We drove down to Sarlat going through Salignac, yes saligna with a 'c' which had a very picturesque castle shown below but to be honest, there really isn't a shortage of these. Of course the castles make johannesburgs walled suburbs look somewhat trivial and unpreposing.
Sarlat turned out to be fantastic, we happened to hit it on market day which is like a flea market but with a lot more things to buy, specifically food related. We went to the 'easy planet' internet shop to pay our blood money and was pleasantly surprised to be charged only for the 3 cups of coffee which we bought there while we posted and downloaded. 45 minutes of internet time and we were both feeling much better; me because I had caught up with the blog and caron because she had two cups of coffee in her. We walked back through the market just enjoying the spectacle which wasn't dampened by the fact that it was raining quite hard. The people here are so used to the rain that what would have us south africans scuttling for cover is simply ignored as if it wasn't there.
I took several pictures of stalls but I thought that I would show the one all you meat lovers at home would appreciate the best. I know that this will have george salivating!
A short while later I spotted a serious cheese which I needed caron next to to give some relative size. We couldn't help but think of Laurel while we were were walking through, from the people to the clothes to the market itself; this would be her natural home.
When we got back to the car having spent a very enjoyable hour or two in the market this was parked just a couple of cars behind us. Now, I ask you; who would pimp a citroen!
From Sarlat we drove down towards Bordeaux following the Dordogne marvelling at the castles and chateaus that seem to be around just about every bend. We stopped next to the dordogne for a brief lunch of baguette and the brie cheese which we had bought at the market before carrying on down to bordeaux.
After a very pleasant drive and morning the afternoon wasn't so great as we had a bit of a job finding a decent campsite. The one we went to looked like an upmarket squatter camp but a squatter camp non-the-less but we finally found a campsite run by yet another dutchman. What is it about hollanders and running camp sites?
This evening we are camping at the Vieux Chateau campsite just on the outskirts of Rauzan which is very picturesque if a little wet which meant that we had to pitch camp in the rain. The rain here isn't the buckets we are used to at home, it is more like a continuous drizzle; just enough to actually get things wet but we are now warm dry and comfortable after a supper of soup and baguette. We are camped just below the battlements of Chateau Rauzan and we took a stroll into town where they're holding a 4 day antique/junk sale. We had just arrived when we were approached by the gendarmerie who wanted to know if we had seen a tall man with lots of hair come running past about 5 or 10 minutes ago. Even though we couldn't speak french and they couldn't speak english we managed to communicate enough to answer their questions. It would seem that someone stole some of the antiques from the sale! The crime seems to be following us, maybe we are crime magnets.
Tomorrow we are going to see the chateaux around St Emilion which I am really looking forward to.
No comments:
Post a Comment