Dordogne day trips by boat - options?
 

I have learned that the traditional boats (gabares) operate out of La Roque Gageac, Beynac and Bergerac with roughly one hour trips in their area. Anyone have any experience with these? Are there others, with perhaps somewhat longer durations? Thanks.

I've done them all. They are fun and very informative. And each one is different because of its location on the river. We did the one in Bergerac two weeks ago for the first time, and it was very different from the ones in the Périgord and fascinating. No, there are no other options with longer durations. The river is so shallow in most places, particularly this summer, which has been the driest since 1959, that the boats can't go far without going aground. But there have never been longer trips on the rivers.

We were on one two years ago, out of La Rock Gag etc. Very pleasant hour.
I don't know that you'd WANT longer. After all, most water looks the same after 20 minutes. Wooded shoreline the same. Our trip was sufficient time to imagine what it was like to pre-historic folks 30,000 years ago, and how pleasant it was to travel on a mostly undeveloped river.

Most of the narrative on the gabarres has little to do with the water or the wooded shoreline. It has to do with the wine trade originating in Bordeaux in the 17th century, the Hundred Years War and the British and French castles on the north and south sides of the river, the flora and fauna, the old railroad lines that cross the river that are now defunct but that used to bring commerce to the area and enrich its economy, the ownership of private castles on the riversides, the ornithology enclaves on the small islands in the rivers, the pisciculture efforts in the past 15 years to revive the caviar industry in the Dordogne and clean up the rivers so that they thrive with local fish and are swimmable again, and much more. I have never been on a gabarre ride that made more than passing mention of prehistoric times. You must have been on Gabarre 101, tomboy. It's a Roque-Gageac, btw.

I saw the "La Bataille de Castillion" show in the area a few years back when I visited Bordeaux. If it is on when you are there, it is something I would not miss. The local people put it on with a cast of thousands. If you don't speak French, there is a one of those English translation booklets. It's all about the Hundred Years War.

I blogged it here:

http://altecockertravels.weebly.com/...ance-2013.html

The photos are here:

http://altecockertravels.weebly.com/...castillon.html

Given that it is now the end of August, there are probably no more more performances this year, but it might be worthwhile booking it if you you are going to be in the Bordeaux/Dordogne area in the future.

It is held in July and August. No more performances this year. We saw it 2 weeks ago. It is a cast of 500, not thousands. The local société that supports it had to cancel performances last year due to lack of funds. It was still spectactular this year. There is no guarantee that it will continue. Contact the Tourist Office in Castillon for further information.

Excuse me for saying "cast of thousands" when it was only 500--and thank you to StCirq to correcting the numbers even if it would not matter to most people.

This is the link to the "La Bataile de Castillon" site for 2016:

http://www.batailledecastillon.com/

No doubt they will use the same website for future years.

The site says that there are only 400 people in the cast, not 500--just to be accurate since it seems to be an issue.