Saturday, October 1st was Market Day in Sarlat and I was really excited! I love outdoor markets and the variety of food and other things, along with the great people watching. After doing some laundry that morning, I walked around the market and picked up some walnut pralines, a mini walnut cake (which ended up being a dry disappointment), and some interesting and yummy red wine with walnut, which was an appertif. Had I brought an extra suitcase that I could check, I could have gotten a lot more--lesson learned! I would have loved to have purchased some good olive and walnut oils, among other things. Later that day, we had an impromptu tour group happy hour in the hotel where the tour guide provided different and snacks and I brought my walnut wine. There was definitely no shortage of wine on this tour! Some single members of the tour had planned to do a dinner together, but I was craving Asian food and opted to go to a restaurant across town. Unfortunately it was a 15 Euro disappointment. Just shrimp and noodles, no veggies or anything else. It tasted like fast food Chinese from the mall. I left both Yelp and Google reviews to hopefully save someone else sometime and money!
The next day, Sunday, we left Sarlat and headed to Carcassonne. One thing I forgot to mention earlier is that France is very strict about bus drivers taking breaks, so we stopped often at rest stops between cities. The rest/truck stops in Europe are pretty nice and have a lot of food and gift shopping options, unlike the ones you see in the US. Their bathrooms are also very clean. At each rest stop, I loved exploring their snack selection to see and try things we don't have in the US. Not only was I able to find gummy Smurfs, Kinder Surprise eggs, but also Kit Kat peanut butter, a variety of Bonne Maman snacks, and Monster Munch, savory rice snack that I really dig.
Before arriving at our hotel in Carcassonne, the bus took us up to a viewpoint so we could get great pictures of the Fortress from a distance since our hotel was located right beneath it. We checked into the hotel, which was a bit funky. Each room was decorated in bold and bright colors, it was um, interesting? The nice thing is that I had a balcony, but there were so many bugs out there that I couldn't enjoy it. My bathroom was so tiny that I had to shimmy my way around the sink to get to the toilet.
After checking into the hotel, we went on a brief walking tour, then I had drinks with two other couples, who cracked me up. The best line of the night that brought me to tears was "remember math?" 😆 Our group dinner that night included cassoulet, and of course, more wine and bread. After dinner, the tour guide took several of us on a brief walk and surprised us with a cool night view of the fortress. One of our tour members also spotted the International Space Station passing above us, so that was a cool bonus! Our tour guide had also brought a bottle of champagne and mini cups with us to do a little toast on the bridge, which was a nice way to end the day.
On Monday, during breakfast, we saw that the hotel owners had two dogs that roamed around the breakfast room. One of them, named Elliot, is 15 years old. He can barely see or hear, but is just so damn cute! We then left Carcassonne and headed for Arles. Along the way, we stopped at a small winery for a tour, tasting, and lunch in the vineyard (more wine and bread, of course!). Despite all the wasps hovering around me, it was really nice.
In Arles, the bus stopped at an antiquities museum, which wasn't noted in the itinerary. This sounded boring AF to me, so I opted to instead go directly to the hotel to get settled in, then head to a laundromat because I was running out of clean clothes. I also walked around the town a bit to explore, which is one of my favorite things to do on these tours. I love taking pictures of quirky things along the way. I think I mentioned this before, but the nice thing about Rick Steves tours is that if there is something you don't want to do, all you need to do is let the tour guide know so they aren't wondering where you are.
Later that day, I met up with the group in the lobby and we headed to dinner together. Even though Covid is still a factor, I really did enjoy the group dinners because it's a chance to get to know people even better and try foods you wouldn't typically eat back home.
In my next post, I will provide a recap of our final days in Nice and my trip home.
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