Cenac, Sarlat, Domme or La Roque Gageac?

We%26#39;re planning an April trip to France and considering a one or two week stay in the Dordogne. Having not been to this area before, we%26#39;re trying to decide which of these towns would give us the best position for touring and yet keep us interested in terms of restaurants and sightseeing. We plan to have a car. Any thoughts you can shed on this to help us would be great.

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Of all the places that you mention Sarlat is the only true . The other ones are small and offer much less choices of hotels, B %26amp;B, restaurants etc. Having a car--pretty much the only option as regional trains and buses aren%26#39;t practical at all--give you the option to look for a%26quot;gite%26quot; if you are staying for 1 week or more. Gites are self-contained places and often have the owner nearby to help.

gites-de-france.com/gites/uk/rural_gites/kno…

I hope that you are aware that April isn%26#39;t the best month to visit most of France (except the southernmost areas). At best it will be sunny and cool, at worse cold and rainy, with more chances of the latter. .

Before you even decide on a town you need to do lot of reading about the Dordogne (The French call the area Perigord) as there is so much to see and do. Depending on what you really want to see Perigueux may even be a better choice, unless you find a gem of a place in a tiny village.

You can plan a trip to see mostly bastides (medieval %26quot;new towns%26quot; built with streets at straight angles to one another around a square surrounded by sidewalks under arcades) or mostly castles (there are more of them in Perigord than in any other part of France) or look only at prehistoric caves (lots of them). Or a mix of everything...

One place my parents loved--and so did I--is Rocamadour, a small village with buildings climbing up a cliff face. It was already a pilgrimage site in the Middle Ages and a son of Henry II of England (who himself was born and raised in the Loire Valley ) went there. we also liked the nearby %26quot;Gouffre de Padirac%26quot; a wide and deep hole in the ground with a cave at the very bottom where one rides a boat on a river surrounded by stalactites and stalagmites

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OOPS!! Sarlat is the only true TOWN was what I meant to say... especially compared to La Roche-Gageac that is only about 100 buildings-at most--on one side of the road. Beautiful buildings mind you, and with 4 small castles. Domme is pretty and in a spectacular location, but every time I was there tourists were too, even in winter..(I used to work near Bergerac and had clients all over the area)