Hiking Périgord: Beynac-et-Cazenac

On Sunday we visited the castle (château) at Beynac, which will be a separate post, and then headed out on a hike to the north and east of the town and castle.

As an aside, what is up with the village names here in the Dordogne? At least half of them seem to be multiple villages jammed together – Roque-Gageac, Castelnaud-La -Chapelle, Cénac-et-Saint-Julien, and today’s starting point, Beynac-et-Cezanac are all examples from within five kilometers of us. We can only assume there were a truly enormous number of small villages in the olden days.

This turned out to be a livestock-heavy hike – goats, horses, rabbits, cattle, donkeys, and even a big hairy pig! The rabbits were cohabiting with some of the goats…who knew they would get along?

We found some beautiful houses and buildings on the second half of the walk. We’ve seen a fair number of these small round buildings, and wonder what they were for – storage? livestock? housing?

After all the rain, it’s not surprising the mushrooms are doing very, very well around here…

This moss-covered wall seems to have grown (or consumed?) a couple of people… Do you see them too?

The final uphill to the castle parking lot was delightful as we climbed up through the town on a steep, winding, medieval-looking street. Although “street” somehow seems far too big for this – maybe it’s a “way”…