Market day in Sarlat in Périgord

We arrived in Vézac, 8 km/5 miles south of Sarlat, on Friday evening after seeing Souillac, Carlux, Domme, and La Roque-Gageac. We were tired after spending the day on the road and walking and climbing around in the towns we saw in the afternoon.

Market stalls under big parasols in Sarlat

Sue and I made a quick run to the Casino supermarket 3 or 4 miles up the road to get some oil and vinegar, two things we forgot to take with us. We had a cooler full of lettuce, blocks of frozen soups I made during the winter, mustard, and lots of cheese. But we needed to make vinaigrette. We stayed in and ate soup, salad, and cheese after our long day.

Saucissons secs

Saturday is market day in Sarlat, and it's a highly popular event. We couldn't be in the area without checking it out. So despite dire warnings about not being able to find a place to park the car in town on market days, we ventured out about 9:30 on Saturday morning with our cameras and shopping bags and baskets.

Fraises

We found a semi-legal place to park near the main market square. I say semi-legal because other cars were parked along that section of curb, in contravention of the big no-parking signs posted above the sidewalk. I think the authorities are pretty tolerant when it comes to parking regulations on market days in France. As long as your vehicle isn't blocking a driveway or otherwise causing a nuisance, anything goes.

Pains

In Loire Valley towns like Amboise, Selles-sur-Cher, and Saint-Aignan, the weekly markets are held in a specific area of town. In Amboise, the market area is not a street but a big paved area along the river that might serve as a parking lot on other days. In both Selles and Saint-Aignan, the market occupies a public square that is otherwise used as a parking lot. The Selles market is big, and the Amboise market is even bigger. Saint-Aignan's is pretty small, really. Certainly, none of them takes over the whole town the way Sarlat's market does.

Baskets to carry your purchases home in

We wandered around the town for a couple of hours and took pictures. As Walt says in his blog, market pictures all start looking alike after a while. There's not much in mine that would make you slap your forehead and marvel, "Wow, that's Sarlat. I recognize it." At the same time, I always enjoy market pictures. They make me hungry. The colors are beautiful. They create an atmosphere.

Dishes to cook and serve the food in

That said, the Sarlat market was big and busy, but it wasn't really different from the markets here in the Loire Valley. I saw mostly the same food products, the same kinds of baskets, and the same cookware. A lot of the market stalls were selling souvenirs. There were local products, no doubt about it — big bags of walnuts, goat cheeses galore, and tins of foie gras, pâté, and confit de canard.

A restaurant ready to serve you if you don't want to cook

I think I had pictured a more rural, authentic market, with live animals and soil-encrusted, locally grown produce. Something somehow different from our markets in Selles and Saint-Aignan. My expectations were too high, I guess. Maybe the threat of avian flu is keeping live poultry out of the marketplace right now.