Even if you only have a passing interest in prehistoric times, Les Eyzies would be worth a visit. if only for its site. At the confluence of the Vezere and the Beune. the little village. out of which rises an old castle converted into a museum. clings to the bottom of tall cliffs containing shelters, caves and troglodyte dwellings. crowned with green oaks and juniper trees. Having crossed the Vezere. a little road which winds between the river and the rocks follows the prehistoric “Royal road” an unimaginable succession of caves and shelters in an impressive framework of cliffs.

The chalk uplands which surround Les Eyzies are rich in flint, crisss-crossed with dozens of secret clefts and valleys, dominated by cliffs with hidden caves made fine hunting country for prehistoric man. Solid natural materials abound for making weapons and tools, and the shelter of the rock formations made the Périgord a perfect place to live. 100,000 years ago neanderthal man walked the valley of the Dordogne and left sufficient remains to make it a focal point of prehistory. Although he was named after the small valley in Germany where, in 1856, bines were found that fit his description, it was at Le Moustier, near Les Eyzies, that archaeologists first catalogued his weapons and tools.

The oldest human skeletal remains found in the Dordogne are of Neanderthal Man. The Moustier site yielded three complete skeletons another was found at Le Rigourdou, and at La Ferrassie, near Le Bugue, seven were unearthed, including some young children’s. These skeletons reveal that Neanderthal Man rarely lived to the age of thirty, and had Sophisticated burial rites involving funeral ceremonies. In some cases. the bodies were placed in dug graves and covered with earth, stones or slabs. Such respect for the dead must surely indicate that Neanderthal Man was capable of Philosophical reflection and perhaps a belief in an after life.

Les Papillons is just 20 minutes from Les Eyzies de Tayac

Set on a dramatically steep promontory high above the River Dordogne, the unusual trapezium shaped walled village of Domme is one of the most famous bastides in the region. It’s one of the few to have retained most of its 13th-century ramparts, including three fortified gates: porte de la Combe. A one-time base for the Knights Templars (whose religious graffiti can still be seen in the towers by porte des tours, where they were imprisoned in 1307), it was fought over and besieged frequently during the Hundred Years’ War and Wars of Religion. The village is so picturesque it has become very touristy and commercialised, but you can’t beat its stunning panoramas of the River Dordogne and its valley.

INFORMATION

There are two main entrances – southern porte del Bos (the D46/D50 approach from Cenac) or eastern porte des Tours (D46E from Sarlat). At the top of the village’s main street, Grand’Rue, is the central market place, place de la Halle, and the tourist office (Tel: 05 53 31 71 00, Fax: 05 53 31 71 09). It opens 10am to noon and 2pm to 6pm daily (10am to 7pm daily in July and August). It’s closed during January. Car parking inside the walls is metered. There’s a free parking lot just outside porte des Tours.

THINGS TO SEE AND DO

The best views are a few steps from place de Halle, from from the cliff-side Esplanade du Belvedere and the adjacent Promenade de la Barre, which streetches west along the forested slope to the Jardin Public. The preciptious bluff below was, amazingly, scaled by Huguenot besiegers during the Wars of Religion, one of the few times the bastide was captured.
Across from the tourist office, the 19th century reconstruction of the 16th century halles ( covered market ) houses the entrance to the grottes ( caves; 0553317100 ) 450 m of stalactite-filled galleries underneath the village that gave the inhabitants a handy refuge during times of attack.
On the far side of the square from the tourist office, the Musee d’ Arts et de Traditions Populaires (0553317100 ) has 9 rooms of clothing, toys, tools and other memorabilia from the past.
Several canoe operators are based in Cenac including Randonee Dordogne.

Les Papillons is just 10 minutes drive from Domme

This Middle Ages construction, with its austere appearance, is perched on top of a limestone cliff, dominating the town and the north bank of the Dordogne River.

HISTORY

The castle was built from the 12th century by the barons of Beynac (one of the four baronies of Périgord) to close the valley. The sheer cliff face being sufficient to discourage any assault from that side, the defences were built up on the plateau: double crenellated walls, double moats, one of which was a deepened natural ravine, double barbican.

The oldest part of the castle is a large, square-shaped, Romanesque keep with vertical sides and few openings, held together with attached watch towers and equipped with a narrow spiral staircase terminating on a crenellated terrace. To one side, a residence of the same period is attached; it was remodelled and enlarged in the 16th and 17th centuries. On the other side is a partly 14th century residence side-by-side with a courtyard and a square plan staircase serving the 17th century apartments. The apartments have kept their woodwork and a painted ceiling from the 17th century. The Salle des États (States’ Hall) has a Renaissance sculptured fireplace and leads into a small oratory entirely covered with 15th century frescoes, included a Pietà, a Saint Christopher, and a Last Supper in which Saint Martial (first bishop of Limoges) is the maître d’hôtel.

At the time of the Hundred Years’ War, the fortress at Beynac was in French hands. The Dordogne was the border between France and England. Not far away, on the opposite bank of the river, the Château de Castelnau was held by the English. The Dordogne region was the theatre of numerous struggles for influence, rivalries and occasionally battles between the English and French supporters. However, the castles fell more often through ruse and intrigue rather than by direct assault, because the armies needed to take these castles were extremely costly: only the richest nobles and kings could procure them.

The castle was bought in 1962 by Lucien Grosso who has lovingly restored it.

Visitors to the castle can see sumptuous tapestries showing hunting and other scenes from the lives of the lords of the period. The Château de Beynac has been listed as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture since 1944.

Beynac castle has served as a location for several films, including Les Visiteurs by Jean-Marie Poiré, in 1993, La Fille de d’Artagnan by Bertrand Tavernier, in 1994, Ever After by Andy Tennant, in 1998, and Jeanne d’Arc by Luc Besson, in 1999. The village of Beynac below the chateau, also served as a location for the film Chocolat by Lasse Hallström, in 2000.

Barons de Beynac

Les Papillons is just 5 minutes drive from Beynac

The town’s history is tied into that of the abbey. Around 620 AD, a hermit named Cyprien settled in a cave that overlooked the Dordogne valley. Others gathered around him and a monastic community grew up. Barbarian invasions in the mid-9th century made the monks build defensive ramparts, of which the belltower-keep survives.

In 1076 the monastery, now an Augustine body, was doing so well that Bertrand de Got, archbishop of Bordeaux and later Pope Clement V, took it under his wing.

In the Hundred Years’ War, St Cyprien suffered from its exposed border position between Eleanor’s Aquitaine and the Kingdom of France.

In 1568, during the Wars of Religion, Calvinist troops burned the priory to the ground, but the monastery was rebuilt in 1685. Declared a “national asset”, in April 1791 it was sold to the town for 8,125 francs and renamed “Temple of Reason dedicated to the Supreme Being”.

In 1871 the state tobacco monopoly knocked down the cloister, closed off the inner doors, and turned the place into a warehouse.

Every summer the St Cyprien tourist office receives over 10,000 visitors. Located in the village centre, it is open all year round.Place Charles de Gaulle 24220 Saint Cyprien

Opening hours

1 November to 28 Febuary
Monday to Saturday 9:30 to 12:30, 3 to 6pm Except wednesday afternoon

1 March to 31 October
Monday to Saturday 9:30 to 12:30, 3 to 6pm Sunday 10 to 12am

15 May to 30 September
Monday to Friday 9:30 to 12:30, 3 to 6pm Sunday 10 to 12am

Les Papillons is just 10 minutes drive from St. Cyprien

The site has been inhabited since prehistoric times, as witness the many flint axe-heads and other stone tools found in its fields and gardens.
During the Gallo-Roman period the quieter life under the “Pax Romana” encouraged people to set up quite sizeable settlements on the gentler slopes to the east of the village, and even to lay a Roman road. But from the year 850 onwards, the dangers presented by the incursions of Viking longboats, in particular, led the populace to seek shelter and build fortifications on the safest site, between cliff and river.
The Hundred Years War, and then France’s bitter “Wars of Religion”, turned La Roque Gageac into a key stronghold, impregnable and densely populated

Most of its present buildings date from this period, together with its troglodytic forts in the cliff-face (which can be visited) and vestiges of the former summer palaces of the Bishops of Sarlat. The Renaissance period saw the construction of some beautiful homes, such as the Manoir de Tarde, the manor-house of the Tarde family, which dominates the heart of the village to this day.
 
River traffic became increasingly important, with a very busy flow of cargo-carrying.
“gabares” (the Dordogne’s traditional flat-bottomed boats), as well as abundant commercial fishing, which continued right up to the beginning of the 20th century.
The village’s situation turns it virtually into a large natural solarium, and this has made possible the creation of extraordinary “exotic gardens”, alongside the church, halfway up the cliff, with luxuriant sub-tropical and Mediterranean plants.
You will find the warmest of welcomes from La Roque-Gageac and its inhabitants, known as the “Laroquois”, as well as wonderful gastronomic experiences in a region famed for its fine food.

Les Papillons is 5 minutes drive from La Roque Gageac

Walking Dordogne
Walking Dordogne takes you to all the well kept secrets that are only accessible on foot, canoe and horseback.
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Experience Dordogne.
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Dordogne Design
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Buggs Car Hire from Bergerac Airport
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