summer vacation in southwest France: Part II: medieval town Sarlat in The Dordogne region
Submitted by admin on August 14, 2008 – 9:50 pm8 Comments
Dordogne
- To the French, the Dordogne is a river. To the British, it covers a vast area roughly equivalent to what the French call Périgord. Dordogne is also a department which consists of Périgord Blanc (White) , Périgord Noir (Black), Périgord Green and Périgord Purple.
Sarlat
- Sarlat-La-Canéda or simply Sarlat is the capital of Périgord Noir.
- Sarlat is a medieval town and is one of the towns that most represents the 14th century of France. It is in France’s Tentative List for future nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The town centre is so pretty and full of well preserved medieval architecture.
- Agriculture has long been of importance in the Dordogne area around Sarlat. It mainly produces corn, hay, walnuts, walnut oil, violet garlic, cheeses, wine, cèpes (a sort of wild mushrooms), truffles and foie gras.
- Foie gras: There are several large foie gras factories as well as a number of small producers of geese and ducks in the region that make foie gras and other cherished products (confits, pâté, etc.) from them.
- Dordorgne attracts many visitors in the summer especially from Northern Europe (e.g. the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, etc.)
It was a very pleasant afternoon wandering the narrow lanes of this archetypal medieval town, with its vielle ville of honey-coloured stone buildings, We were lucky that the day of our visit fell on the Sunday Market.
Kittie kittie, waiting for your dinner???
That evening I have cooked a gourmet dish in the camper van with things we bought, please see Part III: panfried pangasius fish with red gooseberries sauce
[...] Part II: Medieval Town Sarlat in the Dordogne region [...]
Great story! I felt like I was there with you!!
The real true story behind was that I revisited Sarlat on my way back from Bordeaux to Basel to recapture as many photos as I could because I deleted my precious photos by accidentally pressed format on my camera when checking how much space left in my memory stick.
How beautiful!
[...] August 17, 2008 by janetching Continued from Part II…. [...]
It looks very pretty! Nice place to go on holiday to.
Janet: just read your story on Sarlat. My wife and I have visited that area 3 times in the past. Canadian friends of ours have a place in Carlux. We love the Dordogne!
It was fun looking at your photos…I have many exactly the same.
Peter
Hi Janet – we too went to Sarlat last summer – we stayed in a mobile home rented on a camp site near les eyzies, and spent a day in Sarlat. we absolutely loved it – the town and the whole area. thanks for the link to the blog!
Christina
Hi Peter: wow, you have been 3 times to Sarlat, I also hope to revisit again and Bordeaux of course !