Stephen and Sarah's blog: Europe with Jessie & Malcolm Week 1: The Dordogne Valley

A couple of weeks ago we jetted off with Jessie & Malcolm to Bordeaux, from where we rented a car and headed east to the Dordogne valley in the Perigord region of France. It was a stunning place to be, and we had a stunning place to stay, up on the hill outside the medieval walled town of Sarlat.

"Le hameau du sentier des sources" is a small hamlet composed of cute stone cottages in the classic style for the area, and is run by a lovely French family who gave us Walnut Wine and delicious Walnut cake as a welcome. It was a really relaxing place to stay, too, and we managed to squeeze in a couple of games of tennis (even Jessie had a go) but it was far too cold to hit the pool. In fact, it was far colder than we'd expected and we needed every scrap of clothing we brought to keep warm outside.

Our humble house in Sarlat

The kitchen in Sarlat

Sarlat was an absolute highlight of the trip, and was completely unexpected. It has somehow retained much of the classic architecture and buildings. Our first experience of the old town was walking down into the main square at night, beautifully lit up and totally deserted - the best introduction we could have had.

Some houses in Sarlat

This jovial fellow overlooks the main square

Just off the main square we found what was to be the first of many French 'set menu' dinners. We were in the middle of Foie Gras and Truffle territory, so every meal started with the option of duck or goose liver pate, and there was always the option for Truffle in mains. Exquisite - but we discovered that about four times is the limit for a meal like that in a week! In fact, although we brought some Foie Gras home we've not felt the need to crack it open as we're livered out for a while...

Another square in Sarlat, just near the market

This part of the trip could really be summed up in three words: caves, castles and cuisine. Cuisine was an ongoing experience, but caves was very much 'Day 2' in the region. The caves in the Dordogne have been in continuous occupation for the last 15,000 years or so, and we started our sightseeing in the 'Grottes du Roc de Cazelle' prehistoric park, where we got closer to our distant ancestors.

Next up was the Font de Gaume cave, where some of the best 'original' cave paintings in the world are still on show. We had an authentic archaeologist running our tour, and she did a great job of conjuring up what it must have been like when the caves were lit with torchlight not electric lighting. The most striking thing was the fact that photos in a book don't do the sophistication of the artwork justice - the artists made full use of the contours of the cave in creating the animals on the wall to give them real volume.

From there we saw 'Maison Forte de Reignac' - a house for a wealthy family carved into the caves overlooking a valley where the (likely) oppressed peasants laboured in the fields on their behalf. It was a little disturbing in places, learning about how badly they mis-treated the peasants, while in other places it could have come straight out of Myst (they even had a creepy sound-track playing in the background)

The inside of the Maison Fort de Reignac - like something out of Myst

Le Maison Forte de Reignac - built into the cliff, with access to the caves above

Our castle experience started, funnily enough, in a garden - the "Hanging Gardens of Marqueyssac", no less. Beginning in a surreal box hedge landscape, and rambling over several kilometers of paths along the top of a plateau, this site gave incredible views of the surrounding landscapes, including castles, the river and a cute little town. It was an absolute must.

Les Jardins Suspendus de Marqueyssac (literally 'The Hanging Garden of Marqueyssac')

La Roque Gageac, where we embarked on our cruise (as seen from Marqueyssac)

More beautiful French countryside

After lunch in the little town we caught the 'Garbares Norbert' up-river to see a series of castles from the water, including Chateau de la Malatrie and Chateau de Castelnaud. It was just gorgeous, and was a completely new perspective on the area we'd seen from high above earlier in the day.