Or, more commonly known as Sarlat, is a town in which modern history has passed it by. As a result, it is one of the best-preserved medieval cities in Europe. We planned to visit the Lascaux cave on the way here but realized that it would be closing for lunch exactly when we would have arrived. Since it’s only 25 minutes from Sarlat, we decided to visit the town today and go to the caves tomorrow as a half-day trip.
More than half of our 5-hour drive was through the beautiful countryside of southwestern France. Of course, that also meant we had to slow to 30 kph (about 18 mph) through every one of the 25-30 towns we drove through, but it was worth it. You can’t throw a rock in this part of the country without hitting a chateau, so we saw quite a few today. There was only one, though, where there was a place to grab a photo.
We had no idea where to go once we got to Sarlat so we pulled into the first parking spot we saw. It was right in front of a restaurant and because we both need the bathroom, and we were hungry, we thought it was as good a place as any to eat. I think it was the most expensive restaurant in town and had only “fancy” food. But we decided that we don’t eat fancy very often so why not splurge. Besides, we had no idea where there were any other restaurants. As with just about every other meal we’ve had, lunch was delicious. We both had a steak with bearnaise sauce, fries and a glass a wine.
The best part is that lunch also came with dessert. Peter had his usual ice cream, but I tried a profiterole. I’ve seen them on Great British Baking Show but have never had one. OMG! It was delicious.
Well, it turns out that we didn’t need to spend $65 on lunch because about a 3-minute walk down the hill were about 10 other restaurants. But that’s okay, we don’t splurge that often and the food was delicious.
The town is adorable; loaded with medieval building with conical roofs. Of course, there’s a cathedral from the 13th century, the Saint-Sacerdos cathedral.
The Lantern of the Dead (also called Lantern of the Moors) was built in the cemetery behind the cathedral. It held a light in the top of the tower to let everyone know the location of the cemetery. Apparently, these can be found all over France, Germany, Austria and Poland. They also indicated the location of a hospital or leper colony. The idea was that people passing by would see the light and avoid that location.
The town was filled with narrow streets that were fun to wander.
Once again, we have a pretty slow internet connection. Not as bad as at Martine’s house, but not great. So, I think this will do it for today as it’s too frustrating to get pictures to upload. I think you get the idea, though, about Sarlat. If you’re ever in this region, I highly recommend a day trip stop.
Tomorrow we’ll catch the cave and maybe one of the chateaux in the area; there are about 15 in the general area. I’m sure we can find one on our way back from the cave.