The Dordogne/ Perigord

We had our longest drive yet from the Loire Valley down to the Dordogne -  just over four hours - but it flies by on the A85 auto-route. It was getting dark as we made our way off the main roads onto increasingly smaller roads, through bush and farmland and forest. It was all looking pretty remote and we started to doubt the GPS (we had been given co-ordinates by our Air BnB house) and when we got there, all was dark and the farmhouses were few and far between. Having been telling stories about the French horror movie that Bill and Harv had watched on the plane over, we started to wonder whether there might be a "mental murderer" or "spastic rager" on the loose....

We scared the living daylights out of an old man when we drove up to his house in the woods and asked for directions - it turned out he was our nearest neighbor and when we got back up to the dark farmhouse, our host had left the key behind the door for us. As we approached, a bat flew away...(later christened Batman).

Once we were in, we were pretty impressed - a renovated rustic French farmhouse, done with amazing lighting, huge natural beams and the original rough stone interiors, a massive fireplace and a modern French country style kitchen. Plus the pool and Jacuzzi and expansive countryside all around.
Negotiating who got which room took a bit longer than usual...

The weather was fairly cold and grey on the first day and we woke to the news of the Trump victory so spent the morning devouring the news in shock and disbelief - I blame Bill who has been reading "Trump Nation : the Art of being the Donald" and had decided he was quite keen to see him win.....we felt quite removed from it all in the middle of the french countryside but in these days of wifi and social media you are never that removed at all.

After the kids had a jacuzzi and our host Paul had been around to help us sort out a few things, we ventured out to Perigueux for a late lunch and then wandered around the shops. We sorted out the rules for the kids' pocket money as a way to moderate the retail fever which overcomes them every time we approach a shopping area...then it was back home for roast poulet and Amelia's longtime request of "rice salad" which she insists on calling it, even though it is actually quinoa. We lit the fire and had a family spa - including a series of plunges in the cold pool to much hubbub and excitement. The tranquil countryside was no longer...

The next day we ventured a bit further - first to Limeuil which makes it onto the "plus beaux villages in France" list but wasn't looking its best due to the rain and lack of people. We drove through the "haut" old town, much to Bill's chagrin, as the road became so narrow we thought we were going to scrape the sides of the car.

Le Bugue was our lunch destination - a decent sized town but again not many people around due to the weather. We had lunch Chez Oscars where we sampled more foie gras, which is one of the specialties of the region.

Afterwards we went to le Gouffre de Proumeyssard and were lowered down by mechanical basket 50m through a hole in the rock into a cave with amazing stalagtites, stalagmites and all sorts of other formations including a jellyfish and a mermaid. When the cave was originally discovered in 1907, this was how the man who found it got himself in there....it was pretty eerie even with the full sound and light show we experienced so it is hard to imagine what it was like for him, especially as it was a grave for many people who had disappeared...

Then it was home for dinner and another game of family charades, which has become quite the favourite of the kids. It was Bill and I versus the 3 kids (aka "ananas") and having gone a bit easy on them with the clues, we took a pasting - their victory was much-vaunted and we were required to take a losers photo....

photo bomb

We woke to sun at last and had a great day exploring a bit further afield, up the Vezere valley which is absolutely beautiful, first to the Roque de St Christophe, a troglodyte village site dating back to the prehistoric times which has been used through the ages - quite amazing to see how they lived.

Next stop was Leon sur Vezere a stunning town also on the "plus beaux villages" list and this one delighted us with its riverside location, the little café we found (dejeuner sur l'herbe) and its gallo-roman church. We saw a horse rider and some guys on canoes enjoying the scenery and Zoe was enthralled again by her wild homes. We had an assiette de charcuterie, rumoured to include tongue, which only Bill and Harv were brave enough to try.

We carried on up the valley to Montignac where we had lunch (more foie gras for me and yet another carbonara for the kids - although they are actually branching out on the food front quite well now..). 

We went to see Lascaux II the replica of the original prehistoric cave paintings but didn't wait around for the next guided tour and instead continued to Sarlat-la-Caneda which has one of the oldest medieval centres in France. It was a stunning and lively spot, so after another merry go round (this time with french techno) we wandered the town and then the village square was beckoning and Bill's intentions for an alcohol free day quickly crumbled....

Zoe had found a lolly shop with a chocolate fountain.....

Then it was home for a banquet of pain, croissants, cheese, charcuterie and salads - and another family Jacuzzi. #this is livin.

On the last day, we did a family run and then went to Bergerac. Due to our usual routine of being slow to get ourselves out of the house, we just caught the markets as they were packing up and then wandered through the medieval town and had lunch in the sun by the river Dordogne. Not as impressive a town as Sarlat, it had a bit of an undercurrent so we were happy to head home to spend the rest of the afternoon chez nous, lapping up the luxury

 Zoe says : I loved Dordogne because we went to the cave and heard the story about the cavemen. Our house was so cool because it had underfloor heating and a jacuzzi and a pool. 

Amelia says: Dordogne is spectacular - the house we stayed in is spectacular too. It had a jacuzzi and a pool. I loved going to the cave with all the stalagmites - they looked so magical and pretty. I really enjoyed having a family spa and plunging into the freezing cold pool really late at night. Dordogne is great.

Harvey says: the Dordogne valley was an amazing place - I loved the late night jacuzzis and breaking all the rules. The afternoons were filled with arguments on whether Donald Trump was going to be a good president or not and mornings filled with whining for Netflix. The midnight plunges were very refreshing and they gave us brain freezes. I would very strongly recommend our house to anyone passing through. My favourite experience was the Gouffre de Proumeyssac cave - I loved going down in the basket and scaring each other through the tunnel.