dr Tom Honeyman, then Director of Glasgow Museums. It is now widely recognised that Dr Honeyman made a very astute decision, in proposing to the then Glasgow Corporation, that the painting should be purchased for the city. Not only did Honeyman secure the painting for less than the catalogue price, he also purchased the copyright for the work from Salvador Dali, thus ensuring a long-term legacy from the purchase.
On the way back to the hotel, saw Glasgow’s ancient cathedral which is dedicated to its patron saint, St Mungo who established a church on the site at the beginning of the 7th century.
The Tolbooth provided the backdrop to many of the city`s dramas and it was here that witches, thieves and murderers were summarily dealt with, by hanging if necessary. It also had a special platform from which proclamations were read, important in the days before general literacy. The paved area (the `plainstanes`) in front of the Tolbooth was the `in place` to be seen and here the rich paraded in their finery, particularly the Tobacco Lords, attired in red cloaks and sporting gold-topped canes.
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