We are in the process of planning our trip to SW France, so far we have our flights: arriving June 11 in Paris @ 7am & Departing June 25 out of Toulouse. We plan on taking the TGV to Bordeaux renting a car and driving to Dordogne region. My thoughts are to find a central place and take day trips. There seems to be so much to see & do. We would like to see maybe one prehistoric cave, one grotto type cave, a chateaux or two, some villages a canoe trip, a cooking class, a goose farm or anything that would be fun interesting and unusual. Any suggestions on where our base should be and which cave, chateaux, village etc. not to miss and how much time should we allow for Dordogne? I am thinking about 7-8 days.We definitely want to do dordogne for the first half of our trip, the big question is what to do on our second half. We are thinking maybe the basque area for 2-3 days and maybe Carcassonne 2-3 days and definitely the last night in Toulouse. Is this itinerary to ambitious? Should we concentrate on two areas instead of three? We welcome any suggestions thanks

Before we all reinvent the wheel, do a search here for Dordogne and you'll have enough reading material for a year or two.

I would suggest you use the second half of your trip to explore Languedoc-Roussillon - another search will help you flesh that part of the trip out nicely.

The order in which you will want to do your itinerary from Bordeaux would be the Basque country and then the Dordogne to then go to Toulouse. Carcassonne is probably not worth more than a half day visit.

For your purposes, any location within the basic triangle in the Dordeogne (Sarlat, Montignac, Limeuil) would be be convenient, some locations more than others.

Chateaux to visit: Beynac, Castelnaud (which I find more interesting).

Villages: La Roque-Gageac, Domme.

Caves: Lascaux II, Rouffignac.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca/...64797649/show/

(Thanks for sharing the photos, Michael -- they're wonderful.)

Wow! Great suggestions! I am intrigued by Michael's suggestion of starting in Basque then Dordogne. How long of a drive is it to Basque from Bordeaux? I have not purchased the train tickets yet, I wonder if there is a train that goes from Paris to Basque and then rent a car? Michael, how much time would you allow for Basque and the Dordogne? Your pictures are FABULOUS!!! Thanks for sharing them and for your suggestions!

You are right StCirq, Languedoc-Roussillon is beautiful! We did the upper portion of that region last May and it was truly breath taking

You might want to Google a map of the area to decide what itinerary makes the most sense.

I'm not sure what you mean by "Basque." That's not a typical appellation for any of the Pays-Basque regions. Do you have your sights set on the Mediterranean Catalunyan areas from Perpignan/Collioure, etc., on southward to the Costa Brava, or the Atlantic coast around Biarritz and St-Jean-de-Luz and inland? Either makes a wonderful trip, but they are quite different. You can certainly take a train from Paris to, say, Biarritz. You can also go to, say, Montpellier, and work your way along the coast, or directly to Toulouse and go south and west. So if you can clarify what you mean by "Basque," it would be helpful.

I would think that Basque country is a good approximation of pays Basque.

I agree.

my apologies, I mean the Pay- Basque region, we do not have a definite area that we have our sights set on, other than the Dordogne for at least half of our time.
I appreciate your suggestions very much, thank you