Dordogne Itinerary - Do I Need Another Day?
 

Hi All,
From reading a lot of message boards here on Fodor's, I have heard that you can spend weeks in the Dordogne and never run out of things to do. This is my first trip there. So I just want to see some of the major attractions now, and come back at a later time.
We love to see castles (specifically medieval or fortified castles)and I am really interested in the Les Eyzies area for the prehistoric sites and caves. I am going in Mid-May, and I only have four nights (technically three since we tend to rest on the first night). Below are the things we want to do. I already checked the opening/closing times for all of these activities.
Do you think this is possible in three full days? Or, do I need to add an extra night to get this accomplished? Am I missing anything that I must see on my first trip? Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Saturday - River Day
La Roque Gageac (I'd like to take a boat trip and see the troglodyte fort)
Chateau de Beynac (Eat lunch in Beynac and see the castle and village)
Chateau de Castelnaud
Domme (See the view/Dinner in Domme)

Sunday
Chateau de Bonaguil
Lunch in Monpazier/See the Village
Chateau de Biron
*Light Day since it is an hour away

Monday - Les Eyzies
La Maison Forte Reignac
Font de Gamme
Lunch in Saint Leon Vezere
Les Eyzies Museum
Chateau de Commarque

Sorry, I also meant to add that we will be based in Sarlat. Thanks!

Saturday is probably too crowded even though the trogdolyte fort above La Roque-Gageac cannot be visited. The chateau in Beynac can only be seen with a tour guide, which means lost time to wait for the tour to start.

Monday is also too crowded. Fonbt de Gaumes problematic because of needed reservations and therefore the time reserved. Commarque is deep in the woods, hence narrow roads to get there, which means that it probably takes more time than the mileage indicates.

At 25 km from Rocamadour there is an almost-namesake to Castelnaud-la-Chappelle at Beynac, this one called Château de Castelnau-Bretenoux - see http://www.castelnau-bretenoux.fr

Yes, you need a few more days, the short list of yours isn't even the half of it.

Take heed of Michael's advice - it takes longer to get to most places than one might think.

Way too much. It won't happen.

Saturday: The troglodtye fort is not open to the public now.

Sunday: Why go all the way to Fumel to see Bonaguil when you'll be surrounded by castles right at home in the Dordogne? Biron is interesting, but hardly representative of the region. If you're in the area, Beaumont is well worth a visit (another bastide town).

Monday: It's impossible. Not sure whether you mean Le Pôle or the Musée de la Préhistoire in Les Eyzies, but either one can easily take 2-3 hours. Both of them - a full day. La Maison Forte de Reignac is a half-hour drive away on a tortuous road and will take 2 hours to visit properly.

It's Font-de-Gaume, and you are highly unlikely to get tickets, as they are now sold out pretty much through September. If you want to email me at StCirq at aol dot com I can swing by the office and talk to the owners, whom I know, and who will often manage to find me some, but it's very late to be contemplating this. I went by last week to get tickets for some Fodorites who wanted to visit in May, and if they hadn't given me a range of 5 dates I would not have been able to get them. If you don't have tickets, you'll have to show up a dawn and stand in line and hope to be among the few who are let in without advance tickets that day.

If you look at a map you'll see that a logical geographic procession would be from Les Eyzies to La Maison Forte to St-Léon, then back via the Château de Commarque to Sarlat. But there is no way you could possibly do all this in a day. St-Léon deserves at least a 1/2 hour look-see in addition to lunch, and Commarque takes at least a couple of hours, plus a 20-minute walk down to the site and the same back.

Even in May, count on time lost just getting out of and into Sarlat.

You need lots more time, even to do these things on your short list. Frankly, I'd wait to visit the Dordogne until you have at a bare minimum a week. Not worth the travel time here just to cherry-pick a very few sites.

I think you'd be happier with one more night. The problem we ran into was the afternoon closings. We are not early risers on holiday though, so if you get going early you could probably fit in more than we did.

We thought Castelnau-Bretenoux was fantastic. It's very different from Castelnaud-la-Chappelle though. So you might want to see both.

You should reserve Font de Gaume right away. Then work with the time slot you are given.

The gabarre boat takes around 1.5 hours if I remember correctly. You may have to wait a bit for it though.

The gabarre trip takes 60 minutes, shore to shore. At least the one from Beynac does. They run every half-hour.

Thanks for that St Cirq.

We did 4 nights in Sarlat a few years back in between Loire valley and Provence. But we also had 3 travelling days between Sarlat and Provence. That is a problem, that you need time to get to the area, so depending on where you're coming from and going to after, you might find you need more time all in all.

On the other hand, it was surprising how much we got to see in 3 days/4 nights in Sarlat. At least it was enough that we have been wanting to return ever since.

I don't see anything wrong with your itinerary, if you also want to drive through some scenic countryside.

Monday might be difficult - but get an early start & give it a try. If you run out of time or get tired after visiting the museum at Les Eyzies - just skip Ch Commarque (which we didn't find to be very interesting, and as Michael stated - it's a tad hard & time-consuming to find). If you can't get tickets to Font de Gaume - don't go, & perhaps visit Les Milandes instead.

Don't be resistant to driving back & forth between Castelnaud, Beynac & Roque Gageac multiple times on your journeys. Just make sure that you do it once in the morning & once in the late afternoon so you can witness different sun exposures on these Castles & villages. Beynac is best in the morning & Roque Gageac is best in the afternoon. Casatelnaud is much better in the morning (we stay in a gite close to Castelnaud).

You indicated that you are aware of all the opening & closing times for the Chateaux & museums. So if you plan properly, Sunday should be easy to accomplish. Visit Bonaguil as soon as it opens (maybe get there 10 mins before it opens to take exterior pictures), lunch at Monpazier, and then Biron after lunch (no guided tour to wait for). No guided tour required at Bonaguil either.

Stu Dudley

I did about the same.
But we had 2 weeks.

Given that you know you are going to see only a few sites and want to approach this trip as a "sampler," I think it's really your call on how much of a "taste" you want this time around.

I think you've gotten some great advice that should help you tweak your itinerary to maximize the time you have to see places while minimizing unnecessary time on the road.

Given your interest in various fortifications, I wonder if you have considered visiting St. Amand de Coly -- a fortified church. I believe it's only about a 1/2 hour drive from Saint Leon sur Vezere, and IME, it didn't take long to visit....

Enjoy!

We live just a few miles from the Château de Commarque and, unlike Stu, find it absolutely fascinating. The game room is unique among all the castles in the area, and the history of the family that has owned it for centuries, with a brief interlude, is incredibly engaging.

Wow! This is a lot of great information. Thank you all for your help.

I didn't take waiting times for guided tours into account. So I guess I need to rethink some things. I am probably going to try to add one more day so I am not rushing from site to site.

Castelnau-Bretenoux looks very interesting. But, I have limited time. So given my interests, would it be better to see Castelnau-Bretenoux and Rocamadour over Chateau Bonaguil and Chateau Biron?

Is Domme worth a visit? If I took it out, would that help with the Saturday schedule?

StCirq, I'll email you about Font de Gaumme. Since I am so late, I might have to save it for another trip. Thanks!

Domme has some of the best views over the Dordogne valley.

I agree with Michael -- the views from Domme are spectacular.

Rocamadour would eat a chunk of your time, given it's distance from Sarlat. With so very little time in the area, you might want to focus on sites in / around Sarlat. JMO....

No Lascaux?

Castelnau-Bretenoux only has guided tours, and closes for lunch. We visited it for the third time this past September. Rocamadour is quite interesting if the religious stuff does not put you off and if you can get there before 9am when the hoards arrive around 10:30. We stayed nearby in Carennac for 2 weeks this past Sept, & there is a lot of interesting stuff to do in that region - but the general countryside is not as lush & spectacular as the Dordogne near the Beynac & Roque Gageac, IMO.

If you visit Bonaguil, Biron, & Montpazier you'll drive 1 1/4 hrs to Bonaguil and then you'll work your way back to Sarlat. If you drive 1 1/2 hrs to Rocamadour and then visit Padirac, lunch, Castelnau-Bretenoux, Carennac, Martel - you will start heading away from Sarlat after Rocamadour. Doubt if you visit the Rocamadour stuff (and other sites I mentioned) in less than 1 1/2 days. I would stick to the Bonaguil plan because Montpazier is unique and you will probably have some time left in the day. We stayed near Bonaguil in Puy l'Eveque for 2 weeks in 2013.

Stu Dudley

Thanks! Then, I'll stick with Bonaguil, Biron and Monpazier and work on rearranging some of the other parts of my itinerary.

Mimar, due to my limited time, I can probably only see one cave. So I'd rather see Pech Merle over Lascaux.

Pech Merle is our favorite cave in the Dordogne region. We've visited it 3-4 times in the past 30 years and it never fails to impress us. In the same area, visit St Cirq Lapopie https://www.francetoday.com/travel/t...llages-france/ and also one of our favorite small cities in France - Figeac. Follow the Cele River to get to Figeac and admire the homes built into the cliffs and also the small villages along the way.

Stu Dudley

Stu, thanks for the article! I will try to include it on our drive from Toulouse to Sarlat if we aren't too tired after traveling.