To complete the tour of southern France we drove about 4 hours from Coulioure, past the highly acclaimed Carcassonne. Instead, we stopped in the most delightful medieval town of Sarlat. We didn’t have any reservations, and thought maybe we would have trouble getting a room, but when we parked and walked towards the tourist information house (always our first stop) we passed a beautiful front door in a stone wall along the main pedestrian corridor sandwiched between several other clearly ancient buildings. The sign stated chambre d’hote, La Tour du Rempart. My curiosity was quite piqued and I convinced Pat to inquire. It turned out to be a newly refurbished bedroom and bath in what was a 14th century tower overlooking the town and in a building owned by a young family, the 3rd or 4th generation to have lived in that building. The stone walls were beautiful and the little windows, including the one that looked out from the original toilet (a hole through a seat that was actually inside the building, unlike our outside outhouses), looked out onto the garden and streets below. This was quite an improvement over the monastery, and the comfort was well appreciated.
Most of the old town of Sarlat is a preservation of the buildings from the middle ages, retrofitted with shops, restaurants and art galleries. We found and purchased some lovely art by Veronique Guinard after seeing her beautiful gallery and then later actually meeting her at her workshop in another part of town.
As we were winding our way around town we came across some women who commented on the beauty, which started a delightful conversation about Sarlat, our adventure, their travels and of course where we were all headed. Ultimately we found out though the one woman was from Sarlat, they were well traveled. The women strongly recommended we go to Ireland (the first time a French person has ever recommended a place not known to be French or a French colony), and that we spend as much time traveling as we could.
The Perigord region is known for its foie gras, so we searched for it at the amazing open air market that fills Sarlat on Saturday mornings. The first thing we did though was buy a warm coat €50. You might remember, I thought we were going south, so I had packed a couple of light outer garments, but not the heavy weight coat that I needed to be a lot warmer to be comfortable walking around outside in late October.
The market has all kinds of products from socks to vegetables and bulk teas. There were mushrooms and cheeses, crafts, honey, cakes and pastries. There were several stands that sold foie gras and wild game. The goose liver is extremely expensive, and hard to find, even in Sarlat. Apparently most farmers there use duck liver for their products. So, after a good little lunch at Le Bistrot across from the beautiful Cathedrale de Sarlat, we headed home. When we were driving out we saw many farms that raised these ducks and geese and offered free tours, but we passed.
We finished our tour with a 5 or 6 hour drive back to our house. It was raining, foggy and gray, but the windmills were working and I was happy to return after two weeks on the road. I love the trips, but I most love going home.
