I have really enjoyed your report.

If those "unworthy" restaurant names in Toulouse are handy I'd appreciate them...I hate spending good money on a just- ok meal!

Can hardly wait for the wrap-up. Thanks, again.

Thanks for sharing, C.

>My husband paid 26E for an additional course of Soup du Poisson which came with some interesting garnishes and a cheese course selection.<

A cheese selection with the fish soup?

((I))

Yes, still reading. Thanks for a great report. Your trip sounds lovely and covered many of the places we are planning to visit on our trip in July.
:-)

Our original itinerary had Font de Gaume and Lascaux on the same day (along with either La Roque Christophe or Les Eyzies), but we were discouraged by comments that it might be too much "cave stuff" in one day. I have split them, but geographically it makes sense to do them together. What was your experience and would you recommend visiting on the same day or not?

Thank you klondike...I can't remember the name of the place we ate for lunch and I only saved receipts for meals paid on credit card. It was a pizzeria with wood fired ovens. We were cold and wet and the fire looked so inviting.

The dinner restaurant was L'Entrecote. It was literally just a few doors away from our hotel and we didn't feel like venturing far in the rain. After 10 days of weighing our food choices, this was just the ticket for us. They serve only one thing...magret and frites. There was a line up out the door by the time we left so it must be popular with locals. It seemed to be a fast food approach with a little more flare... and the meal was good.

It appears to be a chain restaurant. Here is the website:

http://www.entrecote.fr/villes/toulouse.htm

Hi Ira,

I guess that was a confusing mess I wrote. What I meant was my husbands meal was 26E. He had the same meal as mine only they served him a fish soup to start that came with some interesting garnishes. He also had an additional course served in after his main course which was a selection of cheese from a cart.

I have a hard time with more than 3 courses so I usually sit and watch him eat his other two or occasionally the restaurant will bring a little something extra for me to nibble on.

Thank you fun4all4. It does make sense from a geographical stand point to group them but I think it's too much in one day personally. I think if we had more time we would have visited the museum in Les Eyzies, which is supposed to be very interesting.

Also If you have kids, La Roque Christophe would be a place of interest I'm sure. We didn't have enough time for an inside visit.

I think the contrast between Font de Gaume and Lascaux II stands out more if you visit them in the same day. I enjoyed Lascaux II but could have given it a miss. It did not hold the same facination as the other caves for me as in my mind it was a reproduction.
It's very well done and informative but I couldn't help the way I felt.

It's like looking at a Rembrandt and then finding out it's a copy. You can still admire the workmanship that fooled you but somehow you're not quite as impressed once you know.

It's like CanadaV says...it's not so much about the paintings as it is about the age of the paintings.

When I was there with my husband in 2005, we visited Font de Gaume and the Roque St.Christophe the same day. They are different types of sites and therefore it did not feel like overkill to visit them both. We did not visit Lascaux II so I do not know whether adding that to the day would have been feasible or desirable. Also of interest in Les Eyzies is the museum of prehistory, and I would have liked to see that if we had more time in the area.

Crazy4travel, are you sure you had magret (duck breast) at l'Entrecote? Looking at their menu, it appears their one main dish is contre filet (steak).

Thanks for the info. I think I will just leave it as is since I already have our reservations. We will be traveling with our 13 year old son (16 year old will not be with us).

Our tentative schedule looks something like this:

Saturday, July 7th
Arrive Toulouse and drive to Albi. Overnight at Hotel St. Antoine. It will probably be fairly late by the time we arrive (around 9pm?) so something quick and close for dinner.

Sunday, July 8th
Drive to Conques for 2 nights. Overnights at Moulin de Cambelong. Use driving route suggested by moolyn and StuD. Dinner Sunday and Monday at Moulin de Cambelong. We have half-board there - and, they just received a Michelin star. :-)

Monday, July 9th
Day trip to Figeac, St. Cirq la Popie and Pech Merle. Overnight at Moulin de Cambelong. Go to Pech Merle first, then St. Cirq, then Figeac on way back.

Tuesday, July 10th
Depart Conques and drive to Pont-de-Cause (near Castelnaud) for 4 nights at La Tour de Cause. Would like to stop in Rocamdour, Gouffre Padirac and am now thinking of skipping Lacave and stopping for a late lunch in Martel at the walnut mill (Ferme Auberge Moulin) suggested by ekscrunchy. Will we have time to go to Rocamadour briefly then visit Padirac and be in Martel for late lunch (around 1-1:30)? Then, we would drive to our hotel and relax for the rest of the day.
That evening, considering dinner in Domme.

Wednesday, July 11th
Would like to canoe in the morning - have 3 options:
1. Beynac dock, shuttle to Vitrac, then canoe to Beynac
2. St. Vincent de Cosse dock, driven to Roque-Gageac then canoe back
3. Canoe from Cenac to Beynac

Which do you recommend? We would also like to visit Le Roque-Gageac, Beynac w/castle, and Castelnaud that day. Any suggestions for order or logistics? May work in some mini-golf or other activity after canoe.

Considering dinner at La Belle Etoile that night.

Thursday, July 12th
Font-de-Gaume, Les Eyzies prehistory museum, and/or La Roque Christophe. Lunch ideas for this day? Considered Le Vieux Logis, but may just stick with something simpler? Thought? Return to hotel for late afternoon swim and relax. That night have either picnic dinner by pool at the hotel or walk to very casual place right near the hotel. Again, may stop between sightseeing and pool at some activity-type park as suggested, especially if we skip Le Vieux Logis and only do one of Les Eyzies/La Roque.

Friday, July 13th
Morning market visit to Montignac. Then, Lascaux at 11:00 . Lunch, then afternoon at Ch. de Milandes and/or Ch. Marquesyssac.

Considering dinner at Le Presidial and evening walk around Sarlat.

Saturday, July 14th
Return car to Brive and train to Paris for 5 nights at Hotel Millesime in the 6th.


It is hard to get a feel for distances and how long things take. This is just a skeleton plan - we have reservations for the caves and will reserve a couple of restaurants, but we tend to drop things as we go because we often opt for a little more pool or relaxing time.

I welcome any comments based on your recent experience.

Hi Nikki...Yes I think you could time your visit so you could do Font de Gaume and the museum in Les Eyzies in the morning and La Roque Christophe in the afternoon. I think adding Lascaux II to that same day makes it somewhat frantic. We decided to cut La Roque Christophe and in hindsight that might have been the more interesting of the two for us.

We only looked in the window of the and saw what people were eating so went into the restaurant. They don't give you a menu...other than desert because they only serve one thing (could be beef but we thought it was magret). In any case, it was in a tasty sauce. I would normally recommend this type of restaurant but we didn't want to trudge around in the rain looking for a restaurant.

Kelly, thanks so much for sharing your experiences in the Dordogne! You did many of the same things that we did but you also gave me lots of ideas of new places for our next visit!

It’s too bad that you didn’t have the same wonderful English-speaking guide as we did at Font de Gaume but the cave art really speaks for itself, doesn’t it? Like you we enjoyed our visit to Lascaux II but we appreciated the authenticity of Font de Gaume more. We too thought Peche Merle was awesome; it felt like a place of worship with its soaring, cathedral-like ceilings.

fun4all4, you'll be fine seeing more than one cave on the same day. We were able to space out our visits to Font de Gaume and Lascaux II but would rather have seen them both on the same day than miss out. So much to see and do… so little time! I’ll email you directly at the address you provide rather than take over Kelly’s thread with my comments on the rest of your itinerary.

Moolyn...please don't worry about posting on my thread for other people. That's the only reason I took the time to do a report...to pay back the board for the help I extracted and give any new info I can.

The cave art really does speak for itself...didn't mind a bit that Pech Merle was not in English. Font de Gaume was better than I thought it would be since I had heard the drawings were harder to see but I was very impressed by the cave.

Fun4all4...I'm going to wait until tonight to compose my answer to your questions as I have limited time while at work...it's a little crazy as I work in a call centre. I will not forget about you though.

Nikki...meant to say would not normally recommend this type of restaurant.

An excellent report overall, Kelly...well done! I'm so glad you had the chance to enjoy so much of this area in the time you had (it's never enough, eh?).

This is exactly the sort of trip report that I like best; rich in detail and observation, but not obsessive over minutia. Thanks for taking the time to do it right!

So...where to next?!

Thank you mrgo....no never enough time. I sometimes wish I was Stu Dudley!!...four week in Provence...ahhh.

This is the first time in years that I have no plans for my next trip. I started a new job 6 months ago and we bid for vacation time. I can't start planning my next trip until November.

I'll have to day dream and live through others on the board...and yourself?...any plans in the works?

I also enjoyed the rest of the report, and particularly the photos of Daglan :) It looks just as I remember it. We left one year ago today for our trip to the Dordogne.

Actually, this year's trip is just over a week away. We'll be spending 2 1/2 weeks in Australia. You'll have to come over to the Australia/Pacific board in early July for our report.

fun4all4...you seem to have a good plan and I'll give some feedback which is only my opinion.

The first appointment of the day at Pech Merle is 10am and if you stay to watch the film and visit the small museum you'll likely be done between 11:30 or noon.

St. Cirq is approx a half hour away from Pech Merle....the town only takes a couple of hours to visit. There is a good sandwich shop there where you could have an inexpensive but tasty lunch.

The drive to Figeac is more or less an hour...unless you stop along the way. I think you'll have no trouble with time constraints on this day.

The next day is more of an issue. Assuming you are at Padirac as soon as the ticket booth opens, you could be at Rocamadour for about 11am. If you just want the view from L'Hospitalet, you could be in and out to make your lunch reservation in Martel. If you want to visit the town, it's likely going to be at least 2.5 hours by the time you park...visit...and get back to your car (at least). The town is not as easily accessible as St. Cirq.

If you do it the opposite way and visit Rocamadour early..hopefully before the crowds... you would get to Padric during the peak time of day when the line ups could be very long. Nothing worse than wasting precious time while on vacation. You might have a hard time making your lunch appointment if you get delayed.

I would likely do Padirac first and see how much time is left as you approach L'Hospitalet. I would not recommend trying to drive into Rocamadour during the summer as the road is choked with traffic and parking is hard to find. There's a lift that takes you from L'Hospitalet down into town but it's a bit of a trek.

The canoe trip from Cenac to Beynac is approx 3 hours (12kms) and most of the canoe places open around 930am. That would put you back to your car around 12pm. Vitrac adds an extra 3kms to the trip and I'm not sure how scenic those extra 3kms are. I'm not familar with St. Vincent de Cosse so I can't comment on that journey.

It's suggested to visit Castelnaud in the morning because the views are best at that time but that would mess up your canoe plans.

If you do the Cenac option, ending your trip in Beynac you could visit the town and Castle to be finished by about 3pm. Drive to your hotel and change to be at Castelnaud for 5pm (Open until 8pm in July). Have your visit there and make an 8pm dinner reservation for Belle Etoile. The town of La Roque takes only an hour or so to visit, so you could perhaps see it on the way to Domme before dinner or depending how long your visit is at Castelnaud you may have some time before dinner to see it.

Make sure you reserve for Belle Etoile in advance. They have a terrace which overlooks the river and it will be full if you wait until you arrive.

No time for mini golf if you plan to do the other things on your list.

I think your plan would be good to do Font de Gaume, Les Eyzies museum and La Roque Christophe. That would take most of the day and put you back at your hotel late afternoon. I wouldn't recommend you trying to fit in the Vieux Logis in Tremolat as it's out of your way and lunch takes 2 hours...no kidding.

I would say that Chateau Milandes is much higher on my list than Ch. Marquesyssac as the later is really just a garden as lovely as it is. Your 13 year old son would thank me for that advice. The Falconry show is way cool and the Chateau very interesing with all the gargoyles and other birds of prey on display.

Let me know if I can be of further assistance and good luck with your planning.

How exciting for the go family...will definately look for your report and photos when you return. Have a wonderful holiday!!

fun4all4...I should mention that they only have the falconry show a couple of times a day...not sure if they increase it in the summer. They had one at 3pm and the last one at 4:30pm when we were there.

Thanks for finishing. It was nice to relive being in the Dordogne. Such a beautiful area with so much to offer. Can't say it trumps Umbria, though. They're so different.

What did the woman who guide dyou in Font de Gaume look like? Our guide wore glasses and smelled strongly of cigarette smoke, but we rather liked her. She was a character and so enthusiastic.

Hi Leely,

I don't believe she had glasses. She was thin and perhaps late forties with long hair. They dubbed her the cave nazi because she was actually physically moving people away from the wall. She would grab a person by the back of their shirt and say "you're too close".

She was definately a character...she berated a teenage boy for not moving closer to see a drawing she was pointing out. "fine she said...don't listen to me"

I understand her passion to defend the cave as I guess it's on the brink of closing to the public. That would likely mean she would be out of a job.

The guide at Pech Merle was passionate but in a wonderful way. I didn't understand the french commentary but I could see how much she loved the cave.