cova

Hi all,

we are planning a short stay during next Holy Week in Perigueux.

Iīll be driving there with my parents from Bilbao. Our idea is to leave home early on Sunday morning, maybe have lunch in Bordeaux depending on the traffic and reach Perigueux. Then we have booked three nights at the Mercure Hotel (mostly because of the good cancellation policy, just in case).
Monday and Tuesday will be free, and on Wednesday we will drive down to our place in Jaca, in the spanish Pyrenees. For this drive my dad says that probably it will be better to go via Bergerac, I donīt know.

I have had a copy of the Perigord-Quercy Hachette Guide Bleue since two years ago, and I cannot bring myself to choose a place. I think that Iīd like to visit Sarlat and Rocamadour. We are not really interested on caves, nor planning to go kayaking, but we would love to have good photo ops.

Any recommendations for our days there? We donīt mind driving at all, so we are open to suggestions.

Thanks a lot, Cova

ira

Hi C,

>We are not really interested on caves,..

You will be only 0:45 hr from Lascaux. I highly recommend it.

Is there a particular reason for choosing Perigueux over Sarlat, or other towns in the Dordogne?

ronkala

Drive over to Brantome and have lunch or dinner at Hotel Le Chabrol alongside the river. We had our anniversary dinner there several years ago and it was superb. Brantome is a relaxing small town to walk through and enjoy.

ekscrunchy

Cova..give some thought to the boat ride along the river from the town of Le Roque Gageac; the views are lovely and the ride takes about an hour.

Here is the website:

www.norbert.fr

StCirq

I'm also curious why you chose Périgueux (not that I have anything against Périgueux - it has a stellar market and some good museums - but it's so ugly getting in and out of it, the traffic's a pain, and those hideous zones commerciales really blight the landscape).

But if you must stay in Périgueux, drive to Sarlat via Montignac. Even if you're not interested in Lascaux II, it's a pretty town. Definitely try to at least swing by Domme and Beynac and La Roque-Gageac.

Tuesday is the big market in Le Bugue - you might want to visit that, then mosey around St-Cyprien and perhaps over to the south side of the Dordogne for a look at Castelnaud and Les Milandes.

Yes, driving home through Bergerac makes the most sense.

cova

Well, we thought of Perigueux because we have driven through quite a few times coming and going to Germany. Every time that we pass, we say : "one of these days we should stop here, if only to visit the cathedral".

The road is quite straight forward coming from Spain, mostly motorway up to Bordeaux, so it wonīt be very taxing for the first day.

Regarding caves ... we couldnīt manage to get mum into the Postojna caves, I seriously doubt she will go into Lascaux. She missed Altamira years and years ago ...

We would be more interested in nice walks, actually.

Iīm going to look for La Roque Gageac in my guide. And StCirq, a market sounds like a great idea. I am going to begin to print out itineraries.

Thanks, Cova

StCirq

Well, you can easily visit the cathedral in Périgueux without staying there, and if you don't have to, I wouldn't. For one thing, you have a very short amount of time in the area, and getting in and out of Périgueux is going to eat up precious time that you could be enoying the beautiful scenery and villages of the Périgord.

If you want a nice walk, go to St-Léon-sur-Vézère. Park the car in the "parking area" by the river. Cross the bridge and turn left. Walk along the river on the path (with any luck it won't be too overgrown). The path will eventually lead upwards into the cliffs. Keep going and after a mile or so you'll see an amazing door on your right. Stick your hand in the door and unlock it from the inside. Go up and explore (may have to leave mum behind for this one). It's quite a "discovery." You can also walk along the Vézère in Les Eyzies or Le Bugue or along either the Dordogne or the Vézère where they join in Limeuil.

klondike

I can second the Hotel Chabrol/Chabrol Freres Restaurant in Brantôme...excellent food, spacious and clean rooms right on the river. It is a very enjoyable, relaxing town as well with the abbey and all the waterways, the water mill etc.

La_Tour_de_Cause

I would strongly second skipping Perigueux...there are lovely cathedrals all over Europe and this one is really not all that spectacular. I did take time to visit it once, when I had to go into Perigueux for another visa renewal, and I was totally done with the cathedral in ten minutes or less.
St. Cirq, you've really piqued my interest with your description of the walk out of St-Léon-sur-Vézère. I think we'll have to run over there and check it out when we get back to the Dordogne in April. I can't wait to see what's behind the door!

Michael

If you are staying in Périgueux, I would suggest that one day be spent to visit Lascaux and Rouffignac, and the other to visit Brantôme, the chateau in Bourdeilles and St. Jean de Côle. In Périgueux, the brand-new La Vésunna museum is interesting. Before leaving on Wednesday, do your shopping at the market. I would not go to Sarlat in the limited amount of time you have. It is a lovely town, but you can get a good taste of urban Renaissance architecture in Périgueux itself.

cova

Well, Iīm back.

We ended up staying in Perigueux. I was mostly interested in the Accor group good cancellation policy. I had been suffering of a bad cold during the previous weeks, and mum wasnīt feeling so great, so we werenīt sure until the Saturday before leaving Bilbao.

Anyway, we decided to travel anyway, armed with plenty of pills and tissues. The drive up was uneventful, plenty of rain leaving Spain and sunny upon our arrival to Perigueux.

The hotel has a closed parking place, only 5 euros, so it was good.

It was difficult to find someplace to have dinner. Most of the places were closed, so we ended up at a Maitre Kanter place. Salads and omelettes for everybody.

On Monday we had coffee and croissants at a bar near the hotel and we drove towards Rocamadour. Lovely and windy weather. It was certainly spectacular, but it left me kind of cold. There was something impersonal, I donīt know how to explain it. We were luckier with our choice of restaurant, Au Panorama in Rocamadour-LīHospitalet. We had the fixed menu for only 15 euros (onion soup, chicken stew or duck confit and a very good apple tart). Quite good value.

We drove back to Sarlat, walked around and have a coffee at the square and then return to Perigueux. I wasnīt feeling great, so we had an early night.

The following day I didnīt really had strength to have nothing else than a cup of tea. My stomach wasnīt really behaving. We went to the tourist office, picked up a map and a leaflet (the girls there are quite nice) and we walked to the Vessuna roman museum. I like a lot Jean Nouvelīs work, and this museum didnīt disappoint us at all. I really loved the way it integrated the villa and the artifacts with the beton and the glass. Certainly a high-point. We spent the rest of the morning in town (cathedral, roman anfitheatre, Saint-Etienne ...) and had lunch at an italian restaurant so I could have some pasta bianca for my poor stomach.

Feeling better in the afternoon, we went to Brantome ... and the abbey was closed to visit. So we walked around, visit the church and feed the ducks.

The drive back to Jaca was via Bergerac, Agen and Pau. Sunny, not a lot of traffic and nice (I did love driving through those roads) until we reached Oloron, it began to rain and then snow. The snow didnīt stop until we reached Jaca. Great, wetter, colder and windier than the Perigord.

Thanks to everybody who contributed. I guess I donīt sound too enthusiastic, but we werenīt feeling so great, and nevertheless we enjoyed quite a few things. I liked walking in the small streets in Perigueux, loved the Vessuna museum, and really, really liked driving around.

Ah, and I have pics :

http://picasaweb.google.com/covaderegil/perigord

Thanks again,
Cova