Market Day in Brantome

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We were quite surprised really to find that we hadn’t been to Brantome before as it is such an obvious place to visit, well on the tourist trail.

We have stayed not far away, a little further north near Nontron, at Chateau le Verdoyer a couple of times in our very early motorhoming days and remember a lovely visit to Nontron with sister Rosemary and husband Barry when we all met up at the campsite so have very happy memories of the area. I’m including a tiny photo I found of them there as it makes me happy to see it.

Saturday is market day in Brantome and the market is enormous. We had no real need of fresh food but a French market is always a delight to wander around so that is what we did. We were very short of French cash and though we use card 95% of the time we do occasionally need actual coins and notes especially at market stalls. It was quite hard to find a bank / cash point as there were so many market stalls all the actual shops and buildings were hidden behind them but did eventually manage to spot one. Fortunate as I almost immediately spotted a rather nice ‘bracelet’ for grandson George and sure enough it was cash only.

Had a lovely walk round the stalls, buying nothing else though. So tempting to buy all sorts of things and then when you get them home you wonder what on earth you are going to do with them. Must admit we do very little shopping when away. Preferring to spend our money on nice food and the experience of the holiday itself. I do admit to having several garments hanging in my wardrobe completely unworn after being tempted at similar markets in the past but I now know better. Garments spotted on a stall in midsummer in France are generally not terribly suited to my Staffordshire lifestyle.

I digress. Once we had explored the market we walked across one of the bridges (Brantome is essentially an island and surrounded by the river) for a stroll along the river’s edge. Really quite a hot day so it was lovely to walk by the water and it really is a very attractive town. There is an enormous Abbey which dominates one side of the town. You can visit and I think there is a system of caves behind it. We decided thought to just have a lazy day and enjoy the lovely campsite and pool rather than exploring further so went back to the car and the motorhome for lunch and then a swim and a read in the sunshine. The campsite really is a delight and we are very pleased with our well located pitch.

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