Marty’s blog on our walk along the Dordogne covered our third full day while staying in Beynac. We skipped the second day spent mostly in Sarlat at their fabulous market. We had a great time there! More about that below.

Ironically, yesterday (fourth full Beynac day) we visited a much smaller market in Les Eyzies-des-Tayac, thinking the more intimate setting would give us a different but still memorable experience. It WAS memorable but not in a good way. ?:D

First, the market in Sarlat. Sarlat is one of the larger towns in the Dordogne region – and it is known for its immense market. There are dozens and dozens of booths, hawking everything from underwear to foie gras . Here are a few photos:

The woman in the green skirt (above) had a camera crew with her. They filmed her as she strolled along, narrating in Japanese. She would then stop and interview vendors and others in fluent French and English. Fascinating!

Our market experience yesterday started out fine. We bought some strawberries (believe it or not, they are BETTER than Oregon berries!), apples and (goat?) cheese. We stopped at another booth and tried some smoked ham and several cheeses. The vendor was very gregarious! But when she went to cut off some of the cheese we wanted to buy, the thin slice we indicated became a huge chunk (we could tell that this was her m.o.!). The cost: 40 euros. We didn’t want to make a scene so we paid and left.

Sheesh! After that, we were due for some good karma – and we found it when we wandered into a small restaurant and saw that it was filled with locals (Marty was the only guy there wearing a baseball cap!). We had to return about a half hour later to get a table. For 13 euros each (plus 5 euros for a demi bottle of wine) we had a delicious three course meal. Yum!

We spent the rest of the day at the museum of pre-history and checking out the countryside…

PS: the 40 euro cheese is pretty good.