Will be arriing in Bordeaux from Spain by train,and picking up a car at the station.I wish to travel to a town 60-100 miles from Bordeaux and spend 5 days there taking trips daily to interesting towns in the area.Then I would return to Bordeaux for 2 nights before taking the TGV to Paris.Can you recommend a town and a hotel to use as my base.Also interesting side trips.

Hmmm...Perigeux or Sarlat or Villeneuve-sur-Lot puts you in the Dordogne region. The area is a cornucopia of stuff: medieval villages, fortified castles and abbeys, walled towns, all kinds of caves, incredible food, outdoor recreation...can't help with hotels, as we rent a house. If the area sounds like a doable, you can email me for more information. And if StCirq sees this, she can add a boatload of info as well.

Stan:<BR><BR>From my perch here overlooking the Vezere valley I can heartily recommend that you get on the D936 and head straight into the Dordogne. It's 90 miles to Sarlat, the capital of the Perigord Noir, and that, or the area around it, would make a stellar base for 5 days of exploring. There are a thousand and one things to do here - visit the prehistoric caves (Lascaux II,Font-de-Gaume, Combarelles, Cap Blanc, Rouffignac, etc.); the bastide towns of Monpazier, Belves, Lalinde, Domme; Hundred Years War castles of Beynac, Castelnaud, Monfort; Josephine Baker's castle of Les Milandes; innumerable villages designated as among les plus beaux villages de France; markets galore; and all manner of smaller attractions like walnut mills, canoe and kayaking outfits, romanesque chapels, abbeys, menhirs and dolmens, artist communities, etc. No shortage of wonderful food, either, as here is truffle and foie grois land. If you're interested and can tell me when you're planning to travel and what sort of budget you're operating on, I'll be glad to suggest places to stay, restaurants, etc. Don't overlook Bordeaux itself, either. It certainly merits at least a day. And the wine country surrounding it merits a look, too, if wine interests you.

Stan,

We are thinking of driving from Paris, and spending one or two nights on the road. Sarlat sounds wonderful. Is that doable in the alloted time or is the trip down there from Paris too long?

Thanks.

lnicodemus,

It will take you 5 to 7 hours to go from Paris to Sarlat. Check out mappy.com.

It depends on the time of year for Sarlat. It is PACKED in high season and I would only do a day trip if you go at that time of year - it is enough to see all you want to see of Sarlat anyway.

If you are there in warm weather consider staying at Beynac (aka Beynac et Cazenac) about 12 km from Sarlat on the Dordogne River. I stayed at Hotel Bonnet in Beynac, which has a riverside position under the Castle and a good restaurant

http://francehotelnetwork.com/en/G9_...tel-hotel.html

Or stay in Domme, a hillside &quot;Bastide&quot; town overlooking the river but only if you can get in to the Esplanade Hotel (but if not, you must have lunch on the terrace of its great restaurant)

http://www.esplanade-perigord.com/

If you stay in Sarlat, do NOT stay in the Couleuvrine Hotel - whatever you read in the reviews - I recommended it to my boss and his wife who stayed last October only to wake at 2am to find an batallion of bed bugs marching into the bed from the padded bedhead! They collected about 30 in a jar and got a sort of shrug and an &quot;and so&quot; from reception. I am lucky still to have a job - mainly because I also recommended the Esplanade at Domme where they moved the next day and loved.

Hi Stan,

Another vote for The Hotel Bonnet in Beynac.

We stayed outside Bordeaux, and took the train to Paris from Libourne.

See my trip report for details:
http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=34676645