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Geo: 44.8913, 1.21502
A vacation from our vacation! I woke up at 7:30 and wasn't as sore as I thought I would be, which probably means I'll be really sore tomorrow. I took my time getting ready and made it down to breakfast at 9:00. Probably half the group was down there at that time, so I guess we all took advantage of being able to sleep in.
Sarlat has two market days: Wednesday, which is just food, and Saturday (i.e., today), which is pretty much everything. The main road through town and lots of the side streets were closed to cars, and there was booth after booth after booth. There were clothes, scarves, shoes, books, CDs, purses, jewelry, pottery, linens and fabrics, kitchen things, clever flat wooden things that unfolded into useful things, garden ornaments, and a dozen other types of things. At the food market, stalls were selling foie gras (duck and goose), edibles made of walnuts, all kinds of fish, meat (fresh and dried) and cheese, olive oils and olives, fruit, vegetables, honey, jam, sweets and baked goods. There were people everywhere; I heard French, of course, German, Dutch, Spanish, an Asian language, and American, Australian and English accents. I
Enormous doors on a former church
The building is now part of the market. bought a saucisson porc fumé, an apple, and some olives for a picnic we're having tomorrow. I wanted to get cheese but all the cheese stalls had what looked like young goat cheese, which didn't really appeal. I may have to go to the grocery store and get some "kids' cheese," which is what Virginie calls Laughing Cow. I bought a couple of other things and then went back to my room to rest. I went out a bit later and got a baguette sandwich for lunch, which I ate in the hotel's sunroom.
Sarlat is such a cute place. "Cute" doesn't really do it justice, actually. There are cobblestones and twisty streets, and it's what you imagine a medieval town would look like (only cleaner). Plus, it's the only town in France lit by gas lamps, which gives it a nice glow during the evening. And I've just realized that I haven't taken many photos of it. Please can we stay here just one more day?
At 5:00, Virginie led any of us who wanted to go (turned out to be all of us) over to a nice park, where we had various saucissons to try, some wine, and pastis.
I'd never had pastis before so figured I'd better try it. It's an aniseed liqueur that you mix with water. Now I've tried it, and I doubt I'll ever feel the need to try it again. It was a bit like drinking liquefied licorice allsorts. She also brought along three pétanque sets and showed us how to play. It's pretty much the same as bocce, only it's played on gravel instead of the lawn. I was terrible at it, but it was fun watching the other teams play. Some people were so serious, especially the men who would measure each boule's distance from the cochonnet ("little pig"😉. Everyone had fun and no one got too intense.
After pétanque I went with Kathy, Rick, Gerry, Christine and Carrie to have pizza at La Romane. The girl who waited on us was very nice and didn't mind that she was splitting three pizzas. I shared with Carrie and it was really good, especially with the spicy oil I drizzled on it. The glass of Stella I ordered went down pretty good as well!
I thought I had gone a whole day without a kitty sighting but then, as I was looking out the window
across from our table, I saw a black and white cat creep across a tiled roof out in the courtyard.
There was a party going on in one of the squares, so we stopped and had a look. People, mostly locals, were eating at long tables under canopies, and there was a band (with an accordion) and dancing. The food on offer appeared to be mainly lamb, with scalloped potatoes cooked in duck fat (Sarladaise style). Apparently, it's a once-a-year deal, and I'll bet the locals look forward to it.
Trying to repack my suitcase now and not having a whole lot of success.
P.S. Thanks for all the comments! They're always encouraging.
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Mom
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I'm sure enjoying each post and looking forward to seeing them arrive! More photos, please! Especially of the different food. I need to look up a few items to see just what they are. I know you aren't eating anything very "weird."