Of geese and Cro-Magnons

Sarlat-le-Caneda is a charming medieval city in the Dordogne, and is touted as the home of geese and foie gras. We'd stopped in briefly a few weeks ago and were sufficiently charmed to travel the couple of hours to check it out more closely. On the way we stopped at Montfort, which features a chateau perched securely up on a clifftop. Very striking, and far more interesting than the over-sized garage sale going on in the village.

As with most medieval cities the old centre of town of Sarlat is small. However, a couple of hours strolling through its thin streets, lanes and the near tunnel-like arcades beneath buildings was most enjoyable. Within the  old town is the Place d'oie (Goose Plaza), where we found some bronze sculptures that reminded us of Boston's Central Park and its duck sculptures.

Nearby Payrignac boasts a most marvellous limestone cave (Grottes de Cougnac), in which you can get far closer to the formations than any we've previously visited (Jenolan, Yarrangobilly, Hastings). There is a long cavern filled with almost glowing white wax-like stalactites and stalagmites. That in itself would be enough drawcard for us, but within the caves are also Cro-Magnon paintings dated at 25,000 years old (with some partially obscured estimated at 40,000 years old). Pictures aren't permitted in the caves, but one of our cameras appears to have gone off by itself ;)