Jim's Articles

Why visit Sarlat?

Sarlat, France is an incredible historical place. What can you see in Sarlat and Dordogne area? Shoppers and traders have descended on Sarlat for the famous markets since the middle ages. There are a few to choose from, including the large Day Market in the city centre taking place on Saturdays selling everything under the sun. There are also food markets on Saturdays and Wednesdays in Place de la Liberte, a covered market on the square that runs every day and an Organic Night Market open between 18:00 and 20:00 on Place du 14 Juillet. So needless to say it’s a bit of a treasure trove for shoppers. especially if you’re tempted by regional delicacies like foie gras.

You can’t go to Sarlat-la-Caneda and miss the buzzing Saturday food market in the city centre. You might have to jostle for space among the crowds of eagle-eyed locals but it’s well worth it. Trestle tables are laden with farmers’ produce: fleshy red tomatoes, brightly coloured carrots, farm-fresh plums and twisted cucumbers sit alongside seemingly bottomless boxes of garlic, truffles, and trays of foie gras.

Perigueux: The old Roman town of Perigueux is deliciously small and provincial. Farmers flock into town on Saturdays and Wednesdays to sell their produce at the superb morning market. Wooden trestle tables crammed with fruit and veg vie for attention with the pearly-white domes of Perigueux’s Byzantine cathedral, evocative of St-Mark’s Basilica in Venice. Around the corner on place St-Louis, the November-to-March duck market sees gourmets and grandmothers furtively hand over cash in exchange for goose hearts, duck livers, every imaginable part of the duck – dried-blood pancakes called sanguettes included. Come December, the heady aroma of black truffles heightens the foodie excitement.

Searching for Sarlat hotels? All the streets, squares and palaces recount centuries of history. It was during the Middle Ages that Sarlat reached the rank of bishopric. This title and the important commercial activity of the city was at origin of the existence of the many fairs that still survive today. All this activity turned this small town into what we discover today: a museum of palaces of Renaissance and Gothic style, where merchants wanted to demonstrate their power, despite not possessing titles of nobility. The medieval town of Sarlat developed around a large benedictine abbey whose church, half a century later, would become the cathedral of the diocese. It reached its apogee in the 13th century when it counted 5,000 inhabitants. It was in year 937 when the abbey became part of the Cluny order. See more info on https://sarlathotel.com/.