Amanda_Lumley

Hi, My husband, myself and my 12 year old daughter are travelling to France in June / July 2016 and would love some guidance and advice.
We have spent 2 weeks in Paris before. This time we are looking at -
flying into CDG ( we are from Sydney, Australia ) and catching the train to Lyon.
3 nights in Lyon
Pick up a car - drive via the Millau Viaduct
2 nights in Cordes Sur Ciel
2 nights in Rocamadour
4 nights in Sarlat
5 nights St Cyprien
1 night Amboise
4 nights Bayeux
Return car
7 nights Paris
We have never been to the Dordogne region before, but really want to spend the majority of the time there. Are we spending to much time moving around?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

kja

"Are we spending to much time moving around?"

Entirely your call. I don't mind moving around even every night or two, if that's what best suits my interests. Others prefer a week per location. I think you will be able to see some wonderful things with this plan. JMO.

traveldawg

Just my simple opinion: You are changing hotels too much. Find a few less spots and enjoy the area. Less time on the road, less packing....better trip.

rosemaryoz

I agree with Traveldawg. Sarlat and St Cyprien are really close together - so everything you can see from Sarlat you can easily visit from St Cyprien too. And probably with less stress, as Sarlat will be very busy in early July. Is there are particular reason you've allocated two nights for Rocamadour? Many people simply make it a daytrip from the Dordogne. Once again at that time of year, Rocamadour will be teeming, so it would be best visited first thing in the morning. Maybe you could stay in Cordes sur Ciel as planned, and then visit Rocamadour on your way to your base in Sarlat or St Cyprien?

kja

"Once again at that time of year, Rocamadour will be teeming, so it would be best visited first thing in the morning. "

Or late in the day.

annhig

Hi Amanda,

I don't know how many of these sorts of trips you've done with your DD, but when our kids were that age, our most successful trips were when we rented a gite for a week or so and used that as a base; touring hols where we spend 2 or 3 nights in each place were not so good.

have you been to the Loire before? lots to see there too, and a good place to stop over for a few nights to have a look at some of the chateaux.

if you re-organised your nights, you could do a week in the Dordogne, a few days in the Loire, and then a week or so in Normandy.

Also - why 2 nights in Cordes? we stopped there once [ very long time ago, mind you] and I seem to remember that it was a devil to drive into and out of. it might be nice for an overnight or lunch-time stop over en route to Sarlat or wherever you base yourselves for your week in the Dordogne, but I'm not sure I'd want to stay longer than that.

And have you looked at a map? The viaduct is a long way off your route from Lyon to the Dordogne - how much of a priority is it? if you are really interested in Roman remains, a better route might be down the Rhone from Lyon to Orange and Avignon, then across to Millau, and up to the Dordogne that way.

that could give you this:

Day 1 - leave Lyon, drive to Orange, stay 3 nights [use to explore are, e.g. Avignon, Chateauneuf du Pape, Arles etc]
Day 4 - drive to Milau, stay overnight nearby
Day 5 - drive to Dordogne via Cordes - stay one week in gite
Day 12 - drive to loire - stay 3 nights
Day 15 - drive to Bayeaux - stay 4 nights

There are of course lots of ways that you can play around with this, depending on your interests.

Good luck!

Michael

Either Sarlat or St. Cyprien as your base (the two are 25 minutes apart) in the Périgord noir. On the other hand, you could divide your time (unevenly) between that area of the Dordogne and another--perhaps near Brantôme.

bilboburgler

We rented a gite on the Tarn (to the east of Millau) with a canoe in the garden andd plenty of hiking, swimming, eating at the local restaurants etc, it would be a good base for a fair bit of your trip and a break from the regular moves.

Amanda_Lumley

Thank you all so much for your advice.
Its is very much appreciated. Upon your advice, I think we'll do 2 villages only in the Dordogne. A week in each. Is it ridiculous to try and see the Millau Viaduct as well?

annhig

Hi Amanda - it really depends where you choose for your 2nd week.

you could follow Bilbo's suggestion to spend one week on the Tarn, in which case you could do a day trip to Milau very easily.

from there you could drive to Avignon, return your car to the station, and get the TGV to Paris.

plambers

Amanda, we too are taking our children to France for 3 weeks. We are staying in Paris, in a gite near Sarlat and then we drive to Provence for a week. I was seriously thinking of staying in the Dordogne for 2 weeks too.

If you rent a house, many have pools which night come in handy.

annhig

yes, I strongly recommend renting a place with a pool - one year not that long ago we rented a place without one in the southern Loire [thinking that wouldn't be so hot in June] and we boiled. It was even hot at night, so a refreshing dip at about midnight would have been welcome.

We did manage to swim in the local swimming pool a few times and many towns and villages in France have places along the local river or lake where you can swim too.

pariswat

Millay is an impressive piece of civil works.
I wonder if the pont du gard is not relatively close - would make you see two incredible bridges separated by 2000 years.

bilboburgler

Millau is a bridge, pont du gard is an aquaduct, but a logical comparison, PdG close to Avigon.

StCirq

I don't know what you mean by "do two villages only in the Dordogne." If you eliminate either Sarlat or St-Cyprien (and at that time of year I'd eliminate Sarlat), what's the other one? Rocamadour isn't in the Dordogne, if that's what you're thinking. And it really deserves about a half a day; there is no reason to allocate 2 nights - just get in and get out. You can use the rest of the time to visit the Gouffre de Padirac, Martel, and Collonges-la-Rouge.

Do get a house with a pool if you can. If not, almost every town has a municipal swimming pool, and there are beaches all up and down the Dordogne river.

StuDudley

I would certainly spend several days near Rocamadour. Lots to see & do in that area - Pech Merle Cave, Cele River with some cute villages & houses built into the cliffs, St Cirq Lapopie, Figeac, Rocamadour, Autoire, Loubressac, Gouffre de Padirac, Montal Chateau, Castalnau chateau, St Cere, Carennac, Martel - just to name a few spots.

If you want a gite in the Dordogne - you had better hurry. We reserved 2 gites in the Dordogne area (Carennac & Cenac) several months ago. I agree that there is no reason to stay in Sarlat & St Cyprien - they are neighboring cities.

We spent 2 weeks in 2 different gites at different ends of the Gorges du Tarn this year. One of them was almost directly under the Millau Viaduct. We really loved the Tarn Gorges area.

I developed a 20+ page itinerary for the Dordogne and another 30+ page one for the Languedoc - with lots of info about the Gorges du Tarn. If you would like these - e-mail me at [email protected] & I'll attach them to the reply e-mail. Specify which itineraries you want - I have several others.

Stu Dudley

StuDudley

My Languedoc itinerary also has info about things to do in the Cordes region. We stayed in a gite near there for 2 weeks several years ago. We visited nearby Albi this year from our gite near Carcassonne - where we stayed for 2 weeks this year.

Stu Dudley

annhig

there are lots of agencies renting ouy cottages in France, but you could start here:

http://en.gites-de-france.com

StuDudley

On the Gites de France site - be aware that if you designate the language as "English", you will only retrieve gites that have descriptions in English. Those in French will not appear - which is the majority of Gites. We have rented 65 gites from Gites de France.

Stu Dudley

annhig

good point Stu - I didn't know that.

it's a bit strange though - a few years ago in Paimpol we booked a chambre d'hôte where they spoke no english at all and I'm sure they didn't have an english description. perhaps I am misremembering.