A Weekend in Ex-Pat Land

After our agreeable but tiring trip to the UK over Christmas and New Year, Mrs A & I decided to have a weekend away to relax and to celebrate, a few days early, Mrs A’s birthday. Being reasonably centrally located in France we’re not short of choice for venues for short breaks but we decided that to avoid wearing ourselves out even more, we’d go somewhere reasonably local. It really wasn’t too difficult to choose Sarlat in the Dordogne, which is less than three hours away.

Those of you who have holidayed in the Dordogne will almost certainly have visited Sarlat – la – Canéda (to give it its full name) and know that it is a beautiful ancient town. You will know that it is usually heaving with tourists who are taking advantage of its many restaurants and, perhaps, its huge Saturday market. You will also remember that you heard at least as many British and Dutch voices as those of the natives. Well, in deciding to visit on the weekend of 19,20 & 21 January we expected Sarlat to be very different from that experience and in some, if not all, respects it was.

The biggest differences were first, the numbers of people in the town and, second, the numbers of restaurants open for business. By comparison with even the relatively ‘low’ tourist seasons of June and September, let alone the ‘high’ season of July and August, the town was quite deserted. This was wonderful from our point of view as it gave a real opportunity to explore and view the lovely buildings without being constantly barged and pushed. We don’t think that as June and September tourists in the past, we’ve ever been able to appreciate the beauty of the place so much as we did last weekend. On the other hand, the very small number of restaurants that were open for business might have caused us a problem in finding something that suited us. Fortunately, a combination of pre-visit research and a wonderful recommendation by the hotel receptionist led us to two excellent restaurants to enjoy the typical cuisine of the region. This is best described as being a delight for the taste buds and a nightmare for the heart.

To our surprise, however, the proportion of British voices and the size of the Saturday market, which we’d previously assumed was aimed heavily at the tourist influx, weren’t significantly different. The Dordogne is, of course, prime ex-pat land where they probably sell as many copies of the ‘Daily Telegraph’ per head as they do in Surrey, so we encountered quite a few pristinely dressed and coiffed ladies with their cavalry twill and cravat bedecked husbands (Ooh, Mr A. You’re such an inverted snob!) chattering loudly in rich English tones as they did their shopping and sipped their coffees.

We were blessed by very mild, if grey, weather and spent Saturday walking around in shirtsleeves. There were actually quite a few people eating outside at lunchtime on Saturday.

On Saturday afternoon, we ventured out down the River Dordogne, passing through the beautiful La Roque-Gagéac, to visit the magnificent gardens of Marqueyssac. This is one of two or three gardens in the region which are open all the year round and it is well worth a visit. However, as it is the most visited garden in the region, it’s probably best to avoid the busiest months.

A good weekend and a good rest. It set us up nicely for the trial that was to come and which is reported in our next posting.