We are planning a trip in May 2010 to the Dordogne Valley (after visiting Biarritz for 4 days). We have 5 nights planned in this area. We are thinking of staying 3 nights in Sarlat or vicinity to visit nearby sites (Lascaux, Les Eyzies, Domme, Font de Gaume). And we have 2 additional nights to figure out where to stay before returning to Paris. We%26#39;d like to also visit Rocamadour and Grotte du Peche Merle. Can this be done in one day trip out of Sarlat? or would it make more sense to drive down to spend two nights somewhere around Rocamadour, Cahors, or St. Cirq Lapopie? or should we spend 5 nights in Sarlat and forget about Peche Merle.
It seems like the cave tours aren%26#39;t that long, ranging from 1 to 2 hours, but the waits to get into the caves are long, making only one cave visit a day possible. We may be trying to cram too much into a limited number of days. So much to see and do in this beautiful area.
Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
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re many caves in Dordogne you need to make reservations in advance rather than waiting hours an finding out you can%26#39;t go in (only x people a day )
from a previous post on TA about Font de Gaume: %26quot;Make your reservations WELL in advance, if you%26#39;re going in Summer. It doesn%26#39;t really matter if you get an English tour. When in the cave, it%26#39;s pretty self explanatory. I made a reservation online.. Also have to reconfirm 48 hrs prior. Address I used is reservation.prehistoire@culture.gouv.fr
I requested English tour but sent request in both French and English...
It%26#39;s cool in the caves, even in Summer. Be sure to take a sweater or jacket. You%26#39;ll have to leave your purse at a lockup site outside the cave, so don%26#39;t expect to take anything into the cave with you except what you%26#39;re wearing.
You can easily go to Rocamadour from Sarlat or nearby (i lived in Bordeaux from birth to 20+ and our family drove all over the Aquitaine on many weekends BUT made a point of driving straight to one specific place area and back, for example Rocamadour, as there is SO MUCH to see.
I would suggest that you stay overnight in Rocamadour, preferably in one of these hotels up on the hill with an amazing view of the town straight down. Walking in that small town in the evening after day tourists are gone is magical , and so is discovering it in the morning when the fog hides most of the town down below, leaving the church and castle floating above the clouds!.
Don%26#39;t miss the Gouffre de Padirac nearby, a huge deep hole in the ground with a cave at the very bottom. The cave has huge rooms, with stalactites and stalagmites and one rides boats on an underground river.
.. Be warned that there is something to see every few kilometres..for example the castles of Beynac up above the Dordogne and Castelnau, also up the river but on the other side. there are numerous medieval villages called bastides that have a central square with sidewalks under a roof and streets on a geometric grid..there are medieval churches galore..
You need to read a guide book very carefully as there is so much to see, not just in the Dordogne but on the way from Biarritz (May is much too early for the beach but you can--MUST--visit Basque towns and villages.. that are more interesting than Biarritz)
From Biarritz to Dordogne you could cut across Gascony, with so many Bastides and Auch, a town famous for Mr. d%26#39; Artagnan, the musketeer and a great cathedral. Cross the Garonne river at Agen and drive to Cahors, a most interesting town. This will take a day but could take 2 or 3...
The day after see Pech Merle in the morning then drive to Rocamadour nearby and possibly to Padirac. Stay in Rocamadour. The day after drive west towards Sarlat and spend a couple of days by les Eyzies, Font de Gaume, Domme etc.
I assume that eventually you will drive to Brive then Limoges (the oldest part of that town deserve several hours) on your way to Paris
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thank you for your thoughtful response and suggestions. I%26#39;ve been reading several guidebooks (Eyewitness Dordogne %26amp; Southwest France, Cook%26#39;s Dordogne and Western France drives, Karen Brown, Maribel%26#39;s guides, along with the basics in LP, Fodors, Frommers) and there is just so much to see and do in this area. I%26#39;ve plotted out driving routes on Michelin, and by rail. I initially thought we%26#39;d take the train from Biarritz (hubby%26#39;s a surfer so needs to visit this mecca even if there may not be any wave action in May) to Bergerac then rent a car. But now, am considering driving into Dordogne/Lot area from Biarritz because it looks like the travel time would be the same with the transfer we%26#39;d have to make in Bordeaux. So, your suggestions are very helpful because I had not considered that route.
And yes, I%26#39;ve been reading TA advice about the caves and making reservations and checking out the websites. Gouffre de Padirac is on my to do list.
Mahalo again.
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Nice to see that you have done a lot of research!
I assume that you have checked the following site www.alternative-aquitaine.com/surfing.htm
Besides exploring the Aquitaine by car (most of the year except summer) we spent a lot of time by the beach in the summer .. we would leave the town at 4 pm, taking a picnic hamper with us ) for nearly deserted beaches along the Medoc coast and stay there until 10 pm (my parents had a very flexible job....)
Talking about beaches... the Atlantic Coast can be VERY dangerous for the novice.. never ever swim when the tide is going down. you can be swept away in a flash.
In the 80s my parents built a weekend home in the Pays Basque.. The villages are truly beautiful and different from the ones in the rest of Aquitaine. the culture is also very different, especially outside the summer months. Even if you don%26#39; t speak French you will notice the difference between the accents in the Pays Basque, in the other areas of Aquitaine and in Paris.
…tourisme-aquitaine.fr/en/…m1_7BF7382A.html
You will have a great time for sure..
adishatz, as we say in Aquitaine..
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It is not that you could not do a day trip to Peche Merle from Sarlat, it is just that the area around St. Cirq Lapopie, including this village, is so darn scenic that I would not want to merely whiz by. I would stay a few nights and explore prior to moving on to Sarlat.
As stated above, reserve Peche Merle via e-mail. They do not offer tours in English but it is sort of self-explanatory. We also had a very kind guide who would walk over to us every once in a while and translate to English. I would recommend that you reserve an early tour (I think the first one is at 9:30), so that you have the whole day to explore afterwards; take scenic drives along the Cele River, visit Figeac, etc.
On your way to Sarlat, visit Rocamadour, l’Hospitalet, Gouffre-de-Padirac http://www.gouffre-de-padirac.com/ , Carennac, Martel, and the scenic drive along the Dordogne toward Sarlat. There are lots of wondeful villages to visit around Sarlat and I think it is just not worth it to drive to and from an hour or more to visit distand sites. But, I am certainly not an expert on the area and would defer to those who know better.
As for Lascaux II and Font de Gaume, both are better accessed from Sarlat, IMO, and both offer tours in English. Font de Gaume does not have many cave drawings on display and we were rather disappointed with this tour. Lascaux II is fantastic (save this one for last), if you can reconcile the fact that this is a reproduction of the original. With regard to Lascaux II, there is no other way to reserve but to drive to the Lascaux office in Montignac to purchase your tickets. There are rumors that one could call, e-mail, etc., none worked for us this past September.
Good luck with further planning
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I am surprised that someone was disappointed with the Font du Gaume as it is hands down our favorite -- the drawings are just breathtaking and all the more so for knowing they are the real deal and not a Disney version as at Lascaux II (amazing but ersatz -- just not the same)
you know standing there that you are in the presence of great art
Peche Merle is our second favorite cave -- not many cave drawings but the horse is wonderful (although I serious wonder if there is not some later faking going on there) and the cave itself it beautiful with magnificent formations
Roffignac is worth the trip if only to see what distinctly less competent cave art looks like -- I always imagine that a boy scout troop crawled in for some puberty ritual and drew the animals since most of them are leagues less well done than either the Font du Gaume or Lascaux
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Thank you all for your responses. Anna Roz, thanks for confirming that Peche Merle doesn%26#39;t have English tours since I wasn%26#39;t sure that%26#39;s what the website meant. The Peche Merle website also suggests making reservations %26quot;at least%26quot; a week in advance -- how much in advance do you think this should be done?
I couldn%26#39;t find any way to make online advance reservations for Gouffre de Padirac, so if any one knows how, please advise.
I sent off an inquiry to Font de Gaume and am awaiting a response. I think that we%26#39;ll settle on the routing after I find out whether I can get reservations at Font de Gaume since this appears to be the most difficult to access.
thanks again for all your help.
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Peche Merle has guide books that they hand out in English so you can read about the various formations etc -- there are very few paintings so it isn%26#39;t as necessary to have a guide as in some caves
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I too loved Font de Gaume, finding the art amazing. Lascaux II was very interesting and very well done, but I so wished I%26#39;d seen the original. Maybe it was the atmosphere of actual caves I missed.
Padirac was super; there has been extra exploration going on very recently there. I understand that what is available to be seen by visitors is a tiny amount of what is there; maybe the route will be enlarged some day. Well worth a visit.
We only went to tours in French, and it was fine.
When visiting Rocamadour try to stay there or nearby; it%26#39;s a very different place in the evening or early morning.
GG
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Well, Grace, we were disappointed with Font du Gaume. What can I say? Made reservations in advance; paid in full within 15 days of a response from Font du Gaume; had a mid-day tour in English; arranged a whole day schedule around it; spent about 10 minutes listening to the guide warn us of early symptoms of claustrophobia; lost two visitors to those early symptoms..; spent about 15 minutes viewing drawings on both sides of a very narrow cave; also saw graffiti (from earlier days of less stringent tourist monitoring), and were escorted out. It does not mean that I suggest to forgo it altogether, just adjust one%26#39;s expectations.
So, bougainvillea, once you receive a response from Font du Gaume, you will have 15 days to pay in full. It is about 15 Euro for two people, so no big deal. But, if you do not pay, your spot will not be there for you.
We liked Lascaux II and did not feel that it was like Disney. The drawings, albeit reproduced, are sensational. The tour is also very informative.
I do not know if one can make advance reservations at Gouffre-de-Padirac. For some reason I think that one cannot. However, if you time your visit to lunchtime, you will note that the French are on the surface having lunch at several concession stands and you will breeze right through to the tour boat. [French do not forgo an opportunity for a meal.] Some guide books state that Gouffre-de-Padirac closes for lunch. It does not. BTW, husband loved Gouffre-de-Padirac the most. Go figure, he?
True, Peche Merle provides a brochure in English to follow during the tour but, honestly, you will be fine. Just do not miss those cave pearls - truly fantastic formations! Because I tend to be rather neurotic, I reserved about 30 days prior to our visit. The morning of our visit was drizzly and gray, and so it was slow. We also encountered people that did not have advance reservations but, again, I would not suggest that you do that. I would think that a fortnight notice should be sufficient, and you do not have to prepay.
Do come back and ask questions, if need be. It is not that often that I see questions re Lot or Dordogne.
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