{"id":2578,"date":"2024-02-28T20:43:45","date_gmt":"2024-02-28T20:43:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2578"},"modified":"2024-02-28T21:04:10","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T21:04:10","slug":"sarlat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2578","title":{"rendered":"Sarlat"},"content":{"rendered":"

In writing about Sarlat, we need to be rather specific.\u00a0 We\u2019re talking about Sarlat-la-Can\u00e9da, located in the Dordogne region of France.\u00a0 Names can be a bit tricky in France; there are at least three other villages named Sarlat and the Dordogne is also known by its more ancient name, the Perigord.\u00a0 (We Americans shouldn\u2019t sneer.\u00a0 There are 41 US cities and towns named Springfield.)<\/p>\n

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The Place de la Libert\u00e9 in Sarlat.\u00a0 Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.<\/em><\/p>\n

There are three reasons to visit Sarlat and its environs: architecture, gastronomy and history.\u00a0 The architecture of Sarlat is that of a well-maintained medieval village.\u00a0 Before the French Revolution, Sarlat was a large commercial center but later the trains passed it by, commerce died out and it fell into disrepair.\u00a0 Andr\u00e9 Malraux, the novelist and Minister of Culture in the 1960\u2019s poured funding into Sarlat for its restoration.\u00a0 Today, visitors can wander narrow cobblestoned streets and view homes and businesses looking much as they did in the 15th<\/sup> century.\u00a0 The focus of interest is the main square, the Place de la Libert\u00e9, which is ringed by shops selling things to the tourists, where markets are held on Saturday and Wednesday mornings.<\/p>\n

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A typical Sarlat foie gras shop.\u00a0 Photo courtesy of Sarlat Tourisme.<\/em><\/p>\n

There are more than shops on the square and in the town.\u00a0 There is food, often with the most famous products of the region around Sarlat: truffles and foie gras.\u00a0 Dishes served perigourdine<\/em> are flavored with those back gastronomic diamonds: truffes noires<\/em> or black truffles.\u00a0 There are other locales in France where truffles are found, not grown.\u00a0 (See Power Tasting\u2019s article about Carpentras<\/a>.)\u00a0 Truffles go so well with foie gras, and foie gras is really what Sarlat is all about,.\u00a0 You can have it so many ways: saut\u00e9ed, au torchon, mi-cuit, entier, p\u00e2t\u00e9, terrine.\u00a0 And they\u2019re all for sale in Sarlat\u2019s shops, along with implements like silver knives that looks a bit like coping saws for slicing foie gras and silver spatulas for serving it.<\/p>\n

If you travel just outside Sarlat, you can visit farms where they raise the ducks and geese that are used for foie gras.\u00a0 Yes, we know the arguments for the mistreatment of these birds, but from what we\u2019ve seen, they look pretty well taken care of right up to the end.\u00a0 And a flock of geese running around and honking like mad is a natural comedy show.<\/p>\n

And as long as you\u2019re traveling outside Sarlat, take in a little of the history of the region. \u00a0The most ancient on view is at the famous cave at Lascaux, full of prehistoric paintings.\u00a0 Actually, you can\u2019t see the actual cave, because exposure was erasing the artwork.\u00a0 But they have built an exact replica nearby.\u00a0 More recent, there are the ch\u00e2teaux of Beynac and Castelnaud\u2026only 900 years old.\u00a0 They face each other across a broad valley, and during wars of the Middle Ages, they fired back and forth at each other.\u00a0 At Castelnaud you can actually see replicas of the weapons they used in those days.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t easy to get to Sarlat.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost a three-hour drive from the Bordeaux airport and 2\u00bd hours by train.\u00a0 You can shave off an hour if you start from St. Emilion.\u00a0 However you get to Sarlat, it\u2019s worth the trip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In writing about Sarlat, we need to be rather specific.\u00a0 We\u2019re talking about Sarlat-la-Can\u00e9da, located in the Dordogne region of France.\u00a0 Names can be a bit tricky in France; there are at least three other villages named Sarlat and the Dordogne is also known by its more ancient name, the Perigord.\u00a0 (We Americans shouldn\u2019t sneer.\u00a0 … Continue reading Sarlat<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2578"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2578"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2594,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2578\/revisions\/2594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}