christy1

We'll be in Paris before heading to the Dorgodne, but we want to avoid the horrible traffic that we've been stuck in on previous trips around Paris, so rather than picking up a car there and driving south, we're thinking of taking the train to a city near the Dordogne and then renting a car. I know we can train to the heart of the area but that requires changing, so it seems to make most sense to take the train then pick up a car in a city like Limoges. Is Limoges my best best? It's a fairly quick train ride but seems big enough to have a number of car rental agencies. Bordeaux is about the same by train but it's twice as long as drive to Sarlat, for example.

ekscrunchy

Take the train to Brive and picj up the car there; you will have a drive of a little more than an hour from Brive to Sarlat and most of the route is pretty.

Dukey

Limoges?

StCirq

Well, first off, you don't have to change trains in Limoges. There are plenty of trains from Paris to Perigueux where you just sit on the train for about 10 minutes in Limoges while they remove some cars before it continues on to Perigueux.

Second, what's the big deal with a train change? Take the TGV to Libourne or Bordeaux and switch to the Corail train to Perigueux. You might have 10-20 minutes between trains, but so what?

Or, take the train to Brive and drive from there.

Michael

Since you can use a superhighway to go from Bordeaux to Sarlat, it actually will take about the same time as to go from Limoges to Sarlat.

But if you are interested in tourism, Limoges might be a good stop. It has an excellent porcelain museum, an interesting butcher's house museum (a butcher's house as it existed before W.W.I), and on the way to Sarlat you can stop in St. Yrieix (downtown, not the one nearby that is advertised on the orad as having a museum) for porcelain stores. Or stop in Hautefort, visit the chateau, the 17th century hospital which also contains a good tourist information office.

ira

HI C,

You can pick up the car in Libourne and visit St. Emilion on the way to the Dordogne.

christy1

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll check the SNCF schedule for continuing to Perigeaux from Limoges. No, obviously changing trains isn't the end of the world, but why waste any time in a train station if we don't have to? Using a combo of the SNCF site and Mappy.com it looks like the destinations for which we'd have to change end up taking longer, anyway.

Carlux

No need to change trains if you go from paris (Gare d'Áusterlitz) to Brive la Gaillarde, where there are a number of car rental agencies. Four hours from Paris to Brive, about 40 minutes to Sarlat. Depends which part of teh Dordogne you want to be in, but if it's Sarlat, then Brive is your best bet (we live 15 minutes from Sarlat and if taking the train, always take this route)