A mere taste of the Périgord

About two and a half hours north of Toulouse lies the little "ville ancienne" or "cité médiévale"of Sarlat La Canéda which was the inspiration for our trip north from Toulouse along the péage.

Ages ago, Pete and Liz Runting told me not to miss this charming Lygon-street-style village, and with Jan & Nossie staying a mere 20 minutes away, it was perfect timing for our visit. We booked the little 2 star Hotel Plaisance in Vitrac so we could stay for 2 full days in the area and when we arrived, we were pleasantly suprised by the size of our room, the renovated bathroom, the shaded courtyard bar and the gardens over the road.



Reception for Hotel Plaisance. The gardens over the road.

the "beer garden" for want of a better name!! (above) and our little room....

It even boasted a lovely swimming pool set amidst landscaped gardens some 100 metres away and we indulged in the late afternoon in a table tennis match which probably disturbed the slumbering guests but warmed us up and prepared us for our pre-dinner drinks. For 60 euros we thought this was good value.

Sarlat itself:

Wednesday and Saturdays are market days in Sarlat and these days are well worth the bumper to bumper traffic that snarles it's way into the "centre ville". While summer is not the best time to visit Sarlat if you want to find a park easily or prefer a quiet village experience, the crowds of holiday makers add a certain ambience and atmosphere to the city square!!

the crowds are elbow thick at mid morning...

This region of the Périgord is famous for it's Fois Gras, fresh walnuts and black truffles and the shops and market stalls positively dripped with examples of each in so many forms. Tins and jars and bottles of fois gras; sugared or roasted or salted walnuts; essence of truffle oil, balsamic truffle dressing or pieces of truffle floating in oil. These things were particularly plentiful in all the market stalls and shops, as were the pottery artifacts of cute but lethally bloated white geese lying in uncomfortably prostate positions. The force feeding of these poor animals is a cruel and unnecessarily barbaric practice in my view and on our travels we saw these huge geese lying on the ground or standing around their enclosure. "Huge" is not a realistic description: these geese were the size of a kitchen chair!! Needless to say, neither of us were inclined to purchase a tea towel or teabag holder or even an oven mitt in spite of their romantically cute paintings of white geese with ribbons around their necks. To do so would be hypocritical.

Thus ends my sermon.....

Sarlet La Canéda was much more than a market and it's shops, cute though they were. It is one of the most attractive of the medieval towns in France and certainly one of the best restored according to the Lonely Planet guide. It's monuments and buildings were miraculously saved by the MALRAUX Law on the restoration of historic towns and it was one of the first villages in the region to benefit. Sarlat is a fabulous example of well worked restoration and preservation.

some of the many photos of alleyways.....

There are many renaissance period houses built here using the Périgord's golden stone which is clearly visible in the photos above, and it was an absolute pleasure to wander through the narrow cobbled alley-ways with their tiny cafés or restaurants emerging from cul de sacs at every turn. When on holiday , the French love to sit outside in the sun , indulging in a late breakfast or a mid morning coffee and patisserie or an early lunch or merely a glass of wine. We naturally did the same!

one can spend a fortune indulging in food and drink over here, and it is so enticing...!!

Akin to the restoration of the bastide towns we saw previously like Cordes or Puycelci, Sarlat's architecture is predominantly medieval, renaissance and 17th century but it is known for having the highest concentration of authentic facades of any town in France. It's prosperity was apparently a reflection of the priveleged status it was granted in return for loyalty to the French Crown during the 100 years war. The ornamental detail on the buildings is fantastic,

and the town in its entirety has become a sort of open air museum. I had my mouth open and my camera popping for 4 hours! If anyone comes near this part of France, don't miss Sarlat!!

Karpatz, a fantastic group of 8 men who entertained the crowd. Gypsies or ...?? Fantastically skillful and doing the rounds of the Périogord area because we saw ads for them everywhere afterwards. We probably should have bought a CD...just for the memory! And for the toe-tapping music!

La Roque Gageac is just 4 kms the other side of our hotel in Vitrac and we stumbled on a magically clear and cloudless evening to have our dinner here. This is a fantastic site, nestled into the ancient striations of the sheer rock face beside the Dordogne River, and as we approached, we marvelled at the very narrow strip of real estate that has created such a visual feast of roof lines and angles and shapes.

the narrow strip of real estate wedged between the rock face and the river Dordogne

the roof angles and shapes highlighted against the rock

With the winding river by its side, full of canoes and tourist boats including the replica of the 18th century Gabare, this is another town full of photo opportunities.

the replica of the 18th century Gabare in full flight

Snaking up the almost vertical sides of the Dordogne valley edge are steps and ladders and ledges for intrepid explorers to climb and the sheer drop from some of the ledges is awe inspiring....as is the view!! We noticed an expanse of netting that covers large areas of the exposed rock, both to protect the lives of those below as well as to preserve the rock facia. But we did notice a large boulder monument commemorating the death of 3 people from a rockfall in 1957. As we ate our dinner on the terrace of our cute restaurant, we couldn't help but look upwards to the cliff face above. And contemplate....!!

Russ actually enjoying his walnut salad!!!

me enjoying a very indulgent dessert.

See mum? I do eat cream and sweets!!!

the sheer cliff face above us.... and
our restaurant from above with the river Dordogne in the background.....

Magic scenery, magic place.

The Périgord cont'd

The next day we met Jan and Nossie at Cenac-et-St Julien where their little historic gite (an old bakery) was situated. It was a delightful little 2 storey brick place with a fully equipped kitchen and an enormous wood fired stove...as one would presume for a bakery!! Stairs led up to their double bedroom but they were so steep one had to come down backwards and hang onto the rail!

Since they had been in the area for 5 days they led us, taking us first to Beynac-et-Cazenac, another small historic town on the edge of the Dordogne river.

Beynac-et-Cazenac centre ville

Not as steep a climb as Cordes, it still presented a challenge but there were lots of breathing spots interpreted as photo opportunities as we sighted the verdant green pastures of the valleys below.

As Jan said to a fellow climber, "Who wants their photo taken going up here? You can't smile while you're puffing so much, can you?!!" So we all agreed to wait until we were on the flats!

The top of the village was of course where the chateau or bishop's castle was, a fortress that starred as the backdrop for the movie 'Joan D'Arc' because of its authentic and largely intact form. We actually saw a lone tradesman painstakingly laying one stone at a time to restore a stone wall outside the chateau's walls. He was presumably continuing the long process of restoration that began here in 1996 and went until 2005 (according to a plaque we saw), a major thrust of renovation that we understand is funded 80% by the community and 20% by the region....but this is not hard fact, just something we read somewhere.

the bishop's chateau at the top of Beynac

Domme was the next place on the agenda, a bastide town that I had read about and really wanted to visit. Although Jan and Nossie had been there for dinner the night before, they were happy to take us back to their little restaurant overlooking the valley below so we could appreciate the fantastic views.

Thursday was market day for Domme and agains we had to fight for a park but we found the village centre alive with a huge variety of vendors, some of whom we had encountered at Sarlat the day before!! The sights and smells added to the charm of the centre ville.

Domme is perched high on a breath-taking cliff which affords the most fabulous vistas of the Pérogord or Dordogne countryside below.

As a stronghold this fortified bastide built in 1281 on such a rocky outcrop was virtually impregnable. This was the place where the knights templar were imprisoned during their trial in 1307 and one of the town's gates has preserved the traces of their inscriptions or ingravings. The town bell chimes loudly each and every hour over the market place and we were right underneath it at noon, staring skyward and utterly bewitched by the mechanical arm which swung the huge iron bell before any sound was emitted. But then it connected in a very,very powerful way and we had to move on!!

Our lunch was a light one and very pleasant, and of course we found yet another lovely waitress prepared to take a photo of our last meal together in La Belle France.

The Pérogord region is amazingly rich both visually and historically and we wished we had decided to start our exploration of it much earlier in our time in Touolouse. We didn't get to see the prehistoric caves of La Roque Sainte-Christiphe which Jan found fascinating; nor did we see Les Jardins de Marqueyssac with the 6 kms of walkways and its expanse of hand clipped hedges (150,000 separate box trees apparently!!) nor did we visit Rocamadour, one of the most imposing and impressive of the bastides.

Maybe this means there will have to be a next time?!! This part of the french countryside is just bursting with cultural, historic and purely visual delights but to do it justice one needs time to reflect on each excursion and not cram so much into a day or week that magnificent times get lost in a haze of memories.

We may have missed many superb parts of the Périgord-Languedoc region but we have had the very best opportunity to absorb and grow and learn from what we have seen and this will become a bench mark for future travel. We just count ourselves blessed to have had the chance to make the house-swap with Geraldine and Xavier, an opportunity we never anticipated nor considered. It has been truly wonderful.

Thanks Bev and Mike for the introduction!

As we head off to Singapore, Jan and Nossie head off to the Loire region for another week of exploring and thence to Paris for a week in the St Germaine des Près apartments we also stayed in. They have much to look forward to and to share. None of us will ever be the same....