We're staying here (seriously, click on the link).
With a pool, there will be a suitable amount of lounging around and recuperating from our no-doubt hectic-so-far trip. However, we will have a hire car, and plan to do various day trips. Options include:
With a pool, there will be a suitable amount of lounging around and recuperating from our no-doubt hectic-so-far trip. However, we will have a hire car, and plan to do various day trips. Options include:
- Carcassonne, a medieval fortress town, about 3.5 hrs away by car, via Toulouse
- Lascaux, with the famous paleolithic cave paintings, about 2hrs drive from Cahus
- Cahors reputably has the best market in the region (Saturday mornings), also about 2 hours
- Leaving the kids with mum & dad, and heading off for a night or two on our own (I understand this is El's plan!)
This place is less than an hour's drive SE from Cahus:
We were in the Dordogne for a week last summer, based at a gite near St Cyprien. Our itinerary was guided by having a toddler and a 5 year old, but things we enjoyed that might be worth researching:
ReplyDelete- wandering around Cahors following the map of secret gardens (we stopped there for lunch on our way from a night in Carcassonne to our gite) http://www.tourisme-lot.com/en/490/pages/d/gardens/the-secret-gardens-of-cahors/page/0 Sabine has pictures on flickr which is why we ended up stopping there.
- wandering around Sarlat (NOT on market day, as we wanted less crowds) was nice though not a must-not-miss
- we didn't go to Lascaux II, since you can still access non-replica cave paintings/etchings and I wasn't sure if that would be the case by the next time we get France. http://www.northofthedordogne.com/caves.php Instead, we went to Abri du Cap Blanc, Font de Gaume, Grotte de Rouffignac, le Roc St Christophe, and Gouffre de Proumeyssac. The last two were easy to get into, the first two my parents got in line at 6am (they were the second couple in line) to get tickets that day, and the Grotte de Rouffignac we got there around 10am and after queueing for awhile got tickets for 3pm. If you go there, there was an amazing restaurant nearby we found by random luck, I will try to remember to hunt down the name.
-Castelnaud and the Jardins de Marqueyssac are cool.
I found the restaurant near Rouffignac - Le Puits Fleri http://www.tripadvisor.ca/Restaurant_Review-g1931451-d5931873-Reviews-Le_Puits_Fleuri-Rouffignac_Saint_Cernin_de_Reilhac_Dordogne_Aquitaine.html Amazing duck (I didn't even know I liked duck before that). It's a farm/restaurant and everything including the aperitif was made from produce/livestock on site.
ReplyDelete- Re. caves, le Roc St Christophe is a cliff-side medieval cave village and Gouffre de Proumeyssac is a grotto with lots of stalactites and stalagmites. Both were cool but not can't miss. Abri du Cap Blanc, Font de Gaume and Grotte de Rouffignac all have prehistoric cave art and while I think the lighting at Lascaux II is easier to deal with because they don't have the same conservation fears/issues, it was pretty magical knowing we were looking at carvings/paintings made thousands of years ago.
Thanks ma'am!
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