oops, sorry.

To get into Font-de-Gaume you queue up outside starting around 8:30 am. They allow about 200 people in per day. There are no guarantees about English-language tours, either.

There is no place in the Dordogne called La Roque, though that is a prefix used for a number of different places. The boat rides you are probably referring to are in La Roque-Gageac, and it would be hard to miss them; they are gabarres, moored at the single large dock in the center of town by the parking lot. The tour takes about an hour and is very interesting, and a pretty ride. La Roque-St-Christophe is another fascinating site, but it doesn't involve boats.

Museums include the national prehistory museum (Musée National de la Préhistoire) in Les Eyzies, Le Manoir Gisson in Sarlat, the Musée du Cloître de Cadouin, the Musée Gallo-Romain in Périgueux, the medieval warfare museum in the Château de Castelnaud,and all manner of small eco-museums scattered around all over.

Wow, I had already forgotten about my beat down by the ticket taker at Gouffre de Padirac, but, yes, I did enjoy that experience (well, not the ticket taker thing) much better than FdG, but as I said, most would probably disagree with me. I guess I would have flunked Cave Art 101.

The boats are easy to find at La Roque Gageac. There is a large parking lot, and then along the river next to the lot there are two boat companies side-by-side, Gabares Norbert and Gabares Caminade. We chose Caminade because they had the next boat scheduled to leave. They both take the same route and were the same price.

Late afternoon was perfect with the sun shining on the town and cliffs, which made for some nice photos, however we were there in September...not June. Perhaps a professional photographer or a meteorologist (I'm sure we have many of those on Fodors) can tell you about the sun's movement in June.

We also enjoyed the chateaus of Beynac and Castelnaud, Chateau Josephine Baker (Château des Milandes), Jardins de Marqueyssac and La Roque Saint-Christophe. If you are in Sarlat on a Saturday, the market was fun, albeit I am still working two jobs to pay for those damned table cloths. Have a great trip!

((H))

It's been several years now since our week in the Dordogne. The memories now distilled over time, some of my favorites: La Roque St-Christophe; St-Geniès, a picture perfect village of golden stone and lauze roofs, at its best when brought to life by the Sunday morning market; the fortified church at St-Amand de Coly (look for the tiny corkscrew staircase in the stone pillar inside the church)--this took me back in time more than any other experience; the bijou of a chateau, Lacypierre, near St-Crépin.

Thanks all. Really good info. La Roque-St-Christophe is now on the 'list' along with a boat ride at La Roque Gageac, and the two towns of St Genies and St Amand de Coly look exactly like the kind of thing we are into.

If into copper cookware, look up Alain Lagorsse in Saint-Amand-de-Coly.

http://www.saint-amand-de-coly.org/e...dinandier.html

bookmarking for my upcoming trip in June.

ttt

Just to clear up some misconceptions:
Font de Gaume now allows only 80 people a day (NOT 200 as it used to) The website says that tickets go on sale at 9.30, but in fact you have to get there earlier to get a ticket for later in the day. So, if you have only 3 days, this is probably not a good use of your time.
http://www.tourisme-vezere.com/fr/ru...f11862c111868/

If you do want to see a cave, Lascaux II is really worthwhile. I know some people dont like it, but I've lived 40 minutes away for the last 20 years, and have taken a number of people there, and am still blown away by the artistry displayed by both the original artists and those who reproduced their work.

You may have gathered by now that you don't have time to do a lot of what you mention in your original question. My advice to people having a short stay here is to:
Spend one day along the river. Domme, La Roque Gageac, Beynac, gardens at Marqueyssac (take the walk along the cliff for great views, and then come back along the main promenade) This should take a whole day unless you are steaming up to the site, jumping out and then moving on. If you do have more time, Les MIlandes is also an interesting chateau to visit, with its memories of Josephine Baker. Or a ride on the river from La Roque Gageac on a gabarre, the traditional river boat.

Spend another day further west: Cadouin, with wonderful cloisters, possibly St Avit Seigneur (good restaurant next to the church) Monpazier, perhaps Biron or other bastides.

For the third day, you could go go Lascaux, St Leon sur Vezere (picnic by the river), or go east to Carennac, Autoire, Loubressac, maybe Collonges la Rouge.

(Some photos of a two day excursion with a friend. We had other days for wandering around. http://cettesemaineacarlux.blogspot....1_archive.html)

I don't think you have time to see museums unless you are particularly interested in a fairly scholarly approach to pre-history.

I am assuming you will be seeing Sarlat in the late afternoon/evening.

Rocamadour is best seen from the top, at L'Hospitalet. THe view is better than the interior of the overly touristic village. Could be done on your way south.

Depending on how much time you have, you could check out the bridge at Cahors, but I think you are starting to under-estimate the time it will take you to get from one location to another. Equally I would skip St Cirq Lapopie. Again, I think it's somewhere best seen from below but the roads around there are narrow and could take a fair amount of your travelling time.

Most importantly, allow yourself some wandering time to explore the countryside, the villages, markets, etc.

Thank you. Very helpful. It is difficult to figure out how long things take - I have had plenty of trips where I didn't get to many things on my 'list' because it just took longer than it looked like it would. But I have also had at least a few experiences where I figured a town or site would take the better part of a day and after a few hours I had seen enough. So I guess it's better to have plenty of things on the list, so long as you are not terribly bothered if you don't get to them all. Reason to go back. But given the size and close proximity of those towns along the river, you can see why one might assume they could all be visited in a few hours.

But thanks to all your input I think we've decided not to devote a day to Rocamadour and just see it from L'Hospitalet the day we leave the area, and skip St Cirq Lapopie all together. But it is interesting why places like St Cirq and Rocamadour are in all the guide books but St Genies, St Amand de Coly, Cadouin, etc. and even La Roque St-Christophe are not.

<<But it is interesting why places like St Cirq and Rocamadour are in all the guide books but St Genies, St Amand de Coly, Cadouin, etc. and even La Roque St-Christophe are not.>>

Well, Rocamadour is called "le deuxième site de France"(after Le Mont St-Michel) and is a huge religious pilgrimage site. St-Cirq-Lapopie for whatever reason is a huge tourist magnet in a fairly impressive geographic setting. St-Geniès, St-Amand-de-Coly, and Cadouin are minuscule by comparison and not exactly on the tourist routes. La Roque-St-Christophe is in every guidebook I have, so don't know about that. There was a fire there a few years ago and it closed for awhile, so maybe it was off the books for a year or so, that's all I can think of.

Don't miss the chapel in Saint-Geniès:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca/...57623164797649

bookmarking. I will be in the area in the fall, and have hired a driver. He said Font-de-Gaume is nearly impossible now, due to the restricted numbers, and is closed Saturday. It's too bad, as I've always wanted to see that one in particular.

'Don't miss the chapel in Saint-Geniès:'
Of course another day could well be St Genies, St Amand de Coly, St Crepin, and points north - possibly Hautefort.

Three days is just not long enough.

ALso, regarding what's in the guidebooks - I thought the point of coming onto a forum like this was to get advice from people that was not necesssarily in the guidebooks, rather than a list of the 'hotspots' Some places are just over-sold and over-frequented.

Saint-Geniès and Saint-Amand-de-Coly could be seen on the way to or from Lascaux II, particularly the former which is 1 km. from D704.

isabel------Fodorites were so helpful in planning our Sept.'12 Dordogne trip based in Sarlat. It's a beautiful area of France. If you have a little time, here's my TR (obviously skip over the Toulouse part and scroll down to Sarlat.)

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-and-paris.cfm

So glad the OP asked this question we're heading to the Dordogne at the beginning of May for nine days and I haven't planned anything yet so thanks for kickstarting me!

TPAYT - just read your report. Thank you so much, lots of great info in there. It's copied and in my 'file'. Lovely photos too.

Carlux - you are right - three days is not enough. But we take what we can get (and it will actually be three full plus two partial days if we want). And you are right about getting info about 'unknown' places here. I have now added several places to our list that I had not known about before I asked this question. Of course the 'problem' with that is that now I have even more things to either squeeze in or to unfortunately miss.

But my point about questioning the wisdom of skipping some sites that ARE in guidebooks is that I know some people, myself included, have on occasion skipped a really worth while site just because it is 'too touristy'. I have vowed never to do that again. That's why I'm asking.

Thanks to everyone who answered. Very helpful to me, and probably to lots of others as well.

<<we're heading to the Dordogne at the beginning of May for nine days and I haven't planned anything yet>>

THIS May?

> But it is interesting why places like St Cirq and Rocamadour are in all the guide books but St Genies, St Amand de Coly, Cadouin, etc. and even La Roque St-Christophe are not.

FYI: All of them save St. Genies are in the Rough Guide. All of them are in the Michelin Green Guide to the Dordogn Berry and Limousin.