After Brittany we drove south to the Lot region near Cahors and Toulouse. We stayed in a 'gite' which is a common French term for a cottage or villa. Tim booked it online while in Paris and the cost was about $600 NZ for 7 nights. The gite was on a farm next to the owners house and was one of 3 gites converted from old farm out buildings. It was rustic but was warm and had everything we needed. There were about a dozen horses on the farm which the kids enjoyed feeding windfall apples to. We were staying in the small village of Frayssinet-le-Gelat which has about 300 homes. One reason we chose this village is I am an avid reader of the Australian writer Mary Moody who owns a house here and spends the European summers here. She has written 3 books all non fiction about her life here and I would strongly recommend them to anyone. Another semi-permanent Australian village resident told me which house was Mary's as she is well known in the area. The weather was again superb averaging in the early to mid 20 degrees. Every day we went out exploring the wonderfuly scenic countryside and visiting the very traditional weekly village markets where you can buy anything from cheese and flowers to olives, wine, honey, horse meat and rabbit meat or live chickens. Every village has their market day on a different day to the other villages so you could go to a different one each day. The French love their local markets and they are very well patronised despite being dearer than the supermarkets.