Day 06 - Saturday 29th April

Breakfast was in the B&B dining room again at 8:30am. Once again, David and Wendy gave us valuable advice about what to do today. Because today is Saturday, there is a market in the centre of town. Wendy has booked two tickets for us to go to Lascaux to see the reproduction of the cave paintings late this afternoon.

It was a bright and sunny day. My app said it was 2C and Wendy said the overnight minimum was -2C. Later in the day, it is forecast to get up to about 19C.

We set off for the markets at about 10am. It was only a few blocks away. Apparently the market has a good reputation - partly because it's quite big and partly because of the pleasant setting in this beautiful town.

There were already a lot of people there - mostly locals I suspect but there were tourists too including one other Australian couple we came across.

Although I saw at least one tour group, most of the people were couples or families. Quite a few people had brought their dog along.

Most of the vendors spoke some English and so it was generally easy enough to ask questions and have a reasonable conversation.

Suzy stopped early on to look at belts. They were stretchy and attractive. She bought one and I even bought one too. It's not often that I buy something at a market.

She stopped to look at other items such as scarves, jewelry, T-shits, bibs, aperitifs, leather wear and wine. There were also stalls selling produce and meat. The large strawberries were impressive. One stall was cooking paella in large circular trays.

There were a few other highlights that weren't necessarily related to the market day.

One highlight was a patisserie that had beautiful displays in the shop window and in the display counters inside the shop. These included cakes, slices, biscuits, bread and croissants. The individual cakes and slices were works of art. They looked inviting and delicious.

Another highlight was the nougat shop (Real Chocolat). The owner was quite a character - very friendly and helpful. He gave us numerous samples to try before we bought a few. He was happy to pose for photos. He was quite an entertainer. No doubt he ran a very successful business attracting tourists and locals.

The third highlight was fascinating. At the end of the main plaza, there was a little man dressed in a fluoro vest who was dashing back and forwards looking after people crossing the road at the pedestrian crossing and elsewhere nearby. He was directing cars to stop and pretending to write down number plates. Tourists like us were lining up to take photos of him.

After walking along the main streets, we reached the square in the ancient part of the town and we then wound our way back through the crowds towards our B&B. It was about 12 noon by that time.

Originally I'd planned to stay for only a short time at the market and then head back to the B&B leaving Suzy to shop in peace. However I actually enjoyed this market. Normally I find markets boring. This one was different. I'm glad that I went.

While having coffee back at the B&B, Suzy decided that she liked her new belt so much that she went back to buy another one.

This afternoon, we would be visiting several towns and tourist spots in the Dordogne region near Sarlat. The TomTom took us across country via narrow roads and gravel roads.

We stopped at Saint-Leon-Sur-Vezere for lunch at a cafe near the river and a narrow metal road bridge. I enjoyed my fish and chips sitting in the sunshine admiring the view of the river and trees.

Next we drove to La Roque Saint Christophe which is a series of Troglodyte caves in the side of a cliff overlooking the river. It was a rushed visit because were running out of time to get to Lascaux in time.

The deadline to get to Lascaux was 4pm. It was quite a challenge - partly because of the narrow roads, but also because we got stuck behind several construction vehicles. When we came across a slow-moving truck, we turned around and got the TomTom to find an alternative route.

The TomTom led us to parking area P2 at Lascaux (the furthest car park) which turned out to be 4 minutes from the museum. Anyway, we just made it in time.

Lascaux is a very new and modern museum. Inside the museum, they've built a recreation of a cave that was discovered in 1940. The cave and the artwork on the walls in the cave date back to the ice age 20000 years ago.

The original cave was closed to the public some years ago because the visits were causing damage to the cave and the artwork. Instead they built an accurate reproduction of the cave in the museum. Apparently they used high-tech photography and other techniques to faithfully recreate the cave in every detail.

The tour started with a one hour inspection of the reproduction cave. Then you were free to wander through other exhibits in the museum displays outside the reproduction cave. By this time we were very tired and we didn't see all the exhibits.

We were back at the B&B at 6:15pm and we set off again at 7:15 to walk into the centre of Sarlat to find somewhere for dinner. We decided to follow David and Wendy's recommendation to go to a restaurant called Glacier which is in the ancient plaza. It was warm enough to sit outside so we could watch the passing parade of people.

We also went with David and Wendy's recommendations for food. Suzy had the Thai beef salad and I had the  veal chop.We shared a pitcher of red wine and Suzy tried a couple of aperitifs. After the meal we chatted to an American couple who'd been at the museum this afternoon.

It was a beautiful sunny evening. At this time of the year, the sun doesn't set until almost 9pm. However, by this time the crowds were thinning.