It had always been the case that either the children were too young or the car was too old for me and my family to embark on the 1,221 mile road trip that took us from our home in southern Portugal to our wooden chalet on the French coast. would bring. Jura Mountains.
We’ve wanted to do it for a long time so that our yellow Labrador, Baloo, could go on holiday with us, but unfortunately she left us at the ripe old age of 17 for greener pastures. Perhaps that’s what prompted us now empty nesters to bundle Bellini, our 3-year-old yellow Labrador, into our (newer) car and hit the road.
The route was carefully planned with stops at places where good food (the carrot to keep us driving during long hours behind the wheel) could be found, where there were culturally interesting and of course accepted dogs. European hotels have generally always been less dog-friendly than in Britain, but our trip came together with glorious ease. It was despite me setting off before dawn on day two in the pouring rain, guided by Google, and taking my husband down an incredibly narrow street that became impassable. As we walked backwards, inch by painful inch, out of the winding medieval alley, I thought of Hemmingway’s words: “Never travel with someone you don’t love.” But our marriage survived and road trips might become “our thing” because of the sense of freedom they bring.
The first stop was Cáceres, in the Spanish region of Extremadura. It is one of the best preserved historic centers and an extremely beautiful city, surrounded by Moorish walls from the 12th century, with more than 30 towers. A mix of Gothic and Renaissance architecture flanks cobbled medieval streets, one of which was Atrio, our home for the night.
Hotel Atrio Cáceres (rooms from £333, atriocaceres.com) expertly inserts 21st century comfort into age-old walls. It has 14 rooms in the main building and across the street the recently opened Atrio Paredes Saavedra Palace has another 11 rooms, which have a heavy history.
We were in the main building, in a room with a terrace and an elegant marble-clad bathroom. On the ground floor was the 3* Michelin restaurant, run by owners José Polo and Toño Péres. It was beyond dazzling. Dogs can accompany you, but because we wanted to concentrate on the 22 courses undisturbed, we left Bellini upstairs, after exhausting her in the square and alleys of Cáceres.
Don’t miss the home-baked cookies and cakes from the monastery opposite Atrio, where the nuns still operate the turnstile system of yesteryear.
Before we started our dinner, we got a look at the wine cellar of Atrio, known as the scene of a daring robbery a few years ago. Security is tightened and no photos are allowed, but it was one of the most memorable cellars I have ever seen. Unlike the standard aesthetic of dusty, dim shelves where you have to sweep away cobwebs to see what’s there, this was an essay in light wood, with the 42,000 wine bottles illuminated by soft light. It has a large collection of Chateau d’Yquem, ranging from 1891 to 2016, with the backlighting of the bottles making it easy to see how the color of the wine darkens as it matures.
The menu is an exploration of Iberian pork – think ink brioche with squid and pig’s ear stew, pork pudding with caviar and glazed lobster with pork sauce, green curry and lemongrass. The hallways were small but oh, so good. And they kept coming, as José and Toño walked around the packed restaurant, chatting with newcomers and returnees alike.
Satiated and somewhat nervous to see how Bellini had spent the evening, we staggered upstairs. We didn’t have to worry. Bellini had left her basket to lie with her legs in the air opposite our bed. You would think she would have had the 22 courses.
Rain followed us for most of our nine-hour journey to our next stop in Bordeaux. But as we drove under the stone gate to Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey (rooms from £273, lafauriepeyragueylalique.com), the sun cast its evening light on the ancient, soft stone. Parts of the castle date back to the 13th century and vines have been cultivated there since 1618. They had a cameo role in Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, when Sebastian Flyte arrives at Charles Ryder’s lecture halls in Oxford and says: ‘I’ve got a car and a basket of strawberries and a bottle of Château Peyraguey….It’s heaven with strawberries .”
It is still “heaven with strawberries” and much more, such as duck with morello cherries and chestnuts in the 2* Michelin restaurant led by chef Jérôme Schilling. The menu here is also an excuse to showcase the castle’s glorious sauternes, whose surrounding vines you can admire through the restaurant’s glass walls. The 400-year-old Lafaurie-Peyraguey was the first premier cru wine estate in France to become a hotel under Lalique when they took it over with the aim of combining the worlds of wine, crystal, gastronomy and hospitality. Something they have also successfully achieved in Scotland with Glenturret.
On our return we also stopped in Bordeaux, but this time just outside the charming town of St. Émillion. Medieval houses line the narrow streets and parts of the 12th-century city walls have been preserved, the rest being used for wine merchants, wine bars and restaurants. We saved ourselves for dinner and walked the steep streets instead of eating, but I’ve already reserved Logis de la Cadène, tucked away down a narrow street, for next time.
Château Troplong Mondot (rooms from £184, troplong-mondot.com) was our home for the night. A perfect base to explore the region’s wines, with the glittering spiers of St. Émilion visible from the vineyards. It is a Premier Grand Cru Classé wine estate and has recently opened its doors to guests, with a handful of rooms in the 18th century castle and a beautifully designed two-bedroom cottage in which we were installed. Think tiled floors, a large fireplace, wooden shutters and claw-foot bathtubs alongside crisp linen sheets, lamps and soft blue walls. Coziness personified.
Rehearsal for our dinner continued there as we were shown around the 43-hectare estate, a pioneer in sustainable winemaking. But Bellini was much more interested in the vegetable garden, especially the Indian runner ducks and the rather noisy pigs. We found neither on our plates that evening at the Chateau’s restaurant, Les Belles Perdrix, which received both a red and a green Michelin star. But there was plenty from the garden, in the form of celeriac, stuffed and candied with mushrooms and lovage gravy and a light peated cream. ll served by a roaring fire.
The sandstone wonder of Salamanca was our last stop. It was harder to find a nice hotel here that would accommodate dogs, but we settled for the Palacio de Castellanos (rooms from £120, nh-hotels.com), and a room overlooking the beautiful 15th-century Convento de las Dueñas.
We only had one evening to explore, but the golden city glittered under the rain and the soft light of the lamps. A few minutes’ walk to the Plaza Mayor, the bustling heart of the city, was enough to convince us that this should be our first stop next time. Bellini, however, passed through the rain instead of leaving, as before, to enjoy the luxury of her residence, and might have different views on this.