My 4 Day Dordogne Itinerary
 

We are going to be in the Dordogne in May. We have already booked our hotel in Sarlat and will have 4 full days there. I am trying to figure out the plans for each day, so as to maximize our time there. We are flying into Bordeaux on Sunday afternoon, renting a car and driving to Sarlat. Then on Friday we are taking the train from Brive to Paris for 3 nights. Here is my tentative itinerary for the Dordogne. I would love some comments and opinions from the Dordogne experts on this board. This is all very tentative depending on the suggestions and amendments you recommend.

Monday
Domme
La Roque Gageac
Chateau Beynac
Boat ride Beynac to Castelnaud (How do we get back to our car in Beynac??)
St. Cyprien

Tuesday
Roque Christophe
Font de Gaume
Lunch at Centennaire?
Les Eyzies and prehistory museum
Grotte de Rouffignac

Wednesday
Sarlat market
Lascaux
Any other additions to this day?

Thursday
Rocamadour
Carennac
Padirac
La Cave
Can I fit a visit to the Walnut Mill on this day....would I be able to do lunch there and still visit the other sights in the correct order?

Friday morning
Train to Paris

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!!

I am certainly not a Dordogne expert but I have spent about 12 days in the region over two trips. I think your plan sounds good. As far as the boat, we took a boat from Le Roque Gageac; it makes a round trip and you leave your car in the lot in that town. then you can drive the short distance to Beynac.

Tuesday...make sure Centennaire is open on that day for lunch.

Wednesday, no further additions, but perhaps add a drive from Lascaux along the Vezere, stopping at a couple of the lovely villages hugging the banks on both sides. La Roque could also fit in here...we viewed it only from the road and it was pretty spectacular even then.

Thusday might be a little packed...can you get up early? Maybe eliminate one stop....?? Pay a visit to Martel en route to the walnut oil mill.....

Hi, glsebs:

Generally speaking a good itinerary, but I think you want to reorder some things a bit so you're not backtracking.

For example, La Roque St-Christophe and Rouffignac would be better seen on the same day as Lascaux, since they are all west/northwest of Sarlat. So, I'd reorder like this:

Tuesday
Roque St-Christophe
Lascaux
Rouffignac
(lunch at St-Léon-sur-Vézère? A stop by the Village Troglodytique de la Madeleine?)

Wednesday
Sarlat market
St-Cyprien
Les Eyzies
Font de Gaume

What boat are you thinking of taking that drops you at Castelnaud? I've never heard of that. The only boats I know out of Beynac besides canoes and kayaks are the garbures, which are hour-long narrated rides that take you down to about Castelnaud and back again.

The walnut mill at Ste-Nathalène is just outside of Sarlat. I'm sure you could fit it in at the beginning or end of just about any day, but no, I wouldn't try to do it on that last day, which is pretty packed already.

Wednesday

Oh, I thought you meant the walnut oil mill outside Martel where you can have lunch.

In fact you're looking for a gabarre at Beynac - garbure is a type of soup/stew, depending on where you have it!

As far as I know there is no boat from Beynac to Castelnaud - it would have to go upstream, which none of them do, and the two chateaux are almost opposite one another, so there wouldn't be any point.

If you don't do the gabarre you could do a canoe trip from Cenac/Domme to Beynac, with the canoe company picking you up to take you back. But you might not have time to do it with such a full itinerary.

It's also worth remembering that you cant do it all in 4 days - or even a week, or more. I always feel people should leave themselves some time just to wander - we often have some of the nicest experiences when we get lost.

Thank you all for your suggestions.
I will make the amendments to my Tuesday and Wednesday schedule...thank you St. Cirq.
I did mean the walnut mill near Martel for lunch....if we don't have time to do that on Thursday, we could always go to the other mill near Sarlat and skip lunch. But can we fit the walnut mill near Martel and lunch there into today?
I was a little confused about the boat trip....I think I would like the one hour boat ride on the garbures. Would we have time to see Castlenaud or is it just the boat ride back and forth?
Otherwise, we could opt for the boat trip from La Roque Gageac....how long is that ride?
Again thank you to all who give such great advice on this forum!

Oh good grief, what a stupid mistake! Thanks, Carlux, for pointing that out. Now I must go make a garbure :)

Regarding the walnut mill near Martel, I haven't been to that one, but Martel is a nice town. As is Collonges-la-Rouge, though a bit touristy in high season.

But as mentioned, you can't see it all in 4 days, or really even make a dent in it, and it's definitely a part of the world where just wandering around never fails to yield wonderful surprises.

There are no reservations for Rouffignac, but I believe that you can make them for Lascaux. So it might be better to see Rouffignac first thing in the morning rather than find out that there is a long waiting period because of the crowds, and make a reservation for Lascaux in the afternoon.

On the other hand, I forgot that you were doing this in May. Crowds will probably not be a problem.

Hi G,

For the Gabarres see www.cc-perigord-noir.fr/gb/sites.htm

We very much liked the 1-hr Norbert ride from La Roque Gageac to Beynac and back.

((I))

Glsebs:

Here isi my trip report from last fall which includes a week in a rental house in the Dordogne (Domme).

You will find details about the boat trip and the website for a company (Norbert) offering tours.

www.norbert.fr

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34894706

Gabarre, garbure, I'll take one of each please.