Market Day

Scott writes:
Day 25

After a leisurely start to the day we went to the Saturday market at Salat, about a 20 minute drive from where we are staying at Domme. While I am generally not into markets, this one was pretty good - a stunning setting in an immacualate medieval town. It also had good stuff for sale. Lots of quality food, fruit and veg, pastries, clothing, all well presented and not pushy sales people. There was not much of the usual junk you find at markets. And it was huge, strethching about a kilometer and running down two parallel streets.

Fortunately while wandering through the market we found a cafe that had the All Blacks playing Wales, so stopped for a coffee and saw the last 10 minutes. The kids then purchased some giant marshmallows. We bought plenty of food supplies, including duck breast which Theresa has cooked beautifully for dinner, with crispy potatoes cooked in the duck fat. The region is famous for fois gras and duck, caves and castles.

The afternoon was spent around the pool and lying in the sun where we are staying. The owner of the place, Rosemary, lives upstairs and we have the downstairs unit. It is still raining quite a lot so it was good to have an afternoon of sun. There is also plenty of time to watch lots of football.

The French roads are interesting. It is clearly your patriotic duty as a Frenchman (or Frenchwoman) to drive a Renault, Peugeot or Citreon and to drive it as fast as the car will go at all times. The narrower the road, the faster you should drive. Whatever happens, do not slow down when traffic is coming the other way, especially it is not clear there is room for both vehicles to pass safely. The rule at that point is drive even faster if you can. Speed limits are for tourists and in particular Germans who come to almost a complete stop at the sight of a French car approaching at 120km/h on a narrow winding country road. I find I am holding my breath quite a bit and hoping for the best.