Jardins du Sarlat
///choppy.ranges.rock
44°53’40.1964″N, 1°13’5.0016″E

Today we thought we would give our car a rest & spend some more time exploring Sarlat.

Our b&b hosts suggested that we check out the Wednesday outdoor market in the center square of the town’s historic district. They cautioned us that it would be pretty busy & crowded & they weren’t wrong.

Photo above – the bronze statue in the foreground is of a young man sitting on the wall without a worry in the world looking at the plaza below.

The outdoor market was very crowded but everyone was in good spirits & it was easy to move around from stall to stall & to stop & shop when you wanted to without feeling pushed. If it’s this busy near the end of September it must be nuts in July & August!

Most of the stalls were fresh food vendors with lots of locals picking up their meat, vegetables, cheese & bread. Some vendors were also selling preserves.

Photo above – a few vendors were selling BIG cans of cassoulet. They were truly family size! I wonder if they sell spam in those size cans? Would be great to have a few cases of each stored in the basement at home as provisions in case of another pandemic or an apocalypse.

The side streets focused more on items that tourists would be most interested in. Catherine enjoyed looking at the scarves & linens & even made a few purchases.

Photo above – while Catherine was shopping in the market stalls I went & explored some of the quiet side streets. We just love this architecture & are so impressed at how France has done such an outstanding job preserving it.

Photo above  – I’ve been having fun learning to use some of the photo editing software that comes with this phone. It’s helped me improve my drawing skills (wink, wink). What do you think?

Photo above – as we explored the side streets it was easy to see that most of these places were private residences & also probably divided up into small apartments & short term rentals because several entrances had 2 or more combination lock boxes for access keys.  It would be interesting to get a closer look at the inside of some of these places.

We had a light lunch at a nearby cafe & then walked back to our b&b for a rest.

Photo above – we pass by this house each time we are walking from our b&b to the town center. It’s obviously much newer than most others in this neighborhood, but the architect did a great job in honouring the heritage of the surrounding buildings.

Early in the evening we had an excellent dinner at an Indian restaurant. Tomorrow we’re back in the car & on the road to see some more sights.

Cheers!