Saturday 21st October 2023

Sarlat Town

No walk today, we took an extra day in Sarlat to take in the famous market. Weather forecast not great, but rain not expected until lunch time.

Market activity started about 330 in the morning so we were well and truly awake to have an early breakfast and undertake our own city tour before the tourists arrived around 10am,

There were so many amazing places of historical significance to see with some dating back to the12th century. As usual the cathedral was magnificent and the coveted market with a floor to roof metal door were highlights.

There were also a couple of smaller sites of interest including a secreted away fountain and a garden that had been converted into a cemetery.

The town is full of numerous connecting narrow laneways that inevitably lead you to a bar, restaurant or simply another medieval building. There are some great old and new statues around the place.

Abandoned the tour for a while as the crowds gathered and started our journey through the farmers market section which snaked through the narrow streets before flowing out into the main square.

Aside from the fresh food sellers there were many vendors with tinned foie gras , confit of duck and goose , plus cassoulet. I must say it was not as vibrant as the farmers market in Freiburg . As Jane commented there was not ne person selling fresh flowers.

Interestingly there was only one vendor selling food you could consume on the spot, it probably cements the view that fine food eating is the domain of Dordogne and most people chose restsurants. We decided to buck the trend and try their fare which looked delicious, but was rather passé – we should have dined out.

As usual plenty of people took their animals to market and at a quick glance I thought I saw a wolf on the prowl,

We went up to the Main Street where the merchandise lmarkets stretched out for as far as the eye could see. Did a bit of shopping for Xmas decorations and found a shop with a real penchant for Halloween selling a range of truffle products which we could not ignore.

Heavy rain drove a lot of merchants away early and most people headed for food or a drink – we chose the latter.

Once the rain stopped we continued the city tour seeing some more amazing historic homes and also doing some reconnaissance on tomorrow’s route.

The heavy rain arrived about 300 and drove us home.

The demographic here is very interesting with very few people in the 13-25 bracket. Almost all the tourists were 40+

Thsnkfully rain abated and we had an early dinner in a restaurant we randomly selected. Food and wine again good. Looks like all the tourists didn’t go home because the place was packed when we left.

Went home a watched RWC with a very unbiased view on who we wanted to win.