Market Day in Sarlat

Our first morning at Les Cordeliers we were treated to a lovely breakfast. Eggs to order, fresh orange juice, and a wide array of fruit, yogurt, pastries, cereal. Really, all you want to do is just sit and savor the meal in the lovely breakfast room. No time to waste though, we're on our way to check out the Saturday market in town.

Some of the breakfast items, in the lovely breakfast room, at Les Cordeliers

Sarlat is located in the Dordogne River Valley, with its scenic hills, cliff-side villages, prehistoric caves, and of course the beautiful river. The area deserves a few days, and is best seen by car. Sarlat has been the site of an outdoor market for centuries, and the winding lanes and stone buildings full of shops and cafés make it a popular tourist destination.

Our lovely little hotel is right on the edge of town, so the market starts just yards from our door, and winds all the way through town. Block after block, filled with stalls. It was a beautiful day, so we walked around to see the whole market, along with hundreds of other shoppers. There were many stalls selling foie gras, a specialty of the area. In fact, there is a sculpture in town of two brass geese, giving you a hint of their importance to the local economy.

Looking down from our window to the garden next door and the market tents lining the street

Market tents in Sarlat, surrounded by stone buildings, some dating from the Middle Ages

So lots of foie gras, lots of walnuts, and everything you could possibly make with walnuts; nougat candy, wine. Artists and craftsmen selling everything possible. Clothing, shoes (Caterina is almost powerless to resist a new pair of shoes), household goods. Some of the market closed at noon - I think the produce and meat vendors - and some of it stayed open all day.

Since walnuts are one of the main products of this area, a newfangled nutcracker is essential

Chimney cakes look delicious

Every outdoor market has paella

We had gone our separate ways to shop, but surprisingly ran into Marco and Caterina at a bar along the square as we were thinking we might be a little thirsty, and perhaps a little hungry, so we joined them for lunch. We were sitting outside, and enjoyed watching the shoppers and vendors. In France they say, "faire du leche-vitrines" to lick the windows, or window shop. And aside from the outdoor stalls, there were plenty of shop windows to lick.

Our spacious rooms had nice sitting areas. Excuse the laundry!

Back at the hotel, we shared a bottle of wine in our room before heading out to find dinner. Six years ago, Ricardo and I stayed in a different village when we visited the Dordogne, but our hosts there sent us into Sarlat for dinner at Le Bistro de l'Octroi. So, we thought we'd try to find it this time. It wasn't far from our hotel, but outside of the cute, quaint old part of town. I guess that's why we didn't know there was a cute, quaint old part of town on our last visit! This time, we were able to walk to the restaurant, and luckily could get in on a Saturday night.

They have a tasting menu that I remembered from last time, because it was very unique. They served all of the courses, all at once, on a large square of slate. It was surprising the first time we had it 6 years ago. This time the menu clearly stated that it would all be served at the same time, and the waiter made sure we understood that they would serve it all together. They must have had some complaints in the past about this, but since they're still serving it 6 years later, it must be a popular menu item.

A sign advertising the tasting menu outside of Le Bistro de l'Octroi

The tasting menu, all served on one plate, with two desserts

The food was good, including a few different presentations of duck, and some nice sides and desserts. But it's a lot of food, much of it rich, and I think maybe they should offer two different sizes to appeal to the lighter appetites of some of us.

I said something to our waiter about how much I loved France, and he said, well then, you should learn to speak French! At first that seemed kind of rude on his part, but it came around to a good-natured discussion of how hard it is to learn a new language as an adult. He jokingly offered to move in with us in the U.S., along with his wife, two kids, and two cats, to help us learn his language. I'd love to take him up on that!