wj1

My head is aching from trying to put together our itinerary for the Dordogne. I thought that I would list all of the things we want to do as well as my feeble attempt to put together a daily itinerary. My concern is that I’m trying to jam too much into each day, particularly because my husband and I are the King and Queen of Dawdlers (although “slowtravelers” sounds so much better). Yes, we can move quickly if we want to, but most often we don’t want to. We just like to watch and slowly absorb what is around us.

So here’s our wish list:

Canoe trip from Cenac to Beynac
Domme
La Roque Gageac
Ch. Castelnaud
Beynac
Ch. Milandes (including the falcon show)
Sarlat market
Font de Gaume
Lascaux II
St. Cirque Lapopie
Peche Merle
Martel (including lunch at the walnut mill)
Padirac

Here’s what I’ve come up with (our trip will be in mid-September):

Wed:
Arrive Toulouse at 6:45pm. Stay in Toulouse.

Thurs:
Pick up rental car
Albi
Cordes
Figeac
Padirac
Rocamadour
Stay at Domaine de la Rhue. Need to arrive by 7 pm.
(Stu came up with this as a possible itinerary on another thread. If we get a late start with the rental car, what should we leave out?)

Fri:
Ch. Castelnau
Carennac
Martel (lunch at walnut mill)
La Cave
Stay in Sarlat. Need to arrive by 6 pm.

Sat:
Sarlat Market
Jardins de Eyrignac
Lascaux II

Sun:
Domme
La Roque Gageac
Ch. Castelnaud
Beynac

Mon:
St. Cyprien
Font de Gaume
La Roque St. Christophe

Tues:
St. Cirque Lapopie
Peche Merle

Wed:
Drive to Brive to drop off rental car and take train to Paris.

As you can see, my itinerary doesn’t work. It leaves out the canoe trip and a visit to Chateau Milandes which are two things we really want to do. Do you have any suggestions as to how to arrange this? Any particular driving routes? Should we delete the visit to St. Cirque Lapopie and Peche Merle? Is there anything else we should remove from our list or add to it? I’m really having a tough time planning this because I have no idea how long things will take. In addition, I have taken to heart Stu Dudley’s admonitions about things closing down for at least two hours mid-day. If it weren’t for the fact that so many of you have had such wonderful trips to the Dordogne, I would think it couldn’t be done. Please help.

StCirq

I'm confused. You're arriving in Toulouse, then heading north to the Périgord, then at the end of the trip heading south again to St-Cirq-Lapopie and Peche-Merle and then back to Brive?

Also, Thursday looks downright impossible to me, and I'm used to racing around the Dordogne (and I know where I'm going!).

The simplest solution I can see is to eliminate that Tuesday you've got planned for St-Cirq-Lapopie and Peche-Merle and divide your Thursday plans up into two days. Stay two days at La Domaine de la Rhue (good choice), and switch your Friday and Saturday plans around so you don't miss the Sarlat market.

Also, to get a bit picky, have you inadvertently listed the Ch. Castelnaud twice (or is there another château called Castelnau I'm not remembering)? If it's Castelnaud, it doesn't belong on the same day as Martel and Carennac. And personally, in a kind of whirwind trip like this I'd pick Collonges-la-Rouge over Carrenac, which is pretty to drive or walk through but won't take more than a half-hour at most.

Unless you're a big fan of gardens, I'd eliminate the Jardins d'Eyrignac. You could then fit in that canoe trip.

And since Lascaux II is just an extension of your trip from St-Cyprien to Font-de-Gaume and La Roque St-Christophe, I'd add it to that day instead of going out of your way to get there and back. Besides, you're not going to St-Cyprien on market day, so you'll probably be done with it in 10 minutes as it's just one long block of a street with typical shops on it.

I guess that leaves you with enough food for thought for the moment...

StuDudley

When I suggested the Thurs itinerary on another thread, I assumed that you could get an early start from Toulouse, get out of Albi by noon, a quick stop (< 1 hr) in Cordes (could be skipped of you're not there by 12:30), and then get to Figeac by 2:30 or so. If you leave Figeac by 4:00, you should get to Padirac by 5, which is in time for one of their last tours of the day (closes at 6, last tour probably around 5:30). If you finish with Padirac around 6, then you should get to Rocamadour by 6:30 - which is a perfect time to get there, IMO. Next morning tour Rocamadour some more & get out by 10:30 when the day-trippers start to arrive. If you leave at 10:30, you will get to Castelnau-Bretenoux by 11, which is in time for one of their morning tours (last tour at 11:30)

Now - if you say you are a dawdler & always late to things, you're not going to make this schedule, most likely. Skip Padirac & do it first thing on Friday, but that might jepordize a morning visit to Castelnau-Bretenoux.

St Cyprien isn't anything special - I would skip it & visit Ch Milendes instead - but I think the falcon shows are in the afternoon.

I would swap Fond du Gaume & Lascaux - the former might seem a little "pale" after Lascaux.

Stu Dudley

Carlux

There are in fact two Chateaux Castelnau(d). I know, because the first time we went to the Dordogne, I read my husband the description of one as we walked around the other.

I wouldn't bother with Castelnau de Bretenoux. At most drive around it, or have a quick walk around the outside. We didn't find much to see inside.

On the other hand, we love Carennac and if we are in the area always have a walk around.Do you know Ann Barry's book At Home in France? Living here ourselves, we don't appreciate Peter Mayle and the like, but this book is wonderful.

I have to admit too that having lived here for 13 years I have never been to Chateau des Milandes, much as I like and admire Josephine Baker. I don't think it would be a big problem if you missed it, but then we have seen falcon shows in other parts of the world.

Agree that there's not much point in going to St. Cyprien if you don't go for the Sunday market.

What you haven't mentioned is St Leon Sur Vezere, a charming village in a lovely setting with probably the most beautiful Romanesque church in the area, if not in France. Good place for a picnic if you're so inclined.

Finally, I can't see how you can do Albi, Cordes, Figeac, etc. all in one day, no matter how early you get up.

Carlux

You might find this site interesting - lists the number of visitors to the Perigord, and the top 12 sites by number of visitors.http://tinyurl.com/2dzq6r

ira

Hi wj,

Have you looked up routes and driving times at www.viamichelin.com and www.mappy.com?

mr_go

I don't have much in the way of specific recommendations to add to the sage counsel you have already received here, except to note that you have included quite a bit on your list for a self-professed dawdler!

Don't get a headache over this. I feel confident you will enjoy the heck out of the region, regardless of how many items on your wish-list you can check off.

We were first-timers to the area last year, and much of our itinerary overlaps yours. If you wish to read our trip report, you'll find it here:
http://www.onelittleworld.com/france_1.html

And for crying out loud, don't dare skip the canoe trip!

Enjoy your trip.

StuDudley

We enjoyed Castelnau-Brentoux much more than Carlux did - in fact, we've visited twice. It gets two stars in the Michelin guide, which is the same rating as the Beynac, Hautefort, and Castelnaud. There are no 3 star chateaux in the region.

Milandes is in a lovely setting - you'll take several photos of the chateau from the parking lot. The interior is mostly a museum for Josephine Baker, but it's decorated quite nicely.

Stu Dudley

Michael

If going to Lascaux II, you might cconsider Rouffignac as an alternative to Font de Gaume. It's a different type of cave with very impressive monochrome drawings about 1 km. inside the cave--you take an electric train to get there.

StCirq

Aha! Castelnau de Bretenoux, NOW I get it! We enjoyed it all right, but I wouldn't put it on a first timer's itinerary.

As for the château des Milandes, it really is a pretty setting, though Josephine's décor doesn't do much for me.

And to echo mr go's advice, don't overplan your trip. The Dordogne is the last place on earth you want to be on a rigid schedule.

Leely

I'll go with Stu on this one, and say we very much liked Castelnau Bretenoux and I would return. We also really enjoyed Chateau des Milandes. Seeing it won't take much time, and it's very easy to reach if you're staying near Sarlat/Beynac.

The trick, I think, is to space out your chateau visits so you can appreciate the distinctions. Anyway, to each her own. I'm not a shopper and find market-going dull, dull , dull. We all have different ideas of fun.

Enjoy your trip! I'm a Duchess of Dawdling and missed quite a bit but still had a fantastic time. You really can't go wrong in this area.

wj1

Hi everyone. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. And apologies for the confusion about Castelnau-Brentoux but at least I'm keeping you on your toes, St. Cirq!

Our internet at home will be down for a few days (thank you earthlink) but I have printed this thread and will look at it at home and will probably come back to you all with a revised plan. But I'll add a couple of things here. When I say we dawdle, it doesn't mean that we're late. Frankly, we're very prompt. What I meant is that we don't want to get up every morning on our vacation at 6 am and cram in as many sites as possible until we crash in the evening. We like to stroll and, if we feel like it, explore a side street or something that's not on the itinerary. Which leads to me my final point. The purpose of an itinerary for us is to have some sort of reasonable schedule that will allow us to understand what we may miss if we dawdle too much in one place, take a detour somewhere else, meet new people, or explore some new discovery not on the itinerary. So for those of you were worrying that I was preparing for a Boot Camp in the Dordogne Tour, that is most definitely not the case. I realize that it may have sounded like that and appreciate your concern.

Thanks again everyone for all your help. I have read all of your trip reports as well as all of the advice you've given others about the Dordogne on this Board. You are all amazing. Thanks so much.

progol

<I would swap Fond du Gaume & Lascaux - the former might seem a little "pale" after Lascaux.>

I felt differently. My husband and I had seen LascauxII first, and then Font de Gaume (though different days) and I'm glad of that order. Lascaux is impressive for the imagery, but both my husband and I felt Font de Gaume a greater depth of feeling knowing that it was the actual cave, not a reproduction.

And, in a way, Lascaux was a great introduction to the region, because it is so well done - but the tours are more crowded and there are more people around the site waiting for tours, so my experience of it was of less emotional depth.

But Font de Gaume - now that was special. We met a small group, right outside the entrance, and it is the real deal. And knowing that this is the actual painting did make a difference to the both of us. And the tour is smaller, without the hordes of tourists waiting to enter, and it's just quiet enough to really experience this cave. For us, it was a richer experience, even if the images are not as "crystal clear".
Paule

StCirq

I agree with progol. Lascaux gives me goosebumps. Font-de-Gaume makes me cry.

Mariarosa

Hi! We did 7 days in Dordogne and covered, more or less, many of the sites you have on your list. The main change that I would make to your itinerary is giving you 2 nights (Thursday and Friday nights) in the general Rocamadour area (Domaine de la Rhue). We're *not* slow travelers and we spend the night in Albi, so that the ONLY thing we had to do on the morning of departure from Albi was the Toulouse-Lautrec museum. That day, we visited the Toulouse-Lautrec museum and gardens, visited Cordes, visited Figeac, and drove to Rocamadour for overnight. There's no way you can do all of Albi and Padirac on that day as well.

Also, we enjoyed the visit to the colorful Castelnau-Bretonoux. We did that first day after leaving Rocamadour and we slept in Sarlat that night. Only thing is that Castelnau does not start selling tickets until 10 AM, and the first tour is at 10:30 AM. It is almost one hour long. So, you're leaving Castelnau at 11:30. If you want to make it to Martel by lunchtime, you really have to hustle through Carennac, which would be a shame as it is absolutely delightful. I don't know what is the latest you can make lunch reservations for Martel - but, realistically, you're not getting there before 2 PM. If you're set on lunch on Martel, you may just have to skip the Castelnau tour. Instead, you can visit Loubressac.

Here are some suggestions:
Weds:
Arrive TLS in evening.

Thurs:
Albi
Cordes (quick stop < 1 hour)
Figeac
overnight in Rocamadour

Fri:
Visit Rocamadour
Pech Merle
Padirac
Overnight in Rocamadour

Sat:
Loubressac (or Castlenau-Bretonoux)
Carennac
lunch in Martel
Sarlat market
overnight in Sarlat.
Note: I would skip LaCave and arrive in Sarlat in mid-afternoon. The non-produce market in Sarlat runs until 6 PM.

Sun:
St Cyprien (market - no other reason to stop here otherwise)
Font de Gaume
La Roque St Cristophe

Monday:
Domme
La Roque Gageac
Ch. Castelnaud
Beynac
Canoe in the afternoon
(this day is very relaxing)

Tuesday:
Lascaux (AM)
Chateau Milandes (1 PM)
Jardins d'Eyrignac (4 PM for about 1 - 1.5 hours).

Weds - Drop car off at Brive.

HTH!

jjmcg

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