We plan to drive the route of castles and prehistoric caves today. This route will take us north of Sarlat, France.
But first, here is about yesterday. Saturday is market day in Sarlat. We go to our balcony to look down at the market going strong at 8:00 a.m. After continental breakfast, we go down and walk and look and smell and get jostled around by the thousand people milling about. There is food for sale: fruits and local vegetables, meats, fowl, local walnut oils, truffles, wines, and there is everything else (think Nashville Farmer's Market): clothes, soaps, jewelry, baskets, pottery, cloth, rugs, think treasures and trash. Fun just to look.
In the afternoon we took the Southern route to Domme, a walled medieval city, and then via Gageac which is a cliff city with troglodyte dwellings. I think this was a group of people who lived in caves, but I don't know the exact story. We did not go in because of the changeable weather--threat of rain--which happily never came.
As an aside, this reminds me to pack better for both ends of weather--cool or hot. You are going to see me in the same jacket and sweater and tennis shoes with socks, even the same black pants, in most pictures because it is unlikely the shorts and short sleeved shirts will get unpacked. Cool at about 60 degrees.
Anyway, back to the route: We crossed the Dordogne River where people were canoing. It is broad and calm. We saw several castles rising out of the hills, but we stopped at an interesting one--purchased by Josephine Baker, the American black singer and dancer, who became famous in France as a dancer-singer in the Folies Bergere dance hall in the 1920' and who later sang and acted in movies. She is beloved by the French, as evidenced by the hundreds of people at the chateau in the middle of nowhere--hard to find. She was helpful to the French resistance movement during WWII. Made a fortune, adopted children from around the world, lost her chateau and husband, came back in her 60's from retirement, and died before a new concert tour. Driving back via Beynac and the famous castle there and back to Sarlat.
Andy says to write about our dinners. Well, food is a reason people come here. We went to La Rapiere Fri. night for "foie gras" or goose liver, so we decided to eat light on Sat. night. We went to La Miramol? and planned on having a light dinner, but the pre-set 4 course menu was so nice that we ate that instead. We had salad with duck gizzards--sounds disgusting, but was great--thinly sliced on our salad (think bacon bits but in slices), coq au vin (chicken in wine sauce) , duck breast, special potatoes--mixture of fried-steamed, goat cheese (chevre), and nut pie (local speciality) and iles flottants (custard on bottom, meringue on top), and local red wine. Most visitors here are French, so it was fun for me to sit in a dining room with a table of 20 middle-aged bikers (men and women) beside us, a young couple next to us, families all around.
Back to today,May 16, off to drive and visit.
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