My husband, 14-year-old daughter and I will be in Dordogne for 7 nights in late June 2007. Our plan is to choose a concentrated area and hike on the French trail system (Grande Randonnée). This is our first trip to the Dordogne and we’ve settled on the area radiating from Sarlat. A little background may be helpful. We love to walk (yes, even my 14 year old daughter is a great hiker) and wanted to do something adventurous and more physically active on this trip rather than drive around the region. We really don’t want to sign on with a tour company for this adventure. We will spend 7 nights in Paris after Dordogne.

Here are my questions: 1. Is it practical to think we could hike from village to village and get different accommodations every night? We would do this without a car and carry our belonging in our backpacks (yes, we would have to pack very light). We want to be able to hike to, and stay in (or near), Sarlat, Domme, Beynac, Roque-Gageac and other pretty villages in this small geographic area. or… 2. Does it make more sense to choose a home base for the week and do day hikes, perhaps radiating from a different village everyday? In this scenario we would have a car and drive to a different trailhead each day. This option would only work if there were a spider of trails, paths, lanes, etc. around these villages. We would also need looped routes since it is no fun to hike both directions on the same route. In either scenario we are hoping to hike about three to four hours each day.

If option number 2 makes more sense, what town would make the best home base? It would make sense for us to stay in a Gite or other type of place where we can sometimes cook our own meals. I know there are detailed IGN trail maps available for this area but I haven’t yet purchased one. I’m sure I could get a sense of the best option by checking the distances on these maps, however, I’m an obsessed Fodorite and thought I’d first see if there were opinions from the collected knowledge out there.

Thanks so much for your help, I anxiously await your replies.
-C

I can only provide a little help. My husband and I are big hikers at home, but on vacation, seem to almost-always choose other activities (including walking around historic sites) over "just" hiking.

However, in the Dordogne 2 years ago, we did take a walk that went up and around the village of La Roque-Gageac. It was short, only an 1 1/2 or so, and nice, but not as scenic as expected - we were in the trees the entire time. The walk was signposted in the parking lot next to the river.

One unusual resource that you might try is an interesting book I recently read, "A Castle in the Backyard: A Dream of a House in France," by Betsy Draine and Michael Hinden. They are professors at a university in Wisconsin, and have a house in Castelnaud. As the book relates, Betsy is a big walker, and did a lot of walking/hiking in that area (something, the book makes it sound, that most French do not do). Start with the book; maybe you can contact Betsy.

Personally, I would hate to take time from visiting chateaux and prehistoric sites/sights to hike or walk, but every trip, I'm tempted to do something more active, so I understand the impulse! For right now, I feed that impulse by running most mornings on vacation - I see great scenary that I tend not to see or notice other times, get ideas for places to visit, and am out before the tourists. Hope your walking/hiking provides the same!

Another piece of advice, prior to buying maps. Use the pedestrian feature on Mappy.com to give you a rough idea of distances between towns. Though I'm not sure how Mappy.com would handle, for example, the winding road up to the bastide town of Domme, high above the river - you would think there would be a more direct walking path up.

Thanks for your reply. You raise a good point about the "hike" itself (which may not be the most beautiful part of Dordogne), perhaps overshadowing everything else the region has to offer. Maybe we should getting hiking out of our system during our upcoming trip to the US southwest!

Thanks for the tip about the book "A Castle in the Backyard: A Dream of a House in France". I just looked it up on Amazon; it looks great. Mappy is also a good suggestion.

Does anyone else have suggestions for improving (or bagging) our plan?
-C

C, we usually go to the English lake district at the end of June and walk (hike) every day. Last June we went to the Dordogne at the beginning of June and didn't walk at all. It was way too hot. We did canoe down the Dordogne and I strongly recommend that. You can find photos and description in my trip report: http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34839073

If the weather is more condusive for walking next June, there is a collection of local walks availble in the Sarlat tourist office. Many of them are centered around Carlux but there are some walks you can take right from Sarlat too.

Everything is so close in the Dordogne that I think you would be better to stay put, rent a gite perhaps, and drive to different areas to explore and walk every day.

There is so much to see and do that you might want to walk less and take full advantage of all the caves and chateaux and beautiful villages. In one week you will hardly make a dent.

Thanks moolyn; I've read your fabulous trip report - it was so helpful for a first time visitor. I will check out the walking maps at the tourist office in Sarlat. I think you're right; a central home base would be best. I'm sure we'll be doing plenty of walking anyway. The key now will be to find a self-catering accommodation. We'd like to stay in a village because we like to walk around at night when all the tourists have gone home. Would Sarlat be a good home base? Any suggestions for accommodations?

Thanks, helpful Fodorites,

As a resident, and walker, in the Perigord, I think you should definitely have a home base from which to operate.

Several things to consider: at the end of June it will very likely be hot. The friends with whom I walk usually stop in early to mid-June because we find it too uncomfortable. I'm sure there are more adventurous walkers than we are, but still it may not be the best time. In addition, you will be in tourist season by then, and don’t want to have to walk to find accommodation.

Several years ago we welcomed two cyclists to one of our houses in the area. They had cycled from Paris, hadn’t booked ahead, and found that it was a real hassle to get to a town and find that there was nothing available - or nothing that they liked. It's hard enough going from hotel to hotel/town to town with a car, but on a bicycle - or on foot, not something to recommend.

As Moolyn mentioned, there are maps of hiking trails available from the Sarlat tourist office. (Some will be on IGN maps, others not necessarily so. IF you can get a copy of the IGN map 'Sarlat/Souillac/Vallee de la Dordogne' it shows some walking trails in Red.) The trails are broken down into Grandes Randonnees, marked with red signs along the walk, and Petites Randonnees, marked in yellow. With many you can choose either a 2 or a 4-hour walk, depending how adventurous you feel. And yes, most of them are looped, so that you don’t have to re-hike the same route on the way back.

It's too bad that the other poster found a walk that wasn’t too scenic, as most of them are. It's still a joy to me to be climbing up the side of a hill with the Dordogne on one side, a chateau on the top, and beautiful scenery everywhere. (Try the walk from Ste Mondane past the Chateau de Fenelon)

However, I do think you will want to see things that won't be on the walks, and it would be a shame to miss the chateaux, caves, markets, and churches in this lovely area.

And finally - a week is not enough. We say that to all our visitors, and haven’t yet had one disagree.

Dear C,

"Is it practical to think we could hike from village to village and get different accommodations every night? We would do this without a car and carry our belonging in our backpacks"

I did exactly that some years ago, without a car. The walk encompassed the Vezère and the Dordogne Valley

My four-day itinerary was the following :

- Train from Paris to Les Eyzies through Bordeaux and Périgueux, overnight near Les Eyzies, in the Vézère Valley,

Day one : walk from near Les Eyzies south to Saint-Cyprien, in the Dordogne valley, overnight near Saint-Cyprien, by the Dordogne river,

Day two : walk from near Saint-Cyprien to Domme, crossing the Dordogne, with stopovers at the Château des Milandes and at Beynac, overnight in Domme,

Full day in Domme (in my opinion the most authentic and interesting village), including a canoe ride on the Dordogne down to La Roque Gageac and further.

Day four : walk from Domme to Sarlat, crossing again the Dordogne near the Château de Monfort, overnight in Sarlat

Bus from Sarlat to Souillac, the Lot (very scenic ride along the river)

Train back to Paris from Souillac

Possible improvements to this route :

- From Les Eyzies, walking down the Vezère valley to the confluence with the Dordogne river at Limeuil, then up the Dordogne valley, instead of walking directly south to Saint-Cyprien (very remote stretch of woodland/farmland),

Instead of shorcutting the Dordogne meanders as we did, walk through La Roque Gageac (but the place is hardly quiet in high season).

This walk was mostly on narrow country roads and unpaved lanes, sometimes through woddland.

You nead a good map (the IGN ones indicating the smallest lanes). We stayed in gîtes in each of the locations.

I hope it helps.

Hello C,

We were in the Dordogne in July this summer and we had a home base just outside Sarlat. From there we rode our bikes to all the beautiful towns you've mentioned.

The roads are very narrow and yet we found the drivers to be very hospitable making a lot of room for us on the road. I’m sure this would be what you’d find as a hiker as well. That said, (and this is just a guess) I believe that you’d be hiking on the roads for quite a while – eg. into Roque Gageac – and while the scenery is beautiful, it’s not a “hike” like you might expect if you regularly hike in the US.

We’ve found that as avid “hikers” in the US/Canada the idea of hiking is much different in Europe. Generally, what we’ve found is that hiking in Europe involves day packs, hiking to a different B&B each day or just day outings. We tried to do a similar trip in Scotland and found that we were the only ones with backpacking packs.

Thanks to everyone for your responses. I think we are "sold" on a home base given the time of year. We like to bike too so that may be an option along with canoeing. I think if we mix it up a bit we'll see more of the region.

Carlux, thanks for the specifics about the IGN map. I have to admit, I hadn't ordered one yet because I found it difficult to narrow the search to the correct map. Thanks to you I've ordered it and will have a much better picture of the routes.

If anyone has tips on accommodations (self catering) near Sarlat we would be grateful.

Thanks- C