Sept 12: Sarlat and Onward

The weather has turned from very hot to nice and cool, just like home. It has rained at times, but not badly.

We went to Sarlat in the morning, planning to spend a few hours before setting out north to get close to Nantes where we will pick up Matt tomorrow. The drive will be about 6 hours so we can't spend too much time.

We have very fond memories of Sarlat from our travels here in 2006. That was in October of that year, well after the season. Now is is just after scdhool started, so we are just at the end of the season. The town was full of people, not overun, but full. All the shops were open, which is nice, and we did a few quick turns through the old town area, or should I say ancient town. This place dates from the Roman times, and has been constantly occupied since then.

I wrote about the history of the town in 2006, and won't go into much detail here. It was a town along the path of the important pilgramage of St John de Compostela pilgrimage. Some history on this pilgrimage: It was a religious legend that one of Christ's Disciples, named John (according to this legend there were two named John), traveled in what duriong Roman times was called Gaul and Iberia (France and Spain). This is not completely far fetched, as these areas became strongholds of Christianity within a coupld of hundred years of Christ's death.

After the Crusades, or as they are now called: "The Wars of Religion", a bishop declared a period of fasting in Spain, and as a result declared the grave of St James had been revealed to him, at Compostella. Very convenient for him, as this made his fief an important one. In general, this was accepted, and Europe went into a ferver of retracing the travels of St James. Side not here, the pilgims are depicted wearing the shells of big scallops, which they uses as plateware, begging food along the way. The dish "Coquille St Jaque is the dish that legend says they ate at inns along the way (they probably called it soimething else!).

During this time, as the nobles and kings redirected their focus from Crusading to shoring up and building their domains, the region of Aquitaine was looke on as a potential area of expansion by the Castillians (a kingdom in what is now northern Spain), the Burgundians (the most important nobles of France, including the King), German nobles, and of course English, who had title to it from the marriage of King Henry and Eleanor of Aquitaine (watch the movie "The Lion in Winter"). The region was the site of continual strife.

This made the areas in Aquitaine that the Pilgrims passed through very dangerous. At the end of the Crusades, the Pope gave certain groups special authority. One of these, the Knights Hosptalier, were charged with providing protection to religious pilgrims. The were granted land, treasure and authority to do this, and were exempted from local government controls. Very lucrative and controversial.

One of the key havens of safety along the route of the pilgrams was Sarlat. Here the Knights Hospitalier ran "hotels", which are still seen here. Most interersting.

We left the area at noon, hit the road with a vengeance, planning to get as close to Nantes as we could so we could explore in the morning , before meeting Matt. We pulled off the road about 6:30, and stumbled into a Chambre d'hote with room. We expected little, as the place is situated in the midst of a giant corn field. Iowa sized. The house seemed nice enough, and a woman came out to greet us in the rain. Maryvonne gave me the thumbs up after a short conversation, so I knew we were home for the night.

As we were settling into the very nicely renovated outbuilding, the hostess invited us to the big house for an aperitif, a normal custom in France. Hours later, after meeting our hosts, a couple from Belgium and a man from Switzerland, and a glass of wine and a glass of champagne, we were very pleased we had stopped at this out of the way place.