Hiking Périgord: Carlucet

We spent a week in Carlucet during our first trip to France together. We thought it would be fun to go see how it looks fifteen years later, so today we started our hike there. Some things seemed just the same – we recognized the B&B (now a gîte, or whole house rental) right away. […]

Hiking Périgord: Vitrac

We started Monday’s hike in the hamlet of Le Colombier between La Roque-Gageac and Vitrac. This handsome fellow was one of the first things we saw: He was either posing or studiously ignoring us… We were once again mainly walking through the woods. At the highest point of the hike we came out to a […]

Hiking Périgord: La Treille

Sunday’s hike wasn’t the most photogenic, as we mainly were walking through the woods, first on small roads, then on trails. We started in the parking lot of one of the local castles, Castelnaud, and our hike took us west and north. Castelnaud is high on a hill overlooking the Dordogne. We didn’t go in, […]

Seen Around Town

We had a particularly pretty sunrise a few days ago. Some days recently it’s been so foggy we can’t even see the other side of the river! The birds we were missing in Brittany are abundant here. The cliffs house hundreds of black birds called choucas. Every dawn and dusk huge flocks swirl overhead, coming […]

Hiking Périgord: Vézac

Fueled by our Thanksgiving leftovers, we headed out from La Roque-Gageac this afternoon on a hike that looped to the north and west of the village. It was amazingly warm – we never expected to be dressed like this on November 29th: After a short walk on a road, we headed up into the trees. […]

Le Château de Beynac

The first time we visited the Dordogne, in 2004, we were surprised to learn that the English had spent a lot of time fighting the French here in southwestern France – not just during the Hundred Years war but for several hundred years. The English King Richard I was actually imprisoned in a tower in […]

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 […]

La Roque-Gageac at Night

The town is beautiful during the day and it’s equally stunning at night!

Sarlat-La-Canéda

We wrote about the Saturday market in Sarlat a few days ago. This time we’d like to show you the town. Wikipedia says the center of Sarlat is an excellent example of a French town in the 1300s, because “modern history has passed it by.” I’m guessing that wasn’t so great for the inhabitants, but […]

Hiking Périgord: St Julien

Whew! Yesterday evening, we were happy to be in our apartment, warm and fed, rather than just getting back, long after dark. Our three-hour hike came far too close to being a six-hour slog. More on that later… Our hike began on the GR (Grande Randonnée) 64 – our first steps on this hiking path, […]