chrisyyc

We'll be driving one day in July from Chenonceaux in the Loire Valley to La Roque Gageac in Dordogne, which is about 4.5 hours drive on A20/E9 according to Google maps.
More important localities along the route seem to be: Levroux, Argenton-sur-Creuse, La Souterraine, Limoges, Uzerche, Brive-la-Gaillarde. I know almost nothing about these places. We could make it a full day trip, if it's worth stopping along the way, or drive straight to Dordogne, check in early at the hotel, and spend the full afternoon/evening in the village.
Are there any interesting places to see/things to do on this route, other than in Loire Valley and Dordogne? Anything that we shouldn't miss? Our main interests are wineries and quaint, beautiful villages, but any suggestions will be considered. And of course we would stop for a quick lunch anyway, but where?
Many thanks and happy travels!

StCirq

Ugh. Horrible, boring drive. Do you have to do it? If you do, forget Google Maps and use www.viamichelin.com. None of the places you mentioned is worth a stop. Poitiers and Oradour-sur-Glane are well worth it - the others, not. But really, either grit your teeth and get it over with (you'll have no time for quaint, beautiful villages, and none of the places you've mentioned qualifies as such) or take a very relaxing train ride to Brive and then pick up a new car rental.

chrisyyc

Yes, it has to be by car. So, I could take the other route through Poitiers and Oradour. Interesting, I will check that. It appears to be only 1 hour longer, plus stops. Thanks, St.Cirq!

Any other ideas?

StCirq

Look, I've been doing this for 20+ years, several times a year, so no, no other ideas. I stopped driving from Paris to the Dordogne about 1 year into the time I bought a house in the Dordogne 20+ years ago because it was just so painful. Maybe it won't be for you because it's a new experience. I would rather do an eye-rinse with jalapeño peppers than make that drive again, unless I had a few days and plenty of time to wander on the N and D roads to all the magical places off the highways.

Do recognize you are dealing with a very jaded French traveler who no longer has patience for much highway travel in France and who absolutely thrives on tooling around on the myriad gorgeous back roads.

It'll be fine. Just do it and get it over with and enjoy the Dordogne once you get there.

chrisyyc

LOL, sorry I brought back such painful memories, St Cirq. Thanks for the advice, we'll go to Poitiers.

kja

The good news is that Poitiers has some interesting sites. Try to make time to see the magnificent Romanesque Église Notre-Dame-la-Grande -- awesome! And you might be to stop at St. Savin, with its 11th- and 12th-century murals, after leaving Poitiers. (I did, and was glad I did!)
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/230

Enjoy!

chrisyyc

Wow, I just realized that Oradour-sur-Glane is the town destroyed by the Nazis and not rebuilt after the war. I read about it some years ago. Now this is a must stop for my trip! I'm glad I asked this question here! St Cirq, do you think we will have time to visit both Poitiers and Oradour if we leave Chenonceaux at 8-9 am and get to Roque Gageac at 7 or 8 pm? Obviously we won't have time to visit many sites in Poitiers, maybe just walk around a little bit, see the cathedral and Saint Jean (the oldest church in France).
How many hours would we need in Oradour?

Thanks a lot!

jamikins

It wont take hours to see Oradour-sur-Glane. The site is very moving and quite small. I would say an hour or so would be about right to walk around the site and visit the info centre.

I am not sure you will want to try to squeeze Poitiers in as well. It is a fairly decent sized town and you will need to find parking etc. Along with that long drive you may just want to get to the Dordogne.

Here are our pictures of the area:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pug_gi...7637219549903/

The Oradour-sur-Glane and Poitiers pictures are labelled.

Enjoy your trip!

annhig

i too was going to suggest Poitiers, not just because of the historical sites, but also the Futuroscope, which might [actually would be] of interest if you are travelling with children. In that case an over-night there would be best to enable you to enjoy the whole experience at your leisure.

We did this with our kids a few years ago and they loved it .

Cathinjoetown

We do the drive 3-4 times a year to take the ferry to the UK from Caen. Used to barrel straight through but now for the sake of sanity stop overnight in Amboise, not far from Chenonceaux.

The backroads to pick up the autoroute north of Limoges aren't particularly interesting but typical of work-a-day agricultural France. That part takes about 60-90 minutes depending on the number of farm machines on the road!

Yes, the autoroute is a mind-numbing drive, relieved this past spring by beautiful wildflowers but otherwise grim and usually fairly heavy traffic.

Poitiers does have an interesting old town, add 2-3 hours to get in, see a bit, have lunch.

Between Limoges and Brive and elsewhere you will see many exit signs with the name of the nearest village, the term "village étape" and a knife and fork symbol. This is an effort to drive business to the villages. Between noon and 2:00 pm you can get a good meal, certainly better than the inedible "food" at the autoroute pit stops.

StCirq

I'm not sure you'd have time to do justice to both Poitiers and Oradour-sur-Glane, though it's true Oradour is small and you can probably "do" it in an hour or so (though I can easily spend just that much time alone in the museum). Poitiers would make a good rest stop, anyway, though, so even if you didn't get to see all that's there, it would be a good place to stretch your legs and have a cup of coffee.

tomboy

There's an interesting museum of the WW2 French resistance in Brive la garde, if that's of interest. We spent 1-1/4 hour there.

StCirq

And roughly in the same neighborhood, is Tulle, where another atrocity occurred. Even if you don't get there to visit, you might be interested to read about it.