The Best Trip Ever

The Dordogne is growing on me. After an unpromising start, I'm really starting to appreciate how beautiful it is.

We had an especially nice day yesterday, starting with a morning stroll through the Sarlat market. It's HUGE, winding all the way through town. I think I at least glanced at most everything, although I only bought dish towels. I can almost never leave an outdoor market in France without buying a few more dish towels.

The produce was lovely and tempted me, but our apartment kitchen doesn't seem convenient for any serious cooking so I bypassed it.

Then we drove north and found a nice place for lunch in a quiet village. A well-mannered cat joined us when the food arrived and requested one bite from each of us, then washed up and went back to sleep in the sun.

After lunch we visited Les Jardins de L'Imaginaire in Terrasson. I LOVED it. I always find formal gardens impressive but dull, but this is a very exciting contemporary garden that uses water in surprising and original ways. It was a guided tour in French, which went mostly over our heads, but they provided a booklet in English that covered the basics.

About those geese... When I was reading about this area before we came, I saw lots of pictures of grandmotherly ladies on farms tending their geese. We've done lots of driving around the countryside and seen lots of farms, and I've seen cows, sheep, horses, a few ducks, and quite a few chickens, but not a single goose. Where are they? Are they all already foie grased?