Less than 5 weeks to go, and I'm starting to hit that anxiety panic of wanting to organize my days minute by minute...but I TRY to remember that the trip is supposed to be fun!

We arrive late on a Saturday afternoon, and we're staying at Les Granges Hautes, which is about 8 or 9 km north of Sarlat.
We will have 3 1/2 days in the area (4 nights) and now I'd love feedback on my planning ideas.

Sat/July 17 arrive late afternoon @ B&B. Enjoy B&B & grounds. Leave evening free to explore or not.
Sunday/July 18
-Spend AM in Sarlat.
-Drive to Lascaux for 3 pm English tour, maybe stopping first @ La Roque St. Christophe.
-After tour-- maybe stop in Amand St. Coly.
--any suggestions for any other place to include in this area?
Monday/July 19
-11AM English tour @ Font de Gaume.
-Beynac
-Castelnaud
-La Roque Gageac
-Domme
Tuesday/July 20th
I'm a little confused about which direction to go, but I'm considering the area around Belves & Monpazier. Is this a good area to explore after the other 2 days? Or should I go further east? I don't want to turn the trip into a tiring, driving day, turning it into seeing every single town, but I'd like to have a good "taste" of the area. Since we are going in high tourist time, I think we're better off not hitting any of those major tourist sites on the last full day.

So if any of you-- especially St. Cirq, of course!- can offer feedback/suggestions, I'd really appreciate it.

By the way, Ger, have LOVED your report, and have printed it out to get the flavor of these places as I plan my trip.

Ger's report was wonderful and St Cirq will be of help to you. She knows the roads well because she has a house there. Keep topping til she sees this thread.

topping for progol

Thanks,Cigalechanta! St. Cirq, are you around? I'd love to get some suggestions from you!
Paule

Sounds like a good plan to me, except that you're not going to any markets, which are kind of a hallmark of the Dordogne. Instead of wandering around Sarlat on that first Sunday morning, which might be kind of dead, I'd go to the market in St-Cyprien. It's on the way to La Roque St-Christophe.

Do you mean St-Léon-sur-Vézère instead of St-Amand-de-Coly? The former is on the road to Lascaux from La Roque-St-Christophe. The latter is off to the east of Montignac a bit - not, IMO, a must-see, but I guess as long as you're there you could enjoy a brief stop. I would definitely stop at St-Léon-sur-Vézère, for the chapel alone, though maybe I'm more struck by these pilgrimage sites than others.

Definitely go to Belvès, and Monpazier especially - have lunch at La Bastide there if you can. Include the abbey at Cadouin in that day's wanderings.

Enjoy!

Good suggestion, St. Cirq! That's exactly the kind of help I was hoping for. The markets are a wonderful idea, something fun and a little different. from visiting the sites (wonderful though they might be).
Thanks again!

Definately agree with St. Cirq re St-Leon; I loved it and the church is divine! I was also very glad I followed her excellent advice re Monpazier and Caduoin. I regret not wandering through a market, but there was a small one in Domme on the Friday.

I am not sure I would consider La Roque-St-Christophe a "must see", unless you have kids. I don't have any alternate recommendations (St. Cirq?), but I would definately have prefered the prehistoric museum.

regards ... Ger

I like La Roque St-Christophe a lot because it isn't JUST prehistoric but shows how various peoples at various times used the spot as dwellings and a town - and the idea of an entire town, built into that huge expanse of limestone hanging over the river is a bit exciting to me. I also love the story I learned there about the bishops of Périgueux: whenever they feared an invasion, they would blow horns into a certain rockface outside the city, and within 9 minutes, towns all along the Vézère as far as Les Eyzies would have been alerted - because of those square holes all along the cliffs (and especially evident at La RSC) where clans who lived in these rock dwellings had inserted wooden beams to hold the thatch they put on the roofs of their "houses."
Wow...serious digression there. Sorry. Actually, I would consider Font-de-Gaume to be a "must-see" on a short visit, even though Lascaux II still gives me goosebumps.
Problem is, the whole area is a must-see.

We will be passing through La Roque St.-Christophe, so depending upon our timing, we will or won't stop to explore. I do like the idea of going to the market at St. Cyprien, and how much time we spend there will certainly determine how much time we have to explore additional sites. Will definitely stop in St.-Leon, too.

I do have the reservations for Lascaux (Sunday) and Font de Gaume (Monday), so at least I know I'll be seeing some of the best sites.

Ger, I decided on Belves and Monpazier after reading your description, so both you and St. Cirq are my guides to this region.

St. Cirq, I don't mind those digressions; they make the rocks more interesting. RSC does sound worth a stop.

Paule

If you are getting on the Interenet in Sarlat, here's another sugestion: stop by the cemetary church about 1 km above Montferrand which is between Cadouin and Montpazier. The remaining frescoes are worth a visit.

Hi pro,

>Monday/July 19
-11AM English tour @ Font de Gaume.
-Beynac
-Castelnaud
-La Roque Gageac
-Domme
...............
I don't want to turn the trip into a tiring, driving day, .....<

Uhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......

>Monday/July 19
-11AM English tour @ Font de Gaume.
-Beynac
-Castelnaud
-La Roque Gageac
-Domme

Hmmmmm ...

Far be it for me to comment on doing too much in one day, as I always DO, but I agree with Ira. Think of it in terms of overloading the senses! A very wise poster told me that my eyes were bigger than my stomach . It is do-able though.

The tour of Font du Gaume will take an hour, so you could be on the road again by about 1230 and then you will be ready for lunch. I found the Font Du Gaume experience so overwhelming that I needed some time to digest it and come back to earth. A long lunch would be a good idea.

I suggest you get onto Viamichelin.com and chart your route so you know the minimum driving times on the routes. Minimum time visting for each of these sites would be an hour. Domme is very close to Sarlat, so can you fit that in on another day or have dinner there that evening in L'Esplanade?

Ira: When are you going to share your plans with us?

regards Ger