Destination today is Sarlat-la-Canéda. This town made all types of lists for places you must see in the Dordogne area. And it turns out for good reason. It is a Medieval city with a large and vibrant old section. It is a City of Art and History and was the first protected historical district in France. And it is a favorite of filmmakers.
One of the
first places we ran into was the Cathedrale Saint Sacerdos.
From there we just started wandering. There were lots of narrow streets and old buildings.
We found some busy plazas.
Just off one of
the plazas was the Saint Mary’s Church Market, an old church that has been
converted into a covered market. The
building had the tallest and biggest doors we have seen anywhere.
The area is known for its foie gras (fatty goose liver pâté)...
and as we were walking, we stumbled across this bronze statue of three geese (Les Trois Oie)…
in the pretty Goose Market Square (Place du Marché aux Oies).
Adjacent to the square was the Maison de Gisson. The old building now houses an exhibition of aristocratic fashion of the Renaissance. We debated going in but it is a very old building with very steep stairs. Neither of us were up for the climb.
Nearby was this statue, Le Badaud (The Bystander or The Observer), overlooking the Place de la Liberté. The statue is keeping an eye on everyone in the square.
We found a suit of armor in a small plaza filled with restaurants.
In our morning wanderings we found that most of the restaurants and cafés were only open to serve drinks, no food. Except for this ice cream shop that appeared to be open at 10:30 in the morning. The French (and the tourists) like ice cream.
Our wanderings
also took us to The Lantern of the Dead, a most interesting conical shaped
structure. There was nothing inside to
see.
We had lunch at one of the sidewalk cafes and wandered a bit more. We found this really interesting art shop.
As we headed back to the car we passed the cathedral. There we stopped to listen to a cello and guitar duo making beautiful music.
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More Sarlat
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Early afternoon we decided to head out to see what else we could find in the area and decided on the town of Domme, also a town mentioned as a must see. It is another old (built in 1281) medieval walled town on a hill. But the views here are extraordinary.
After taking a lot of photos of the Dordogne River and the countryside beyond we headed a half block into town. First stop was the Our Lady of the Assumption.
We walked a few of the streets. There were a few interesting souvenir shops,
and then headed back to the main square and caught a ride on their Petit Train. The route wandered through town…
and then into the nearby countryside where we could see the city walls and the city itself.
On the road back to Beynac we drove through La Roque-Gageac, a town highly recommended by Europe travel guru, Rick Steves. We just drove through but it definitely looks like we will need to come back.
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