DAY 16
Morning walk around Carcassonne & afternoon walk of Sarlat-la-Caneda
After a lovely little breakfast at our B&B it was time to pack our bags and check out (a shame we were there just one night!). Before taking off for the next destination, we decided to leave our bags behind for a bit and headed back toward the fortified city on a hill to do a proper walk of the town of Carcassonne.
The previous night we beelined it straight for the restaurant, so we hadn’t seen much of the city up to that point. Today, we had practically no schedule and could take our time meandering around the medieval town. We started with a walk around the city walls and then ultimately ventured inward to check out the Carcassonne Cathedral and do some light souvenir shopping.
We wrapped up our walking tour of Carcassonne around 12:30 pm. We picked up a quick bite to eat before making our way back to B&B to retrieve our bags and hit the road.
The next and last major leg of the trip would be in Sarlat-la-Caneda, a 3 1/2 hour drive northwest from Carcassonne in the Dordogne region of France.
Where we stayed: Les Chambres d’Hotes chez D’Alisa et Daniel
After settling in at our hotel, we headed out for an afternoon stroll around Sarlat-la-Caneda’s old town, following yet another one of the guidebook’s self-guided walks.
Similar to Languedoc-Roussillon, this region is known primarily for two things: truffles and foie gras. Every other shop window featured stacked cans of confit de canard, bags of whole walnuts, and other regional specialties proudly on display.
At the appropriately-named Place du Marché aux Trois Oies (or Geese Market Square), a bronze statue of three geese marks the spot in town where the finest geese and ducks are auctioned off in the winter. Nearby, the grander Place de la Liberté, the town’s central square, was alive with activity with cafes, portrait artists, and even a clown all competed for space.
DAY 17
Leisurely kayak trip down Dordogne River with stops in La Roque-Gagea, Castelnaud la Chapelle and Beynac
We spent the majority of our last “real” day of the trip (we’d be working remotely the next few days in Paris) floating downstream along the Dordogne River.
We started our expedition in Vitrac, where we picked up our rental kayak (that we reserved in advance) from Périgord Aventure. After a brief safety lesson entirely in French, we waded into the river to retrieve our kayak, and away we went!
The route would take us a total of 15 km (roughly 10 miles) along the winding Dordogne River, passing by several nice villages along the way. The river was just swift enough to make paddling optional, which was a delight after 2 1/2 weeks spent on the go.
After 1 1/2 hours, we arrived to the first town along the river, La Roque-Gagea.
A tall stone wall lines the river with the town’s main street just behind. At the foot of the wall is a small stretch of silt just wide enough to beach your kayak and a staircase leading you to the street above. We decided to park our kayak here for a quick pitstop to check out the town and grab some lunch, which the guidebook reassured us was fine (we took our paddles with us just in case…).
We picked up sandwiches and cookies from the sole bakery in town and soon headed back to the kayak to continue downstream in search of a picnic spot along the river.
By this point, the river was starting to become more congested with lots of kayaks and canoes setting off from a rental shop near the small town. It took some time to find a secluded spot along the riverbank for our picnic, but we eventually found our own small island in the river that we could claim for ourselves.
After lunch, we continued onward until we arrived at the next town, Castelnaud la Chapelle. We admired its namesake castle on a hill, the Château de Castelnaud-la-Chapelle, which was for a moment framed beautifully by a vaulted stone bridge. After passing beneath the bridge we beached our kayak on a small sandy island and went for a swim.
Just a short time later we arrived at our final stop, the village of Beynac. We spotted signs for Périgord and paddled ourselves over to the shore in time to meet the kayak retriever wading in the river. We dropped our life jackets and paddles and were routed to the pickup point for the bus that would take us back to our starting point where our car was parked.
We had some time to kill, so we went for a quick stroll through the town. We started to walk up the steep road leading to the Château de Beynac (apparently every town in the Dordogne needs a castle) but started to run short on time, so we headed back down again to join the others queuing for the bus.
After so many days eating in some of France’s most well-known culinary regions, we were thrilled to finally have some more down-to-earth options in Sarlat-la-Caneda.
After doing some research online, we decided on a very highly-rated restaurant called La Pate A Max that serves simple pasta dishes in to-go containers. I was beyond thrilled to see a special on the menu that included some local truffles. This pasta really tested my love for truffles, and it was absolutely delicious!
Don’t miss it…
This post is a part of a larger three-week road trip around France. Check out the full itinerary and an overview of the trip here!
Григорий
January 11, 2021 at 6:11 pmI think seen as it s the first place I fell in love with nothing will top it but we ll see 🙂 France is so beautiful I prefer the Languedoc (let s say the Herault dept. to make it an even comparison) to the Dordogne although I like both. I prefer the contrast the Herault offers. But each to their own.