As some of you know, we went on a trip to France this summer. In the last installment, we decided to head into Sancerre before heading south to the Dordogne, where we were going to be spending the first week of our vacation. In case you missed them, here are the first few articles about the trip:

Part One       Part Deux       Part Trois       Part IV

Part Five     Part Six      Part Seven      Part Huit

After our quick stop at Henri Bourgeois, where we bought some rosé for the week (and I picked up a few bottles of white Sancerre to take back home), we drove on to Sarlat-la-Canéda in the heart of the Dordogne. The Dordogne the name of both the region and the meandering river through its mid-section, is an area with a turbulent history.  The hilltops are dotted with fortified castles and towns built right into cliffs.  The region is rather famous for its gastronomic gluttony as well: truffles, foie gras, duck breasts, and of course wine. While the region’s wine is certainly not the most famous produced in the country, they are affordable and meld very nicely with the cuisine.

I took a slew of photos during the trip, and while I do not pretend to be even an amateur photographer, France in general and the Dordogne in particular turns even the lamest of shutterbugs into ‘artistes’.  So here are the first few photos of a series that I will publish over the next few weeks.

Here is my favorite wine shop in town.  I was in there quite a bit….

Sarlat is at the epicenter of the region and is a medieval delight.  Sure, it is rather touristy, but as I have always said ‘it is touristy for a reason.’ Around every corner it seems, there is another photo to be taken and apparently, I like to take photos of narrow passages between really old buildings.

Here, I accidentally included the family….Saturday (our first full day there) is market day in Sarlat and while I typically have disdain for that type of thing since 92.7% of the vendors’ goods are directed at tourists (remember, one of my three interests is math and I calculate all kinds of things–you will just have to trust me). This means we have to stop every five feet (or 1.52 meters) to play with a new toy, gadget, or hat.

That last photo just screams “Braces!”  Which directly translates into a reduction (or elimination) of the wine budget.  There is really no complicated formula involved here–just the look on my wife’s face is needed.

Over the next couple of weeks I will try and put up more photos from the trip, unless of course you all think this is an incredible waste of your blog reading time.   If you are reading blogs like mine, though, you already have time wasting issues, so don’t blame me….