Ni aqui ni alla: Day-trip to Sarlat and its surroundings

This Saturday, I went on a day-trip to Sarlat with a couple of other assistants from Perigueux. Sarlat is -- according to my boss at the Inspection Academique -- the most touristic town in the Dordogne region. Compared to Perigueux, it is a lot cuter and more manicured but it has a similar medieval architecture and farmer's market.

We spend the day exploring the town and the Château de Castelnaud (pictured below), a medieval fortress in the nearby commune of Castelnaud-la-Chapelle. In the evening, we went to a very nice restaurant to celebrate the birthday of one of the Sarlat assistants. I highly recommend it, it was called L'instant Delice. Their specialty is regional Dordogne/Perigord food, which is basically duck or goose, duck or goose by-products, and anything cooked in duck or goose fat. YUM. I remember having foi gras as an entree, and the popular confit de canard with pommes de terre sarladaises* as a main dish.

In my short time there, I was able to verify that Sarlat is indeed a very beautiful town with lovely plazas, restaurants, markets, and landmarks, so I can see why it has become the home to a lot of British expats and a favourite destination in the Dordogne. However, I did notice a number of odd and negative things while I was there that kind of made me happy I live in Perigueux.

The most inexplicable one was the omnipresence of (quite expensive) porny fairy figurines in every gift shop -- each one more provocative than the next. Grim. They had also chosen "the big white North" a.k.a. Canada a.k.a my country as the theme for their Christmas market. It was very strange for me to be welcomed to a tiny french town with Canadian flags and weird, stereotypical, and borderline offensive scenes of Canada's Indigenous Peoples. The food also seemed more expensive than in Perigueux -- not only in restaurants but also in the market. Blame tourism for that I guess. Finally, after we left the restaurant, the town was incredibly dead, especially for a friday night! The assistants and teachers who were at the dinner were able to confirm that Sarlat is virtually devoid of any nightlife. I wonder if it's the same during the summertime. C'est tragique. On the other hand, Perigueux is not Berlin. At least there are a lot more assistants and we make our own fun.

Either way, it was a very good trip and I will forever remember Sarlat as the Dordogne capital of porny fairy figurines.

(*duck cooked in its own fat and potatoes cooked in duck fat. See? I told you)