Sarlat-la-Caneda

Sarlat holds one of the highest concentrations of protected buildings in France, packed into a few hundred metres of lanes cut from the same honey-coloured limestone. Almost none of it was demolished in the nineteenth century because the town was poor and off the main routes, and in 1962 it became the test case for a new French law on conserving whole historic quarters rather than single monuments. The result reads as one piece: steep roofs of heavy lauze slabs, Renaissance windows, a twelfth-century conical tower built as a lantern for the dead, and a deconsecrated church that Jean Nouvel converted into a covered market behind giant steel doors.

What you actually see

• The lauze roofs - heavy limestone slabs, the traditional roofing of the Perigord.
• The Lanterne des Morts - a conical twelfth-century tower behind the cathedral.
• The Sainte-Marie market hall - a stripped church with steel doors by Jean Nouvel.
• Saturday market - the whole centre given over to Perigord produce.

When to go

Late spring and September are the honest windows. In July and August the lanes move at shuffling pace and the heat sits in the stone until late evening. Saturday is the best day to come and the worst day to park, so arrive before nine. Winter shuts many shops but leaves the architecture and the light.

Honest expectations

Sarlat lives entirely on visitors, and the ground floors are wall to wall foie gras, walnut and souvenir shops, which wears thin fast. Prices run higher than the surrounding villages for the same produce. Parking sits outside the centre and fills early. The town is small enough that half a day covers it unless you time the visit with the market.

Nearby

The Dordogne valley castles at Beynac and Castelnaud, the cliff village of La Roque-Gageac and the painted caves upriver.