Sarlat-la-Canéda

Sarlat grew up around a large Benedictine abbey of Carolingian origin, recorded as early as 1081 and one of the few in the region that escaped the Vikings. In the 13th century the town expanded to around 5,000 people. When the Diocese of Sarlat was created in 1318, the abbot became its first bishop and the abbey church its cathedral, dedicated to Saint Sacerdos; the town remained a bishop's seat for centuries. During the Hundred Years' War the fortified town was protected by castles such as Beynac and Castelnaud and could send help to other towns besieged by the English, and in 1370 it was itself besieged.

Prosperous merchants, lawyers and churchmen built the stone mansions that still line its lanes, including the Renaissance house linked to Étienne de La Boétie, the humanist born in Sarlat in 1530 and remembered as Montaigne's friend. Because later history largely passed the town by, its centre survived almost unchanged, and it is seen as one of the towns most representative of 14th-century France.

By the 20th century parts of it were falling into ruin. André Malraux, France's first Minister of Cultural Affairs, gave his name to the 1962 law protecting historic districts, and Sarlat was the first town to benefit from it, with its protected sector created in 1964. Sarlat and La Canéda merged into one commune in March 1965. The historic centre, with 77 protected monuments, was placed on France's tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage status in 2002.

Sarlat is the capital of the Périgord Noir, the south-eastern part of the Dordogne, and its culture is bound up with the land around it: geese and ducks, walnuts, truffles and the markets that sell them. A bronze statue of three geese, given by the foie gras company Rougié, stands in the old town as a symbol of Périgord gastronomy, and festivals in January and March celebrate the truffle and the goose. Occitan gave the town the name Sarlat e La Canedat.

The preserved centre has made Sarlat one of the most filmed towns in France. Ridley Scott's The Duellists, Ever After, The Musketeer and Luc Besson's Joan of Arc film were all shot partly here, and the pyramid tomb of General Fournier-Sarlovèze, the duellist who inspired Scott's film, stands in the town cemetery. The town has its own film festival each November and a summer theatre festival created in 1951, with a different play every day for three weeks.

Rugby is the local sport, and CA Sarlat has played since 1903. The town is also used to visitors: many come from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, and some have settled for good. The old town is quiet and courteous in manner; shopkeepers expect a greeting, and market day is a social occasion as much as a shopping trip.

About 8,800 people lived in the commune at the 2023 census, and the wider area that looks to Sarlat for work and services has about 32,000. It is a sub-prefecture of the Dordogne, which gives it government offices and services used by the surrounding villages.

Tourism dominates the economy, with several hundred thousand visitors a year; the old town fills in summer and quietens again in winter. Food production comes close behind: large makers and many small producers raise geese and ducks for foie gras, confits and pâtés, although the Rougié company ended its activity in April 2025 with the loss of 73 jobs. Tobacco has been grown around Sarlat since 1857, though it is declining, and farms also produce maize, hay, walnuts and walnut oil, cheese, wine, cèpe mushrooms and truffles.

Most residents live outside the protected centre, in the newer streets and in the hamlets of the old La Canéda commune, and shop at supermarkets as well as the market. Regional trains run to Bordeaux, but daily life depends on the car, and the population has fallen slightly since 2017.

Périgord cooking is built on duck and goose. Foie gras, the fattened liver, is the town's best-known product, celebrated at the Fest'oie in early March, and the same birds give confit de canard (duck confit) and pâtés. Pommes de terre sarladaises, named after the town, are potatoes fried in duck or goose fat and finished with persillade, and they are served across south-west France.

The black Périgord truffle is the prize of the winter. From mid-November to the end of February Sarlat holds a wholesale truffle market for growers and professionals, and on Saturday mornings a controlled market sells fresh, brushed truffles to the public; the January truffle festival brings demonstrations by well-known chefs. Walnuts, walnut oil and cèpe mushrooms in autumn complete the local larder.

The market on the Place de la Liberté is the centre of food life, with foie gras, truffles, figs and walnuts on sale, and the old Sainte-Marie church now serves as a covered market. Shops all over the old town sell tins and jars of foie gras and confit, the usual souvenir of a visit.