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" Traveling tends to magnify all human emotions."
-- Peter Hoeg
Host profile: Mellen Candage

Host: Mellen Candage

Location: France: Dordogne

Profession: Publisher, Travel Writer, Culinary Guide

Specialty: Culinary/Cooking, Local Culture

Mellen Candage runs a Grammarians, Inc., a publishing and translation business in Alexandria, VA. She's a confirmed Francophile as well, and for the past 12 years has owned an old stone house in a remote hamlet in the Dordogne region of southwestern France, smack next door to a prehistoric cave.

She'll introduce you to her neighbors: the farmer who raises ducks and makes foie gras, the mill that produces fragrant walnut oil, a mushroom farm, and a cheese producer. She's a gardener who likes to cook with the results, who thinks sitting around a table with appreciative eaters is one of life's great pleasures.

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About Mellen Candage

By now, Mellen has made over 65 trips to France and knows her way around like a native. From her "base camp" high in the cliffs over the idyllic Vézère valley, Mellen takes you to visit prehistoric caves, the lively country, and medieval bastides, castles and hill towns.

"I am so passionately in love with the Dordogne," she writes, "that few things give me more pleasure than sharing it with others. I've been meandering its back roads for a dozen years and know people and places the ordinary traveler would never find. I can take you to a prehistoric site that's not even on any of the maps. I can take you to a shrine in the middle of a forest. I can introduce you to my neighbor's homemade foie gras with truffles. I also like to share the extraordinary view from my front door, take you to market, and cook up regional specialties for you to savor. We can explore bastide and hill towns, hike the hills and riversides, take a walking tour of the beautifully restored town of Sarlat, tour Hundred Years War castles, canoe down the Dordogne, browse the prehistoric caves, or just meander around some of the most beautiful countryside on earth."

Her travel articles have been published in the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Wine Tidings, and Parenting Magazine, among others.

Five years ago she joined forces with an American friend who has a house in Provence, about four hours drive across the south of France; together they created a program called A Moveable Feast Tours that offers culinary tours for small groups.

For InTouch Travel, Mellen offers In Depth and Up Close programs.

Mellen Candage Suggests:

In Depth with Mellen Candage

Here's what a two-day In Depth program focusing on prehistory might look like:

Day One: Morning tour of the Font-de-Gaume cave in Les Eyzies; picnic lunch or simple café lunch; afternoon visit to the National Museum of Prehistory in Les Eyzies and the Abri Pataud; time out for stroll and walk around town; dinner at home or in local restaurant.
Day Two: Drive to Montignac and visit Lascaux II, the famous reproduction cave; lunch in town or picnic along the river; visit La Roque St-Christophe and, if time, Cap Blanc; dinner at home or in local restaurant.
Up Close with Mellen Candage

Here's what a two-day Up Close program focusing on my love of food and wine might look like:

Day One: Drive to market and select makings of a lovely picnic and tomorrow night's supper; back to house to prepare it if necessary, then to St-Léon-sur-Vézère and picnic by the river; visit the chapel and town, then on to a walnut oil mill, mushroom farm, cheese producer, or other local artisan; stop on the way home at the artisanal shop in Les Eyzies to see all the amazing local products; dinner at Moulin de la Beune in Les Eyzies.
Day Two: Walking tour of Sarlat, including all the specialty food shops; wine tasting; trip to local supermarket (it's a treat!); home to prepare a delicious dinner. And if it's Saturday, the market in the medieval cobblestone streets of Sarlat is the very best in southwestern France.

Comments from Mellen's Guests

Comments from Mellen's Readers & Guests

"What a pleasure it is to travel abroad with people who know the language and the region. How easy to be driven by people who know the area like the back of their hands."

— Alan S., Slidell, LA

"Special interests were no imposition. Market items, antiques, pottery, gourmet foods, etc. were readily accessible and available for easy purchase because of the fluent French spoken by Mellen Candage Ö We bartered and bought with confidence."

— Debbie Z., Los Angeles, CA

"This is the epitome of the vacations we've taken - beautiful places, comfortable quarters, fun and good food. It couldn't have been more perfect - we loved it all."

— Harry & Mary Alice B. Homer, NY
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