sap

Aaack - I though I was done with most of my planning, but I couldn't get morning reservations for Font de Gaume for our trip the last week of June. They have instead given me a 1:00 p.m. time slot, with arrival at 12:30 p.m. This has thus thrown off my plans for that particular day and I need help trying to reconfigure them. (We are staying in Beynac.)

These are the things I want to see/do that particular day, if possible.

Le Bugue Market (8:30-9:30)
Musée National de la Prehistoire (10-11)
Grotte de Font de Gaume (12:30 - 2)
St-Léon-sur-Vézère (originally had planned a picnic by the river, but it may not work now)
La Roque Saint-Christophe (before or after St-Leon)
Château de Commarque (on the way back to Beynac)

My problem now w/ the 12:30/1:00 p.m. Font-de-Gaume time slot is that it does not leave me enough time to to go do much between the market and the Les-Eyzies museum (figuring I'm done with both of those by 11 a.m.), but it does possibly leave me with about 1 to 1 1/2 hrs to fill, unless traffic is so horrendous that it throws off my timing anyway.

I'll probably play this part by ear once we're there anyway, but I was thinking about tossing in a quick visit to the nearby Grotte du Grand Roc between the museum and Font-de-Gaume. However, I'm leery about adding anything else to the full plate this day. Any thoughts on these activities and the timing? I've adopted a general rule in my planning not to have more than 4 or 5 items on my "list" for any given day and this is already stretching it. Still, they are really close to each other and some of them are relatively quick stops, right? I'm just trying to get the logistics down and make a clean, realistic loop.

(P.S.: We are spending a week in the Dordogne region and this particularly day focuses only on the Vézère/Beune valleys.)

(N.B.: Le Bugue and St-Cyprien are the only markets I have planned for the Dordogne region as the Sarlat market days didn't fit our timing that week.)

Merci d'avance!

sap

More thoughts/questions: If I went to La Roque St-Christophe directly after leaving the Le Bugue market at 9:30, could I get there by 10 a.m.; continue up to St-Leon for a visit and picnic river lunch; and make it back to Font de Gaume by 12:30? Is that pushing it too much? (I would then tack the museum and Commarque to the tail end.)

kerouac

Sorry to say it, but it looks like you are an overplanner. If it pours rain all day, do you stick to the same plan or do you improvise?

sap

Ha, Kerouac. I will not argue with the fact that I am a map-loving overplanner. It's my joy in life. On the ground, it's always a matter of last-minute improv. I just like to know the lay of the land before I go. I'm heavy on the reconnoitering and like to prepare myself for a variety of battle plans. (I have a lot of German and English blood.)

I separate my trip-planning and trip-being modes. Once I'm there, my Celtic blood takes over and I just dance to the music.

uhoh_busted

I wouldn't try to schedule the entire day so tightly. If the weather is beautiful, you will want to enjoy it. One of the reasons we loved picnicing by the river at St-Leon-sur Vezere was that we'd just happened to find it (back in 2003) while looking for someplace to picnic. It is quiet and charming and very small. We went looking for it again in '06 while in the region for a longer stay, and enjoyed seeing that it hadn't changed much...nor had the fun of deciding to stop someplace on the spur of the moment. It DID look like there was a canoe rental place nearby...which might be tempting.

You will have a lovely stay, regardless of how many of your planned activities are accomplished.

StCirq

I agree - overplanned. But that aside, you're almost certainly going to want to spend more than an hour at the market in Le Bugue (assume it's the big Tuesday market - haven't checked the dates). It will take you that much time just to walk down one side of it and return by the other, plus look at the stalls in the three separate open areas, never mind stop for a café at the Café de Paris or actually buy anything or look in any of the shops. I'd assume at least an hour and a half there. Then it's about 15 minutes to get to Les Eyzies and find parking. So it's already 10:15.

Going to La Roque-St-Christophe directly after, plus a picnic in St-Léon, simply won't work. Forget that.

In Les Eyzies, in addition to the Musée Préhistoire, you can visit L'Abri Pataud, La Laugerie Basse, or across the river, La Grotte du Grand Roc, but I doubt you'll have time for a tour in any of them - just a look-see. A better idea would be to walk around Les Eyzies, check out the shops and the bookstore and the riverside walkways, have an early lunch, then walk to Font-de-Gaume for your tour.

sap

Thanks, StCirq. That's exactly the info I needed. I'll gladly pad more time to the morning at the market. I was worried that we'd finish the market early and having nothing to do in Les Eyzies before Font-de-Gaume. I had the impression that Les-Eyzies might be a rather unattractive one-horse town, so it's good to know we could find enough to do to kill an hour or so there. Any suggestions for a picnic spot there or near Font-de-Gaume with our market provisions?

StCirq

sap, Les Eyzies is definitely a one-horse town - it's just one long, long block - but it's a one-horse town you've never visited before and therefore will presumably hold some interest for you. In between the inevitable tourist shops selling tacky souvenirs are some interesting artisan shops, a couple of fabulous wine and local specialty stores, a marvelous artisan boulangerie, and a great maison de la presse.

The best place for a picnic is by the river. If you walk through the very small parking lot in the center of town down to the river, there is a path there and benches along it. You can also park yourself on the walls of the stairs leading down to that path.

Font-de-Gaume is on the way out of town toward Sarlat. I can't think of any place right there for a picnic that wouldn't be on private property.

sap

Parfait; merci.

flygirl

sap

I happened to look at one of my old posts and saw you were planning (at the time) a trip to Provence. How is that coming along? It looks like it morphed somewhat?

sap

We're still going to Provence, flygirl! The plan is one week in Paris, one week in Provence, four nights in Lot, one week in Dordogne and two nights in Toulouse before flying out. Whew! Counting down. . .