whoops that should say:
We will return to Paris via Brive either late on day 8 or early on day 9.

Hi M,

Your plan looks good.

You might want to overnight in Carcassone.

You might find parts of my trip report helpful.

http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=34676645

Photos at http://tinyurl.com/sjch4

Enjoy your visit.

((I))

Mimmel, you'll love the Dordogne!

Robjame is in the Dordogne now and if you ask on his "Safe inthe Dordogne" thread he'll probably be able to tell you what caves are still open in November.

My Dordogne report should answer some of your questions:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34839073

"Drive to Padirac & see cave"

We were there in September and it was closed due to a strike, they thought it would be closed for the rest of the season. Have your hotel call before you venture out there. We went to Lacave instead and it was fabulous.

Your plan seems to be shaping up well Mimmel.

Padric is open until the end of October 9-12pm and 2-5pm.

Rocamadour is not far from Padric so if you plan is visit it would be my suggestion to do it while in the Lot.

I might suggest going to Padric and that area of the lot first and then seeing St Cirq and Peche Merle on your way to the Dordogne. That way your not back and forth so much.

Grotte du Peche Merle is open daily until November 4th from 930am-12pm and 130-5pm. You can reserve in advance at: [email protected]

I had two bed and breakfast to recommend but they are both closed during the winter. You may want to consider a hotel instead. We fell in love with the town of La Roque Gageac and it would be a very central location for what you want to see. La Belle Etoile in Le Roque has a good restaurant. The Logis de France website might be helpful for you.

www.logisdefrance.com
Belle Etoile http://www.logis-de-france.fr/uk/recherch/index-ca.htm

This website might be helpful as well.
http://www.cc-perigord-noir.fr/gb/presentation.htm

Hotel l'Esplanade in Domme gets high marks but the restaurant is quite pricey. Some people very much like the town of Domme and the views are striking. I personally didn't bond with the town on any level.

Sarlat may be a good choice for off season but would not be as convenient in my opinion to the sites that you plan to visit.

The Garbares operate until the first Sunday in November.

The museum in Les Eyzies is open except Tuesday 930am-Noon and 2-530pm.

Font de Gaume is opened 930am to Noon and 2-530pm in October and in November 10am to Noon and 2-5pm. Email reservation to: [email protected]

Lascaux II is open daily except Monday 1030am-1230pm and 2-6pm. You can buy tickets at the tourist office in Montiginac.

Le Roque St Christophe is open year round. October 10-630pm and November 11-5pm

I believe Castelnaud and Beynac are both open daily from 10-6pm in Oct/Nov.

St Cyprien market is Sundays.

I would add that extra day on to your trip if you can.

Hope this info helps...if you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.

Good luck with your planning. You'll love the area I'm sure.

Thank you Ira, Moolyn, Susanna & CRAZY.
I am sad to hear about the srtike & have emailed them .I hope it can be resolved in the next few weeks. The good news is that they are open through Toussaint, which I think is 11/4. It's also the date of the last Gabare ride.
Moolyn, I couldn't find Robjame's thread on Safe in the Dordogne. Could you give me more direction?

Ira, would you suggest staying in Carcssonne because it's too much for one day or becasue there's more to see there than the fort? Unfortunately, Hotel Montmorency is closed when we're there.

CRAZY, I don't quite get your sugestion to see "Padric and that area of the lot first and then seeing St Cirq and Peche Merle on your way to the Dordogne." We will be coming from Carcassonne. Won't se come to St Cirq 1st, with padric being further north? We'll ba leaving from Briev & won't re retracing our steps. Please clarify this for me.

Also would you all suggest seeing 4 of the caves, all in 1 trip. Does it get to be too much of a good thing??

Sorry for all the typos. I managed to hit "post" when I was aiming for something else.

I'm not Ira or CRAZY, but we've vacationed in the Dordogne and Lot for over 12 weeks recently.

>>Ira, would you suggest staying in Carcssonne because it's too much for one day or becasue there's more to see there than the fort? Unfortunately, Hotel Montmorency is closed when we're there.<<

IMO, Carcassonne is a 3 hr visit max. Many people like overnighting there to avoid the summer crowds. I've visited Carcassonne twice, but never stayed overnight. There are a lot of tacky souvenir shops there, but they are closed in the evening & morning and you can appreciate the architecture (which some people have problems with) better without postcard stands everywhere. I don't imagine that Carcassonne will be crowded enough in late Oct/early Nov to make much of what I've said matter. I would plan an itinerary and then stay overnight at a spot that you'll get to around 4PM or so.

>>CRAZY, I don't quite get your sugestion to see "Padric and that area of the lot first and then seeing St Cirq and Peche Merle on your way to the Dordogne." We will be coming from Carcassonne. Won't se come to St Cirq 1st, with padric being further north? We'll ba leaving from Briev & won't re retracing our steps. Please clarify this for me.<<

I think you can do a little more on on Day 1. If you land at 8:00 you should get out of the airport by 9:30 and get to Carcassonne by 10:30 (I am just guessing on driving times - check with viamichelin). Take the guided tour of the fort & you should be finished by 11:30. Wander around Carcassonne, have lunch there, then head out after lunch - 2:00 or so. Around Albi, visit a few of my favorite Bastide towns - Lisle sur Tarn and especially Castelnau de Montemiral. Then stay overnight in Albi. However, if you land in Albi on a Sunday, most shops will be closed on Monday morning. You shuld be able to take the well market walking tour of Albi and also visit the Church, Toulouse Lautrec, and chateau grounds on day 1 - or a little on day 2 if you didn't see everything on day 1.

Day 2 head north & visit Cordes if you like and a drive through the lovely Gorge de l'Aveyron - stopping at a few of the medieval villages. Catch the freeway at Caussade and head north to St Cirq Lapopie. You should not need reservations for Peche Merle, so visit it on day 2 or day 3 - depending on when you arrive in the area.

Day 3 Visit Roccamadour early in the am (if you visited Peche Merle on day 2) and try to get to Padirac before they close for lunch. Check closing times (assume last tickets will be sold 30 mins before closing time), and viamichelin for driving times. We did this itinerary in '05 - getting to Padirac for the last tour of the morning. Perhaps have lunch at Autoire or Loubressac (visit both - don't remember which has better lunch options). Then go up to the Dordogne and follow it west - stopping in Carennac & Martel. If you want to indulge yourself & stay at a chateau, try the one near La Cave at the Ch de la Treyne. If you have time, take the tour of the Lacave Cave.

Day 4 On to the heart of the Dordogne. If some sites are closed (Padaric) you may be able to make it to the Sarlat area on day 3.


>>Also would you all suggest seeing 4 of the caves, all in 1 trip. Does it get to be too much of a good thing??<<

At a minimum, I would visit Peche Merle and Lascaux. If you visit Fond du Gaume after Peche Merle, you may be a little disappointed - I don't think the cave drawings are as interesting as Peche Merle. If you want "authentic", however, visit Fond du Gaume.

Which fourth cave are you considering??

Do you have my 20+ page itinerary for the Dordogne and my 35+ page one for the Languedoc. Much of what I've suggested above is detailed more in the itineraries. I've "handed out" my various itineraries to well over 500 people on the Fodors & aol travel forums. e-mail me at [email protected] if you want a copy.

Stu Dudley

Much as I love Martel, I think Collonges-la-Rouge would be of more interest to first-time visitors to the area, and it's easy to fit into that day trip to Rocamadour.

Hi Mimmel...my suggestion comes from your plan that you list in a prior post as follows:

Day 1: Orly to Toulouse arrive at 8:05. Pick up rental & drive to Carcassone. See the fort & town. Drive to Albi. Stay the night.

Day 2: See Musee de Toulouse Latrec & church. Drive to Cordes-sur-Ciel. Short stop (? how long). Drive to St-Cirq-Lapopie .See the some of the town & stay the night.

Day 3: See Pech Merle in morning. Drive to Padirac & see cave. Stay the night in the area or drive to Carennac.


You mention in your plan first driving from Carcasonne to Albi staying for the night....then Cordes for a stop...and from there going to St Cirq...then you mention going to Padric or Carennac which are almost 1.5 to 2 hours north east of St Cirq la Popie.

The drive back from Carennac to the Dordogne is almost two hours. I thought it might save you some time if you went north to Padric and Rocamadour...then headed west back to the Dordogne. Everything seems close together but the roads are small and traffic can make the drive longer than it appears. I thought it might save you some time.

I enjoyed my visit to Carcasonne but I would not go that far out of my way to visit it. The Lot has many authentic town that far outshine it...again just my opinion but you are heading a couple of hours out of your way to see it. If you feel that it is a must, I would stay there overnight as most of its charm comes from seeing the walls all lit up at night.

I recommend the Best Western le Donjon les Remparts as a possible hotel there.

Sorry about my prior recommendation. I see that we were coming from a completely different direction on our trip. We started out in Toulouse and went to St. Cirq first....onto Pech Merle...Figeac...and North East to the area around Carennac. We then proceeded to the Dordogne.

Coming from the direction of Carcassone and Albi it would be a different approach and I'm off on my sense of direction. I guess a bit of zig zagging is involved regardless.

Sorry about that....

I agree with St Cirq about Collonges la Rouge - except in the suggestion I made, I would swap out Loubressac & Autiore instead of Martel. Collonges is quite unique in southern France because of the color of the red stone buildings (Meyssac just east has the same "color").

Stu Dudley

bookmarking

We stayed in Loubressac and thought the villages in that area were very charming...Carennac, Autoire, Padric, Rocamadour all very close by.

We did the Saturday market in Martel and thought it was ok but the town although charming did not hold great interest for me. The St Cyprien market knocked my socks off...it was wonderful and much more extensive than I expected.

I don't think you'd be sorry if you allocated more time to this region. It's less touristy (except Rocamadour) and has endless charm. I didn't make it to Collonges la Rouge but it's on my list for the next time.

CRAZY
I've had many people tell me that they were not "wowed" by towns/villages that I really like - and many of them visited the towns on market day - like you did. I've stated many times on this forum that markets can have a tendency to divert your attention away from the lovely architecture of the towns. Sarlat is a prime example. St Cyprien isn't that neat of a village, so the market does not get in the way there.

Stu Dudley

Martel, the "town of seven towers," is really only interesting if you know its history. It's not on the face of it any more attractive than many other similar nearby towns.

St-Cyprien is also rather ordinary except on Sunday when the market is held. It's a great, great market!

I agree about swapping out Loubressac and Autoire, Stu.

And it's Padirac, not Padric....sorry, just bugging me to read it misspelled so many times, and correct spelling might help the OP.

I think that's very true Stu..we went back to Sarlat in the evening and were able to admire the architechure without the stalls or umbrellas. After dark it was very nice to stroll the streets by gas light. I felt I was transported back in time.

I guess I was expecting more from the Martel Market being a Saturday...much smaller than I expected.

I expect that since you've had a chance to spend so much time in the area that you've been able to return to the same spot several times and experience it in a different light. I do plan to return to the region and give it more attention. That's if Rick Steve's doesn't spoil the somewhat low profile the area enjoys:)

Sorry about the spelling error..sometimes I feel like giving up on the board when people get so picky about such things.

I gave the poster opening and operation times for just about every attraction she wants to visit as well as some email addresses to reserve. But I guess in the end the spelling error cancels that out.

CRAZY - if spelling errors cancel out content - I would have everything I've ever posted cancellel.

Stu Dudley