Exploring the Medieval Town of Sarlat in the Dordogne

Few regions in France capture the imagination quite like the Dordogne. It’s a landscape of storybook villages, stone castles, and lush river valleys, where the past feels close enough to touch. 

There are a thousand places to see here, but there’s no better place to start than Sarlat-la-Canéda, the vibrant capital of the Périgord Noir. From there, you can easily reach some of the country’s most beautiful and historic sites, including Château de Beynac, the Château de Hautefort, and the perfectly preserved bastide town of Monpazier.

Market Day in The Beating Heart of the Périgord Noir

I’ve written about why it’s a great idea to visit Sarlat-la-Canéda, the perfectly preserved medieval town in the heart of the Périgord Noir. It’s one of France’s most popular destinations. Last time I was there, I heard more British accents than French, and within half an hour of some of France’s most fascinating historic sites: castles, prehistoric cave paintings, and troglodyte dwellings. It’s also a paradise for cycling, canoeing, hiking, or simply exploring the Dordogne.

At The Centre of the Action in Sarlat-la-Canéda

On one recent visit, I rented an apartment perfectly situated on top of a café overlooking the town’s great Place du Marché.  I awoke early on a Saturday morning, and like most Saturday mornings for hundreds of years, it was market day in Sarlat.  The banging and shouting begin just after 4:00 a.m. as the first trucks arrive in the space and merchants begin reconstructing their booths and awnings for the long day ahead.

One of the things that strikes me about every market in France is how much work these merchants must invest as they move from town to town, installing their equipment, unloading their wares, staffing the booth all day, keeping an eye on the passing crowds as they try to talk to a specific customer, then tearing everything down, cleaning up, reloading, and moving on to some other town to repeat the whole process in a day or two!

Perfect for Early Risers and Cooks

By 7:00, the market is open for business, baskets overflowing with mushrooms, honey, and cheeses; sausages and truffles scenting the air.  The first customers start to walk slowly through the Place while the produce is still at its freshest, while the baguettes and croissants are still warm. 

By noon, the crowd in the narrow streets will be shoulder-to-shoulder, and there’s no way to hurry through; that will last until around 6:00 p.m., when the stalls start to close, and the crowd begins to scatter into the bars and restaurants around town.

An 800-year-Old Market Tradition

The thing that pleases me most, personally, about markets like this is knowing that people have been doing this work, engaging in this kind of commerce, for hundreds and hundreds of years. They came when the Hundred Years’ War and the Wars of Religion ravaged this part of France; they came when Revolutionary fever swept through the country, and they came even in years when crops failed and the food they had to sell was poor and scarce.

Deep Roots from the Middle Ages

That sense of history is present in a few other markets we’ve visited around France – I’m thinking particularly of the smaller market in Vienne, south of Lyon, which can also trace its roots to the Middle Ages, but it’s heightened in Sarlat because of the setting itself.

This town is almost perfectly preserved as it would have looked in the 14th century; all the buildings in the centre have authentic roots in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.  It’s so authentic, in fact, that it shows up regularly in movies like The Musketeer (2001) and Luc Besson’s 1999 biography of Joan of Arc, The Messenger.

A Feast for the Senses

So there’s plenty to see in Sarlat even if you don’t come on market day.  But if you can plan to be in town on a Saturday, what riches you’ll find!

There are enormous steaming skillets of paella, grapes the size of golf balls, Peppers in more colours than I knew existed, rich, earthy sausages made from any meat you can imagine (that’s sanglier – wild boar – sausage in the foreground), fresh fish, cocktail olives in a variety of flavours, spices in bulk, the way they might have been presented at a street market just off the ship from India or China in centuries past…

A Church Converted into a Gourmet Temple

But if you want to really go “local” while you’re here, this region is famous everywhere in the world for two of its gourmet specialities: truffles and “anything related to a duck”.  These are available from many vendors in the street market, but to find the best suppliers, I recommend you step inside the covered market set up in an old church. The Église Saint Marie, originally built in the 12th century and reconstructed in the 14th and 15th centuries, was deconsecrated and damaged during the French Revolution and subsequently used as a weapons factory, a post office, and a clinic.

A Living Tradition in the heart of the Dordogne

The old church was rescued in 2000, and the covered market inside is open every day of the week from mid-April to the end of October.  This is where you’ll find the good stuff – meaty black truffles, whole ducks and any individual part of a duck you can imagine eating, and of course, foie gras in dozens of forms. 

Even if you don’t want (or can’t afford) any of the pricey gourmet treats, you might still visit and take the glass-walled “observation” elevator that’s been built into the old church’s bell tower for a spectacular view of Sarlat and the surrounding countryside.

As the sun sets and the market stalls close, the light softens across the Renaissance façades, and it’s easy to see why people have gathered in this square for hundreds of years. Sarlat is not just a town; it’s a living tradition.

Thank you, Richard, for your kind contribution. For more information, visit the full article here, and discover our ten reasons to buy a property in Dordogne.

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