A day in the life of a tourist...

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Did you miss us? We've been a bit tied up lately what with the end of the summer holidays and preparing for la rentrée, (back to school). There have been numerous shopping trips to buy supplies for school, such as new exercise books in just the right size. God help you if your child has the wrong size book with too few or too many pages, or the squared paper has the wrong size squares! Each year we buy dozens of pens & pencils as there never seems to be any left by the end of the school year. I'm sure their pencil cases have a pencil-eating monster lurking in the bottom!

 Now the children are packed off to school, we decided to treat ourselves to a day out in the nearby town of Sarlat, about ½ an hour's drive from Bergerac. This is a very pretty town with ancient buildings packed tightly together along narrow winding streets. At this time of year it is busy with tourists, so just for a day, we became tourists too. I have to say we seemed to spend most of our time eating & drinking, well I suppose that's what tourists do! Starting our day with the obligatory cup of café at a lovely café on the steps of the ancient maire (town hall).

We then wandered the streets doing a little window shopping...

Isn't this wedding cake amazing?! So delicate, it would be a shame to cut it. I wouldn't like to be the one to transport it to the wedding venue!

This indoor market was created by one of France's top architects, Jean Nouvel, converting the church of Sainte-Marie in the centre of Sarlat. It is a mix of the old & new, especially with the huge steel doors. There is also a panoramic lift in the bell tower which you can ride up to see breathtaking views of the surrounding area. We were too busy looking at the food on display & forgot to go up in it! Well there's always next time...

This is one of the stalls that was distracting us, look at the wonderful display of macarons...yum, yum!

We emerged from food heaven to see the restaurants setting up for lunch. So that was our cue to pull up a chair at one of the tables & order le menu du jour (daily set menu). Made up of local dishes, it was delicious but very filling. We just about managed to finish the walnut tart, washing it down with some cold rosé - hic!

Talking of wine, we saw this still outside a wine shop, what an amazing contraption!

Better for us on such a hot day would have been water from this spring.

Sarlat has a lot of cobble streets, the honey coloured stone is wonderful especially in the dabbled sunlight.

Many of the buildings have stone tiled roofs. No wonder the buildings are made from large blocks of stone; they need to be sturdy to take the weight.

There are some lovely old doors in the town, we couldn't resist taking just a couple of snaps. The blue hue was so gorgeous and the other looked like it lead to a secret garden. Who knows, maybe it did!

A bit more wandering before an afternoon tea, (well actually Orangina and Perrier as it was so hot), & then heading home, ending our day as tourists.

Aren't these roses lovely?

A gift from Kelly - they are so beautiful and such an unusual colour.

Merci mon amie xx