ekscrunchy

I am hoping one of the resident Dordogne experts can enlighten me. We are planning to rent a house in Domme next fall. (after much consultation and help from Fodor posters). The owner of the house recommended a train from Paris to Gourdon as the route that will take us nearest to Domme. She did not seem positive about this, however. I am curious that I have never read any mention of this station in all the posting about access to the Dordogne region. Would this be a good train destination with rental car access? The trip is a long way away but we are beginning to plan our time before and after the week at the house so I wanted to have an idea of the route. Thanks so much!

Amart

http://bahn.hafas.de/bin/query.exe/en is an excellent site to look for train times and routes (europrail.net has a map).

We took the train from Paris to Brive and used the services of http://allophilippetaxi.monsite.wanadoo.fr to drive us around. There appeared to be rental car stations in Brive. Also, Limoges is a large enough city for rentals. The Valley is not so large that you can go to just about any town and get easily to Domme (try to get a room overlooking the river valley) .

StuDudley

Gourdon is not that large of a city - I would be surprised if they had rental cars there.

Stu Dudley

ira

Hi ek,

Amazingly enough, there is direct train service between Paris Austerlitz and Gourdon. (4:30 - 5 h)

However, neither www.autoeurope.com nor www.novarentacar.com have offices in Gourdon or Domme.

I think that you would be better off taking the train to Perigueux or Sarlat-la-Caneda (both 5 hr) and getting the car there.

ekscrunchy

Thanks to all. Sarlat (or Brive) sounds like a better option for me. Just out of curiosity, are Gourdon and Brive on the same train line as Sarlat? It seems that Brive is a more popular train destination than Sarlat for this area. Any reason why? I am trying to get to the location that will entail the easiest drive to Domme since I may have to pick up a car by myself and the thought of driving alone here makes me nervous, although I realize that this is silly and I will get over it. I suppose I could take a taxi from either Brive or Sarlat to Domme but this sounds like it might be very costly. Once we get to the rental house there will be several willing drivers. I suppose this shows up my obsesive planning: The trip is not until next October!

StCirq

Even if there is a direct train to Gourdon, it's not a very good option for getting to Domme. I don't know if it's on the same line as Brive or not. It's probably on the line that goes through Sarlat, and with some exceptions that's a really slow piddly train that takes forever.

Your best bet is to get a PREM fare from Paris (or even the airport if you're heading straight to the Dordogne) to Bordeaux, then take the local train to Périgueux. Or check to see if there are PREM fares to Brive (since I never take that route, I odn't know).

The reason you probably haven't heard Gourdon mentioned in the Dordogne threads is that it's not in the Dordogne. It's a lovely little town, though.

StuDudley

The drive from Sarlat to Domme is a breeze. There is actually an Europcar office on a round-about directly on the road out of Sarlat that you take to get to Domme. We've passed the office dozens of times, but I've never seen a parking lot where they store cars, so the selection may be small. Contact AutoEurope to verify the availability. The train station is at the edge of town, perhaps not within walking distance from the Europcar office.

We've stayed at a house just outside of Domme on 3 occasions, covering 7 weeks. If you plan to arrive at night, I would not try to drive & navigate by yourself from Brive, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Perigueux, or any other place far away.

Stu Dudley