Market Day in Sarlat Loire to the S. France Tour

I can't speak directly to your question, regarding setting off from a pre-arranged tour, but I have done most of the things you want to do. I was based right in Beynac. I spent one full day going Beynac - Sarlat for the market - canoe trip down the Dordogne from Carsac to Beynac; and another full day going Beynac - Lascaux - Roque St Christophe - Prehistoric Museum at Les Eyzies - Beynac. I think it would be too much to do all of this in one free day.

I was on this tour in May. My wife and I aren't much of market people and we wandered for about an hour. It is quite large with food vendors down one street and clothing/stuff vendors down another. I spoke to our guide a couple of days into the tour about visiting Lascaux and she arranged for 6 of us to get a ride with a local cab company. About noon on market day we were picked up and taken to Lascaux. The driver bought our tickets for us for the english tour and picked us up a few hours later. Cost was about 20 Euros each. Well worth it, I loved Lascaux much more than Rouffignac which will be part of your tour.

*Depending on your guide, you may be assigned 'homework' for market day in Sarlat. Our guide was Virginie More and over the first 7 or so days before reaching Sarlat she had been giving basic french lessons and then assigned us homework to go to the market and try using your french to buy supplies for a picnic we had the next day. A lot of the vendors speak english so we kind of cheated, but some didn't and those lessons came in handy.

I recently posted a 5 part trip report if you're interested. Here's a link to part 1 if you think it might be useful. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tours/rs-loire-valley-to-the-south-of-france-part-1

I missed the 2nd part of your question with my answer above. There isn't time to visit the Fortress after canoeing. We were taken to the top of Beynac and walked by the fortress and down through Beynac to the bottom where the bus picked us up again. The canoe trip is optional and I'd say only half did it, the other half took a river tour on a larger boat. You end in Beynac so I'm not sure if you would be able to skip both and make your way to Beynac, but the guides are very accommodating and so if you ask in advance they may be able to make arrangements for you. Beynac is beautiful in itself and worth a visit. In hindsight, I would much rather have spent a few hours in Beynac than canoeing. Here's my thoughts in part 3 of my trip report. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tours/rs-loire-valley-to-the-south-of-france-part-3

Thanks Allan! I will take a look!

I notice you have already posted on my part 3 a week ago. Hopefully it was useful. I hope you love the tour as much as we did.

Yes Allan. I knew I'd seen it somewhere. Thanks!

We did this RS tour a few years ago. We loved Sarlat and our ‘day off’ from touring! We spent a few hours walking around the market, bought supplies for a picnic the next day, had lunch, and took lots of photos. Our guide arranged for a get-together at 5 pm for those who wanted to play petanque (like bocce ball). Most of our tour members showed up and we had drinks and snacks. So glad we didn’t make arrangements to spend the day elsewhere. Great tour, hope you enjoy it!

I suppose it varies by the guide and perhaps time of year since days are longer mid-summer. I went on the tour a few years ago and we did the canoe trip right after lunch, then visited the fortress. Our guide had the bus take us to the top, got tickets for all who wanted to enter, and then we met the bus at the bottom. From the timestamps on my pictures we had around 2 hours between dropoff and pickup around 6pm

I really enjoyed the tour, but there are a few dead days and you have a good idea to plan something the Sarlat market day. It is a great market but even walking slowly and looking at everything (look, don't touch!) I still had most of the day to kill.

Another day to make afternoon plans for is the very first full day of the tour (edit: referring to Monday). All the Loire tours start with Sunday meetup and dinner, probably so they end up in Sarlat on market day. The problem is many smaller French towns are dead on Monday and Chartres is no exception. You'll do the Cathedral tour Monday morning and then it's on your own, but most of the shops and restaurants in town will be closed. If I was doing it again I'd look up in advance train schedules to nearby cities such as Le Mans, or perhaps the bus schedule to Orleans and plan a daytrip

I did a day-trip to Sarlat on a very rainy Wednesday (secondary market day) this summer. If you're interested in seeing the entire historic area as well as poking around the market stalls, you can occupy yourself for many, many hours. With a leisurely lunch, it could be just about a whole day. But that assumes you want to walk all the historic streets, which is what I always do.

Thanks again all for the ideas and options. Bill-we won't have to worry about Sunday the tour starts as we will be driving from Mont St Michel. I was hoping during our free time on Monday after the cathedral tour in Chartres that we could do the stained glass center, but maybe there are better options for the afternoon?

^^^ yes, I was referring to Monday in my comments about Chartres. Not Sunday. the Cathedral tour is great, especially if you get Malcolm Miller, but the stained glass museum isn't enough IMHO to fill the rest of the day. Our guide actually arranged for the group to visit the museum and we got a demo, but that still leaves a lot of hours w/o much to do.

Thanks for the head's up Bill. I will do a little more research and see what we might want to do.

after the cathedral tour in Chartres that we could do the stained
glass center,

Our tour included a visit to the stained glass centre right after lunch. I found it quite interesting.

Allan, did you have a lot of time after before dinner time?