For those of you who like to plan every day of your holiday in advance, you might want to re-think canoeing plans for next week. After 3 days of 'incessant' rain - the words of Meteo France - in the south-west, the Dordogne is very high and very brown. We've never seen so much mud in the river.

We're only on a 'yellow' flood warning now, down from 'orange', but the ground is sodden, and any more heavy rain could bring the flood risk higher. On Thursday evening they announced that this area had had the equivalent of 1 1/2 -2 months of rain in the previous two days. Then there was a big storm Thursday night, and more downpour yesterday afternoon.

Obviously it's too dangerous to have canoes out for the next few days. On Thursday even the underground river at Padirac was too high, and the site was closed. If we get some dry hot weather in the next week (not predicted) then things could get back to normal, but if you're here, or planning to be here, better to check before you go out.

(Then there's the 320 ton rock threatening to fall on La Roque Gageac, which means the road through the village is closed and you have to detour around the site.)

It's still beautiful here, but we're having a difficult time this week!

My, my, my.

Thanx for posting, C

Good thing we left before that, lol! We heard about the detour around Roque on the day we left Sarlat for St Emillion. We didn't take the north detour, but instead took the southern detour around Domme. It was not congested at all.

An update - not so much rain the last few days, but one canoe rental places says it may be several weeks before they let people out on the river.

Glad we visited when we did in May. River was perfect for canoes. Are gabarres able to go out on the river? What's the status of that 320-ton rock looming over La Roque-Gageac? We loved this town and a highlight was meeting a watercolor artist outside his studio. I bought one of his original paintings (not outrageously priced)of the house with a rounded "turret." He was wonderful and helped me practice my very limited French!

Hello everyone,
Thank you for keeping all of us posted on the situation. We are supposed to be there July 3 for 6 days.
I found this link:
http://www.vigicrues.ecologie.gouv.f...c.php?idspc=14

Does anyone know by any chance when moderate flooding happen in that area if the villages or towns are usually at risk? Or only campings because they are at a lower level?

Was thinking of alternate plans in case the weather is not better.

It really depends where your will be. Some places, but not all (or many) are right on the river, and then may be at risk. We are in Carlux, which is high above the river, and obviously not at risk.

We had lots more rain last week, but now the forecast is for lots of sun. The Dordogne, the Lot, the Vezere, are all safe now. Just don't know if you can canoe, as we haven't been down to look at the river - we were away in Paris for a week.

We chose plein air des bories, it is a camping in Carsac.
You are located in such a beautiful area. It is like a being part of a magical count. It is first time for us in the region, but I know some places in France by the rivers have floods every year. We basically take a chance. I thought it was mostly in spring and fall, but with recent floodings in the VAR department the weather seems to change a lot in general everywhere. In VAR it was important enough since there were victims.
I am living in Montreal, and today we have got an earthquake. Nothing big and it happens on rare occasions, but 5 minutes later it was on TF1 news. Very hard to judge from the outside sometimes of the real situation.

Of course the weather's wonky. We leave for the Dordogne July 19th. Every summer we go, it's cool. We skipped summer 2003 and my mother in law was very upset with us!

I hope the rock gets worked out. Our two favorite restaurants are there. Can you walk in?

Carlux: Are you anywhere near les granges-hautes B&B? We stayed there 2 years ago and loved it. The rivers were not running high at that time, nor did it rain a lot, so it is disappointing to hear that so many vacations may be less than perfect. The Dordogne is my favourite region in France.

HI muskoka. We are about 15 minutes from Les Granges Hautes, and know Beatrice and Jean Yves. It's a lovely part of the Dordogne.

This week we haven't had rain, and the weather has gone from 15 last Sunday to 30 this weekend. But even people who stayed with us in what we thought was terrible weather seem to have had a good time. (In fact, the first time we came here, we had lots of cool and rainy weather, and still decided we wanted to live here. It was only when I went back over my notes that I found it hadn't all been perfect!)

I just called one of the canoe rental agencies at Cenac, which is the most popular starting point. They assured me they were renting canoes today, and the river was going down.

So all of you who want to canoe will be happy.

In fact, in the local paper a few weeks ago they mentioned that in July/August 4,500 people pass under the bridge at Cenac EVERY DAY. That's the bridge below Domme, start of the most popular canoeing route, down to La Roque Gageac and Beynac. Even given that most canoes will have 2 people, it's a lot of canoes

christycruz -- La Plume d'Oie is still open for business; Belle Etoile is still closed. Yes, you can still park at either end of La Roque Gageac and walk in.
Canoeing -- a guest tried to rent a canoe at Castelnaud last Thursday, and they weren't letting out boats, but another concession just 2 km downstream was happy to give them a canoe.