Hi all, looking for your grand honesty on the second leg of our trip.
We are wondering what days we have booked too much, what days we don%26#39;t have enough, etc. This is a rough draft. Looking for your %26quot;redlines%26quot; as my boss would say. That%26#39;s for your help and your honesty.
Friday
Drive to Sarlat from Avignon
Saturday
Sarlat – market and town
(laundry and easy night off)
Sunday
Domme
La Roque-Gageac
Boatride to bridge at Castlenaud
Chateau Castlenaud and town
Monday
Le Bugue – market and town)
Limeuil
Les Eyzies-de-Tayac
Font de Gaume
Evening in Bergerac??
Tuesday
St. Leon sur Vezere
St. Amand-de-Coly
Grotte de Rouffignac
Hautefort Chateau
(enough time to have dinner in Periguex??)
Wednesday
Padirac
Rocamadour
Pech-Merle
St. Cirq Lapopie
Figeac
Thursday
Leave for Loire Valley
Again, thanks for your help. Our trip is going to be so much more memorable because of you all.
eholden
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You would be better to do Rocamadour and Padirac on the way to Sarlat from Avignon otherwise you would be backtracking a fair bit. Padirac (46500) appears to be to the northeast of Rocamadour so if you were going there from Bergerac you would be doing some serious backtracking. Maybe better to take your time from Avignon to Sarlat and visit or overnight there on the way to Sarlat. You appear to have allowed plenty of time for the Dordogne and by not backtracking you will also buy some time for the rest of the trip.
Use viamichelin.com and input your start and finish destination then click options and add up to two stopover destinations. You can tell it to give you a route avoiding autoroutes too.
Saturday
Avignon (84000) to Sarlat-la-Caneda (24200) via Nimes/Pont du Gard (30000), Montpellier (34000), Millau (12100) and Rocamadour (46500) is 467km. Autoroute as far as Millau (worlds tallest bridge) then secondary roads for the rest. www.viamichelin.com
For hotels in the region try Logis-de-France and click on the interactive map for Aquitaine region then the Dordogne department. You will see there is a good choice of hotels at fairly reasonable prices.
logis-de-france.fr/uk/recherch/index-ca.htm
Sunday
Domme, La Roque-Gageac, Castlenaud all good options
Overnight Sarlat
Monday
Le Bugue – market and town), Limeuil, Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, Font de Gaume
Overnight Bergerac. Not familiar with Bergerac so cant comment
Tuesday
St. Leon sur Vezere, St. Amand-de-Coly, Grotte de Rouffignac, Hautefort Chateau all in the Dordogne Department by the looks
Overnight Dordogne somewhere
Wednesday
You could probably leave for the Loire Valley (presumably Tours or Blois) from Perigeux you will have a fairly easy run.
Hope this helps. A bit rushed but this should save you time and money and still tick the boxes.
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Gascon - thanks for the input. We have just decided to stay in Sarlat the whole time and just take day trips through the Dordogne to save some headache. That is a REALLY good idea about visiting Rocamadour/Pech-Merle, etc., on the way from Avignon. Never thought about that. Now we need to decide what is more important - stopping at Carcissonne on the way from Avignon for about 3-4 hours or skipping that and visitng Rocamadour or Pech-Merle instead. We seem to be going right passed BOTH of those areas - figures.
We have also switched Monday with Tuesday so we can do the market in Le Bugue on Tuesday. We dropped Bergerac and Figeac because we are cramming too much in on Wednesday.
Thoughts anyone?
So much to see and so little time.
THANK YOU!!
emh
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Just a thought here - how many prehistoric caves do you want to see? If it%26#39;s a particular interest, then add La Roque St. Christophe ;-)
But seriously, if this was me, I%26#39;d be inclined to concentrate on one - or at most two - prehistoric monuments, to free up more time for unique places, like Rocamadour and Domme, as Gascon mentions.
Our first trip to the area, we did Padirac and Rocamadour as a fairly leisurely daytrip from Sarlat, though we didn%26#39;t go on to St. Cirq Lapopie and Figeac.
Planning trips to France is *so* frustrating - there is never enough time to see everything you want to see!
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Diz, we so know what you mean. When we first started reading everyones trip reports and posts, we couldn%26#39;t figure out why everyone kept coming back. Our comments were always, %26quot;Why don%26#39;t people go to other countries/places since they have already %26quot;done France%26quot;. Now that we seem to find an new place almost every day that we want to add to our list, and don%26#39;t have enough time, we realize - you have to go back again because there is so much you don%26#39;t have time for the first time and you fall in love with the place so much that you have to go back to see more!!
I think we are going to see three dwelling/caves which are not the same - all different in many ways and then in between each spend time in the charming villages we listed.
Oh to have more time....
Thanks for your comments. It keeps us thinking in the right direction.
emh
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Diz - also, we looked in to Rogue de Christophe. You are absolutely right - it has been added!!!
Thanks!
emh
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Have you decided definitely on your accommodations yet in Sarlat?there are great B%26amp;B%26#39;s (beautiful French homes) in the areas you%26#39;re visiting that are in the country. My husband %26amp; I take people on guided tours both the Dordogne Valley %26amp; Bordeaux regions, and much prefer B%26amp;B%26#39;s to hotels. If you%26#39;d like definite suggestions on places to stay, email me at diane@westwindtours.us.
When are you going?
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Hi Diane, nice to hear from you. We will be in France from September 1st through the 29th. And then on to NYC for a few nights. We are staying at La Villa des Consuls in Sarlat. We figured after two weeks of hotels and eating out, here we can have a little 12th century apartment to buy our food at the market and cook for a week. Plus it has laundry facilities there too. It got great reviews in the hotels forum.
Thanks for the input.
eholden
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Have you thought about going to Monpazier - it is a beautiful bastide town. We based ourselves there for a week!! It is quite intact, with all its ancient walls, a beautiful market square, well worth a visit. And then nearby (about 8 kms away) is Chateau Biron - quite austerre and intriguing.
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Jeanette - we are going to look in to Monzipar. Hoping we are going to have enough time. Wish we had more.
Thank you for the info. Hope we get to visit.
emh
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