We’re taking advantage of sunny days to get our last few rays where we can and the last week has been windy but surprisingly mild with temperatures going up to the mid-20s. Joe loves a train journey and Sarlat is the end of the line so we took a trip to Bergerac, to the West, for market day. We weren’t sure about availability or height restrictions for parking at the station, in a town where you have to pay practically everywhere to park, so gave ourselves plenty of time and were surprised to find that parking at the station was free and there was plenty of it. The sun had still to burn off some of the morning mist so we didn’t see the châteaux along the Dordogne on the trip out but saw them on the way back.
The train station at Bergerac is only a short walk from the centre of town so we soon arrived at the market stalls that were laid out around the imposing Église de Notre-Dame. Here we saw the first cèpes for sale, just a few small punnets of them obviously picked by the stall owners and hopeful that someone would pay 30 euros for the pleasure. When we have been looking out for cèpes on our walks we actually disregarded a very large specimen that insects or woodland creatures of some kind had already had a nibble at. So we were amused to see that many of the cèpes on sale were in exactly the same condition!
We continued on into the old town which was more compact than we had expected and very charming. We soon found ourselves at Place Pelissière which houses a coloured statue of Cyrano de Bergerac and, a few minutes walk away in Place de la Myrpe, a square of former boat men’s houses, is another plain concrete statue of him. Although the real person who inspired the play ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’ was actually born in Paris and probably never went to Bergerac, the Bergerac citizens seem to have adopted him as their own and the statues were only erected in recent times, with one of them funded via public subscription. There are plenty of shops and bars with references to the Cyrano and Roxane theme.
The compact old town is a maze of small streets and squares leading down to the river. Close to the riverfront, what was originally a monastery has been extended to create a ‘Maison des Vins’ and ‘Vinothèque’ showcasing Bergerac wines. They also have a wine bar with terraces overlooking the river or giving some shade in the cloisters of the former monastery. We chose the sunshine and river view and sampled some excellent Bergerac white wines, both dry and slightly sweet.
Sunday saw La Grande Brocante de l’Automne in Sarlat, a lovely sunny day that drew people to the town, no doubt to the delight of the restaurateurs and bars, but the goods on sale didn’t inspire us to part with any money.
Opportunities to get out on the motorbike are probably going to get more limited and much more weather dependent but we were able to take a lovely ride to the north of the Vezère river valley, joining at Condat-sur-Vezère and following the river to Terrasson-Lavilledieu. The old town faced us high on the opposite side of the river and the much more practical new town has spread to the flat side of the river. We crossed the more modern stone bridge, the 13th century bridge on our left now pedestrianised, and headed up into the old town to stop by the large church. The views over the old town roofs and the two bridges were beautiful with autumn colours as a backdrop. The outskirts of the town house Les Jardins de l’Imaginaire’, now closed for the season, but the gardening theme obviously influences the old town centre with terraces of topiary. The old town is more of a showcase of artisan shops with wooden shop fronts restored in the style of the 30s and 40s.
