Sarlat #1

The train trip from Paris actually took us to Toulouse and not to Sarlat le Caneda. We collected our near new Mercedes from the train station and with our GPS not working straight away we managed to get out of Toulouse and drive for 2.5 hours north to Sarlat on a busy motorway. The country side was undulating and heavily wooded everywhere. It was getting late in the afternoon when we arrived and we were given the wrong address to put into our GPS and found ourselves totally lost. We phoned our hosts Mathieu and Celine who met us at a petrol station and guided us to our Gite in the country side 2 km out of Sarlat. It was worth it in the end as the little cottage is a fantastic find.

Two bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and recently renovated with everything you could imagine. It is the dream French cottage in the country.

We even have some small friends over the fence .

The building down below is an up market accommodation joint where we had a wonderful meal last night. Four course all for a very reasonable price.

Here we are with an arrogant Belgian on the left, a good Belgian on the right, a delightful German couple and three old kiwis at the back.

Cordon bleu meal.

Every Saturday Sarlat has an all day market which goes all the way down the main street.

Every type of onion you can imagine.

The town is very small with only about 9000

people. It is one of the oldest in the area. We wandered around the town the next day and it was much quieter and easier to get around.

The area is well known for the Foi Gras pate which is made from the livers of force fed geese.

Yesterday we went 20 km north to Montignac to where three boys discovered some caves in 1940. In the caves they found drawings on the roof which turned out to have been drawn 20,000 years ago. The Lascaux caves were open to the public for many years but started to deteriorate with over use. In more recent years a very modern structure has been built into the side of the hill near the caves.

They have reproduced the caves and the drawings in minute detail and it is now a world renowned attraction where some of the very first European lived and recorded their art.

Google.....   Lascaux International Centre.

Although we weren't allowed to take photos in the caves we were allowed to in a museum where they did some copies so groups of school children could study the art.

It was an amazing place to visit.