Good morning, all. We are damaged goods today here in the Dordogne: last night, we went to our first ever marché nocturne (night market). It was in a nearby village called Saint-Pardoux-la-Rivière, about 20 minutes away. It was actually more of a festival, called “La Nuit du Spardos” and was a riot! I wish I had thought to bring my camera with me, but then again, given how much we drank, odds are I would have lost it so maybe that is for the best.
I am still amazed at just how many people there were! Even in the summertime, streets tend to be quiet out here, so it was a revelation to be somewhere so bustling and vibrant. I was surprised at the scale of the thing too – street after street of the village was thronged with stalls, mainly selling food and drink, but also other arty crafty type things as well, and several bands were playing live music.
We had a scorching day yesterday, so took it easy poolside, then headed out around 7.30, Matt and I fortified by a vodka. Chris, a friend of Sharon’s from the UK, is visting at the moment, and the three of us (plus Oscar) stopped off at Richard’s place, who lives en route to St Pardoux. There, we enjoyed a few drinks out on the terrace (Ricards for Matt, Richard and I, and beers for Sharon and Chris) before finally making our slightly tipsy way to the market/festival, at around 10, just as the light was failing.
We wandered up and down the streets for a while and bumped in to 2 of Richard’s friends, Nat & Jill, a sweet couple who own a gite out here. They were old hands at the festival so were able to direct a very relived me to a loo for an overdue pee. They also steered us to a local specialty: Spardos, a drink unique to the village of St Pardoux (which is probably a good thing). A crowd was gathered around a huge vat, out of which a man was ladling a mystery drink. It was red wine-based, had highly booze-soaked pieces of apple in it, and must have had some sort of spirit in it too as it was lethal – so we all of course had several.
We were all hungry as we had been saving ourselves for the food stalls so steamed our way over to a purveyor of “Périgordine” burgers – basically, the Dordogne version of the cheeseburger. The beef was barely cooked, and it was, of course, served with the ubiquitous foie gras as a topping. Very tasty, so Matt attests. Richard is a veggie, and I still cannot bear the thought of eating foie gras, so we fared slightly less well, but both managed to get some form of stomach lining. Too little, too late, but at least we tried.
Sated, we resumed our ramble through the throng, and ended up witnesses to a true spectacle. There was a fairly large, elaborately lit, stage that had drawn a big crowd, and as we arrived, the band was, bizarrely, playing an Erasure song (if you don’t know who they are, they are an 80s English band who wrote very camp, disco-y type songs). Not an obvious choice for a guitar-based band!
The best though, was yet to come: all of a sudden, they launched into an even more improbable cover: Thriller, by Michael Jackson. I have to say, they were extremely talented, and certainly got the crowd going. Well, I know I was going nuts, anyway – but this was partly because we were all in hysterics as they reached the chorus: there is no “th” sound in French, so the lead singer was screaming out “this is triller, triller”. Perhaps the excess of Spardos was making this funnier than it should have been, but it absolutely made our night.
After that, it is all a little blurry. Sharon was our designated driver and managed to shepherd us all home safely, though I have no idea what time that was. The cats were certainly relieved to see us when we got in.
Well, that is all I can manage – I have a hangover to deal with. This is not going to be a productive day…