Somewhere to stay near Dordogne
 

Hi all,

We will be visiting the dordogne region (coming from Paris after spending 6 nights there) and spending 1 week in a rental near Domme in may next year. As the rental we have chosen only do saturday-to-saturday weekly rentals, we are left with three free nights between Paris and the dordogne.

May 8 - May 10 - Somewhere

May 11- 18 - rental near Domme

May 18 - drive to Perpignan, drop off car at station and train to Barcelona (the car has to be dropped off on this date)

We are hoping that someone might be able to suggest a place to stay near dordogne for the 3 nights in question (may 8 - may10). As we are already planning to spend six nights in Paris in what will be our second trip to the city (we spent a week there on our first visit), we are reluctant to spend more time there.

Before we had to adjust our travel plan due to the sat-sat rental, we planned to spend the extra three nights after the dordogne touring the area on the way to Perpignan, especially Carcasonne. But now we have resigned to the fact that we might only be able to see it from a distance on our drive to Perpignan.

We have came up with two options:

1. Train to Toulouse from Paris, pick up car and tour the region around Toulouse (e.g. Albi, Carcasonne) before heading north to our rental near Domme - not sure if this is worthwhile as we are essentially doubling up our tracks as we will have to go through the same region on the way to Perpignan. So my question is whether this region is really worthwhile or should we skip it for somewhere else?

2. Train to either Brive or Libourne from paris, pick up car and spend three nights in the northern part of Dordogne (I have found a B&B in a town west of Perigeaux called St. Aquilin) http://www.lamaisondesdimes.com/

We thought that it might be a good idea to tour a less frequented area of dordogne. We can do trips to Perigeaux, Brantome, St Pierre de cole etc.) We have read that one week is not enough for exploring the dordogne, so it might be a good idea to squeeze in an extra three nights somewhere. Has anyone been to Perigord vert and what are your recommendations?

I am leaning towards option 2 but looking forward to your feedbacks. Feel free to make other suggestions!

Last question, we will be picking up our car on may 8 2013, which will be a public holiday (Victory day). Would I be right in assuming that car rental places will still be open in rural towns like Brive or Libourne?

Thanks!

You might want to stay in Brantôme or Bourdeilles and visit that area before going to Domme.

Yes, you could easily spend three enjoyable days in the Périgord Vert (though it has far less of a wow factor than the Périgord Noir), but I'd mix up the trip a bit and spend those days in or near La Rochelle on the coast. You could visit Ile de Ré and Saintes and other nearby towns/cities if you wished, then drive through Cognac on the way to the Périgord Noir (we just did that a couple of weeks ago, to be included soon in my trip report posted here). You'd get a nicely different experience that way, while the Périgord Vert is just Dordogne-light.

You can easily get to La Rochelle on the train in about 2.5 hours and pick up your car at the train station there.

There are many Fodorites who are more knowledgable on the area than I, but I'll throw this out there.

We just returned from a week in Sarlat then Paris. We started out our trip by flying to Toulouse and chose to stay 2 nights right in the center of the city. We stayed at Hotel de l'Opera right on capitol Square. Perfect location to walk to many cafes and sites.

For us, 2 nights wasn't enough, we wished we had stayed another night. We did not know much about Toulouse when we planned the trip. It was going to be a stop to get rid of jet lag before driving.

It turned out to be a charming city with enough sites, shops, and restaurants to fill a few days. Capitole Square was great people watching and the food was terriffic.

If you are going to be driving around The Dordogne to all the small hill towns for a week this was a nice alternative. Here's a couple photos of the square and hotel to give you an idea of the place. I'm just in the process of starting my trip report and I hope to get at it today or tomorrow. Also I did review the hotel on Trip Advisor.

http://s708.beta.photobucket.com/use...47774481476146

We loved staying in an apt. in Sarlat. After driving all day it was nice to walk to many restaurants at night. As far as The Dordogne goes, Sarlat & the surrounding towns were fantastic. Our top 3 sites were:
Font de Gaume
Marquayssac Gardens
Eyrignac Gardens

The absolute worst day for us was at Grotte Padriac. I'll go into details in my TR.

Good luck!

Thank you all for your reply!
We are considering catching a train to Toulouse, pick up a car there and tour the area around Albi, Cordes-sur-ciel, St-cirq-lapopie before heading north to Domme.
Thanks again for your inputs!