Local Activities

in the Dordogne

The Dordogne region of SW France boasts a huge variety of sights and activities...

Within a 45 minute drive of here you will find:

• Sarlat - we're going to the market Wednesday morning, so you may want to save that one

• Montignac - old pretty town straddling the Vezere river - close to the stunning painted caves at Lascaux

• Grotte de Lascaux II - millimetre by millimetre copy of famous coloured cave paintings discovered by three naughty boys in the 40's

• Les Eyzies de Tayac - not particularly attractive town, but infested with literally hundreds of fantastic Troglodyte cave dwellings and show caves

• La Roque Gageac - stunning town tumbling down the cliff face overlooking the Dordogne river

• Beynac - even more stunning town and château perched on a cliff face overlooking Dordogne river valley

• La Roque St Christophe - impressive 0.5km long slot high up in the cliff face used by ancient man for their dwellings and as a stronghold against the Vikings!

• Grotte de Rouffignac - nice and un-touristy cave where Troglodyte man painted hundreds of monochrome images of mammoths.  A small train takes you deep underground past huge pits dug by long-gone hibernating bears!

• Les Jardins de Marqueyssac - lovely Italianate gardens set out on a 1km ridge overlooking several châteaux on the Dordogne.  A horse drawn carriage takes you back to the restaurant where you can enjoy an ice cream or beer looking out over to Beynac

• Domme - on the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostella, Domme once held captive several of the Knights Templar. The view from here of the Dordogne river valley is awesome, too: wide and lined with high limestone cliffs, it's dotted with a variety of impressive medieval chateaux built during the Hundred Years War when Richard the Lionheart stomped around slaughtering all the French!

Within 1hr 30mins of here...

• Rocamadour - simply stunning town and monastery perched on, and tumbling down, a huge 200m cliff on the Pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostella in Spain

• Gouffre de Padirac - awsome 75m wide/100m deep natural hole in the ground where you descend by lift, then are punted along an underground river to a series of ever more impressive caves. the journey ends in the largest, a cathedral-like cavern - breathtaking!

• Collonge la Rouge - pretty ancient town built entirely of local red sandstone

• Carennac - chocolate box pretty village on the Dordogne

And there's more...

Not forgetting to mention, of course, the myriad pretty honey-coloured stone towns, churches, chateaux and villages in the immediate vicinity...

Villages such as our very own St Genies...

A stroll around the delightful little market village of St Genies will reveal a wealth of glowing detail...

• 12th C. chapel replete with original frescos seemingly as fresh as the day they were applied

• 400 year old stone-roofed church with its fairytale turrets

• Ducks and geese enjoying the unaccustomed freedom of the little pond

Open-air market...

Every Sunday morning there is a thriving market where you can buy anything from a pair of knickers to a box of Turkish delight, freshly made doughnuts to goose neck stuffed with foie gras!