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Sarlat to Carcassonne, France

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Day 42, Monday, October 9, 2023

We have a long drive to Carcassone today so we are up early.  Bob moves the car closer to our apartment so we don’t have to carry everything for three blocks, and no one is even up and about yet.  We have our breakfast and evening meals at home so we have accumulated quite a few groceries, along with our other luggage.

You can just make out the butcher’s stand on the street right beside the entrance to our apartment in the lower left corner of this photo.  He is the first merchant to open his doors, usually by 8:00 am and he is open until 8:00 pm, or even longer if there are still people on the street…and he works every day of the week!  When I told him that he works too hard he said only until today, then he gets two weeks holiday.

This is the paid parking lot near our apartment but it gives us an hour free time.  More than enough to load our car and get on the road.  I do love the Sycamore trees that we see everywhere in France.  They are magnificent, so huge, and they have the most interesting bark that looks like camouflage.  I have no idea how they survive in the middle of a paved parking lot… they can’t get much water.

It is a 3.5 hour drive to Carcassonne and we had planned to detour to Albi to visit the Musée Toulouse-Lautrec.  Lautrec was born in Albi and this museum has artwork that can only be seen here. However we didn’t even think about museums being closed on Mondays when we planned our bnb stays, so the museum is closed.  I am quite disappointed as I was really looking forward to seeing this artwork and especially the large  collection of Lautrec drawings that are in this museum.  Of course other museums we were interested in Toulouse were also closed so we decide to just drive and get to Carcassonne a bit earlier in the day.

We have seen some interesting bathroom signs on our travels, this one made me chuckle.

As we drive south we start to see the odd cypress trees, which makes me think of Vincent Van Gogh and all the cypress trees he painted.

It is always an adventure, walking into a new Airbnb and checking it out…is it going to be what we were expecting?  So far we have chosen well and not been disappointed.

 

Market day in Sarlat-le-Canéda, France

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Day 40, Saturday, October 7, 2023

Saturday is market day.  We woke up to the sounds of vendors setting up their tents and tables.  This is the view from our window. After breakfast we go check out the market.  The streets are crammed with vendors…

There are fresh fruits and vegetables.  These little radishes are so yummy, and very reasonable, just 1euro for a big bunch. However there are many more vendors selling a variety of meats and foie gras.  I’m afraid we weren’t tempted by these stalls.

These are duck and goose livers, and other items that I do not even recognize.  The chickens and I think perhaps grouse all still have their heads!

This is the old church that is now an indoor market.  You can see the big doors open behind Bob.

We try out some street food…

and after a stroll down another street…

We head back to our apartment for lunch, perhaps not the healthiest, but it sure was good.  We saved the beans for our dinner.

We wander through the Cathedral Saint-Sacerdos, and I find these beautiful reflections from the stained glass window. We visit the Hotel de Maleville which has an artist’s studio on the top floor attic.

The stairs up to the attic have seen a lot of use.

The attic roof is ‘shingled’ with fieldstone’s.  These ‘Thackstone’ roofs are very steep.  This shape distributes the weight throughout the walls.  Once a thackstone roof is installed, it does tend to stay in place! Here is a peek at the underside of one of these roofs.

Here is what these roofs looks like from the outside.  The Gisson Manor is composed of two different buildings linked by a hexagonal stair tower. This manor’s origins are in the 13th century.

The artist, Adrien Kenyon, https://www.adriankenyon.com/ who works in this unique studio makes collages, and has an interesting sense of humour.  The collages are unique, and large.

He doesn’t mind people taking photos and just asks to be given credit for his work.   Here is another beautiful old building, the house of Etienne de La Boétie.  He was born in Sarlat on November 1,1530 and died on August 18, 1563.  He was a French magistrate, classicist, writer, poet and political theorist who died when he was only 32.

We find another building with artist’s studios and there are two rooms full of works similar to these.  I lost the artist’s card so don’t know her name, but I wonder about being able to draw all those tiny circles.  Some of the artwork is a 90 x 60 cm or larger.  

Another studio has a variety of work, some interesting, some not so much.

Time to go home, but first here is one more of Sarlat’s medieval streets.