Joyce

We have taken advice posted here and requested a room at Hotel de la Madeleine. Unfortunately they were totally booked for Thursday Oct. 10....but have availability for Friday and Sat Oct. 11 and 12. Should we stay there, is there a particular room or view to request? <BR>Other questions: Will it be very hectic to stay in town on Saturday-market day? Most importantly, how do we secure reservations for Font-de-Gaume? We tried calling directly, but the message was in French. (my husband speaks a little, and really slowly!) so we were unable to get any information. We know reservations for the caves are important...anyone know an English speaking access for Font-de-Gaum and Lascaux? Any other hotels to consider in the area outside of Sarlat? We had thought we could roam the area a bit for that week without reservations, but we do not want to miss the caves, so we are now considering a more planned itinerary. We are flying into Toulouse on Monday Oct 7 and do not need to be in Paris till Oct 15th. We must decide whether to stop in Albi first for a night, or head directly North....perhaps to St. Cirq Lapopie. Once again, any ideas. <BR>Thanks for everybody's help. <BR>Joyce <BR>

Jim

Madeline was booked on one of my days too so I asked the hotel for suggestions and the one I booked is Le Renoir for 80 euros--which is a member of the Best Western chain. Apparently the rooms were refurbished in 2001, but no photo of the place is available.

Jim

Another thought. I also had e-mail correspondence with a La Hoirie—a hotel a short distance out of town. The people are lovely and the place is charming. Check http://www.lahoirie.com

Sue

Albi is a titch out of the way, but I loved it. The cathedral is beautiful and the Lautrec museum interesting.<BR><BR>Montignac is a good place to see the caves. We stayed at the Relais du Soleil d'Or--good restaurant and the casual Bistrot serves good one-plate meals (comes from the same kitchen), nice after a long day sight-seeing. You might think about staying there a couple of days before pushing on to Sarlat (or after).<BR><BR>http://digital.france.com/hotels/hoteldetails.ihtml?HotelID=3623<BR><BR>According to many sources, you really don't need cave reservations except in the peak season (June-early Sept.). Or maybe you could get a hotel person to call ahead for you early in your trip.<BR><BR>There is interesting info from an archeologist in this PDF file; you have to scroll down to the 6th page, I think, to see it.<BR><BR>www.indianpeaksarchaeology.org/ IPCAS/Calumet/2001_09.pdf <BR><BR>On Saturday, I would just plan to be in Sarlat all day and enjoy it. That way there isn't any problem with traffic or parking. La Madeleine is outside the walls, so you should be OK anyway.<BR><BR>

StCirq

La Madeleine is on the place Petite Rigaudie, at the beginning (or end, depending on which direction you're going) of "la Traverse," the street that cuts through the center of town, outside the walls. On market days, there are stalls all down la Traverse and on the place Petite Rigaudie, not directly in front of la Madeleine, but close enough that if you had a room facing the place you might be woken up early. I'd ask for a room at the rear of the hotel.<BR><BR>If you want an English-speaking guide for the caves or other prehistoric sites, you'd best reserve a ways in advance. My experience has been that except in high season most of these sites tend to have just French tours, or maybe one English tour per day. When I was there in June I had to make special reservations in order to get an English-speaking guide for a tour of Font-de-Gaume in late September.

Carol

Market day is a really delightful day to spend in Sarlat (the market is generally over by lunchtime anyway). I had a front room at La Madeleine and don't remember any noise at all.

Lexma90

When we were in the Sarlat area in late May and visited Font-de-Gaume with the English-speaking tour, we had called ahead for reservations, but others in our tour had merely made reservations the day before.<BR><BR>If you called Font-de-Gaume and nobody picked up, you may have called on the day they are closed (don't remember which day that is), and the message probably said that. I also have a vague recollection that they may close for a few hours mid-day for lunch - try calling again - the person I made the reservation with spoke English. Font-de-Gaume is incredible and well worth the effort.<BR><BR>When we were in the area, we stayed at l'Esplanade in Domme. The view was incredible, the food very good, the personnel pleasant. The drive up and down from the bastide town, however, whenever we went somewhere, wasn't very interesting. La Belle Etoile in la Roque-Gageac caught our eye, though as we didn't go in, I don't know what the rooms are like. La Roque-Gageac is a delightful little town on the Dordogne River. If you wouldn't mind a small town, La Roque-Gageac would provide easy access to pretty much the entire area (as would Sarlat, except then you'll have to go in and out of the city/town all the time).<BR><BR>For a different sort of idea, one of the less well-known castles, Chateau de Puymartin (on the road in between Sarlat and Font-de-Gaume) was one of our favorites, because of the interesting furnishings and good guide. It was a mandatory French-speaking tour, with a handout guide in English, but the guide was very helpful in making sure (with my limited French) that we understood what she was saying. Anyway, the owners still live in a portion of the Chateau, and they rent out two of the rooms. Breakfast is served each morning in one of the rooms that's part of the tour. If we'd known before we went there...