We awoke to a very autumnal morning – a mist was creeping along the river and it was quite chilly. We got organised to head off to Rocamadour, but did a quick spring clean first – our pitch was just earth and with yesterday’s rain, we were picking it up on the soles of our shoes and treading it in the Van. Our bed was also full of grit from a certain hound after her evening chase with Esme, so that got a shake too.
It was 8 degrees on the Van as we crept out of Bergerac and into the countryside. We followed the River Dordogne along pretty wooded valleys and long thin villages. We were soon joined by a railway line to our left and the Canal de Lalinde on our right- a classic geography lesson on transport links – trundling along under a beautiful avenue of plane trees, reminding us of holidays on the Canal du Midi. It was getting foggier, enough for the Van lights to go on and any views out there were lost. We travelled along the valley bottom, in and out of fog banks, the sun valiantly trying to burn it off.
We drove along the edge of the medieval village of Beynac, nestling against a cliff face and with a chateau sitting high above – we were on its eastern fringes when we spotted a patisserie! Elevenses! There was a pay and display campervan car park so we waddled back to the patisserie to get coffee and pain au chocolate. It was really quite chilly, enough for me to don my puffa jacket and zip it up, the fog low and damp. The Pup was allowed in the warm and cosy patisserie so I went in to join Hubby, but not before a man came out first and expecting a hearty “bonjour” from him, received a very English “ooh it’s a bit parky innit?” which caught me so totally unawares that I could only splutter a “ooh yes” in response and wondered if I’d heard right.
We went into a small local grocery shop next door and bought enough shopping to fill one of those packaway bags- we could of dropped it back at the Van, but as we were only going for a wander around the village, I oinked it onto my shoulder and we set off. We walked up a steepish lane with houses on either side with fabulous views across the Dordogne before we came to another side road, equally steep. We decided to just nip up to see what was up there, but to cut a long story short, we kept on nipping up, climbing very steep alleys and lanes until we reached the Chateau right on top of the cliffs. I certainly got a cardio and weights workout, Hubby got additional four paw drive with the Pup pulling him and I’m sure we weren’t far off needing crampons and a rope.
The views were stunning at the top and well worth all the puffing to get up there, with a vista across the River Dordogne, meandering its way through endless woodland. It was breath-taking. We wandered the perimeter of the chateau as we couldn’t go in because of Pup, admiring the landscape and recovering from our epic hike up. We peered over a wall and saw sheep and geese just below, eating grass on probably the highest field around. We began to walk down, appreciating the beautiful sandstone houses and buildings lining the lanes. It reminded us of the Cotswold villages, but with cottages tumbling down the steep hill. We were so pleased to come across it.
We wandered back to the Van, just as the sun was winning and finally poking its nose out of the murk, the surrounding countryside revealing itself. We carried on with our journey, marvelling at the Dordogne landscape – wooded valleys interspersed with quaint and idyllic villages – you could understand why people came to live here. But sadly, this pretty corner of France was spoilt by pockets of downright ugliness – suddenly you found yourself driving past low level modern office buildings on lengthy business parks or scruffy outlets. It just so jarred against the beauty we had been enveloped in. We went through one particular town that was full of these buildings together with massive advertising hoardings (it reminded me of an American strip mall) and the only thing vaguely pretty and noteworthy was a giant mushroom carved out of wood and plonked at a jaunty angle in the middle of a roundabout. The tendrils of these business parks seem to seep out into the surrounding countryside which made us a bit sad – maybe because the landscape was so beautiful and stunning, it highlighted the ugliness of these places even more and we were glad to see the back of them.
We started to pass a lot of orchards, the trees in regimented rows and wondered what they grew here. Lying the ground around these trees, it looked like walnuts (well, at 50mph it did) so after a quick Google we discovered that in fact walnuts was one of the top crops in this area as well as apples and pears. We were back into steep valleys with the roads hugging the sides of rocky cliffs – there seemed to have been a lot of effort putting roads through here, as it was obvious that rock had been blasted away to lay these highways through the valleys – you could see the deep drill holes where they had stuffed explosives before lighting the fuse. It seemed to go on for miles and included an adjacent railway line which also went through tunnels. It was certainly a major engineering project, but probably worth while -this area was a very popular holiday destination and though it was quiet now with hardly any traffic with just locals and a large British campervan tootling around, we could imagine the area heaving with tourists in the high season.
We climbed hills and dropped down again, negotiating a couple of hairy hairpins and spotting another chateau perched on the edge of a high outcrop of rock. We were nearing Rocamadour and found our campsite sitting on the plateau above the village. It had warmed up considerably as we set up home – we discovered that our outdoor mat which has been constantly wet and damp these last few days had dribbled accumulated water onto the piece of cut off carpet that we used to protect the garage floor. We hauled all the boxes out which gave us a chance to re-assess what we had actually packed in which box. While the piece of carpet dried, we had lunch sitting outside in the hazy sunshine and soaked in the warmth. One of our neighbours pointed out hot air balloons rising behind us into the sky.
After a shower, we decided to head into medieval city of Rocamadour and have a bit of a wander. From the campsite we walked along a track between fields until we reached the edge of the town, crossed over by the roundabout and found ourselves on a wide pavement, looking down into the deep valley. To our right was the chateau, so we decided to follow the landscaped path, keeping high and level, absolutely agog at the stunning view in front of us. Once at the chateau and admiring its magnificence, we took the main path and headed downwards via a series of pedestrian switchbacks, which were reasonably steep. Finally we came up to the Sanctuaire, below the chateau, which we had to pass through and beyond that, a final 200 or so steps to descend down, we eventually found ourselves on the main street of the cite medievale (and we were still not at the bottom of the valley). It was stunning as we looked back up towards the Chateau sitting perilously atop overhanging cliffs, the various buildings making up the Sanctuaire built into the rock face and gasped. It was an incredible sight.
https://www.visit-dordogne-valley.co.uk/discover/cultural-heritage/villages-to-visit/rocamadour
We decided to walk along the main thoroughfare, thankfully flat and glanced at shops and eateries. Most were shut by now, but there was a few restaurants. We wandered the length of the street and felt a bit disappointed. The setting was beautiful, full of history, but some of the shops’ fronts and signages were garish and tacky, and really spoilt the ambience of the place. Beynac was nicer than this. Not wanting a big meal, we stopped and had a drink on the covered terrace of a hotel bar just as dusk was dropping. Another patron behind us had his phone on loud speaker which was frankly irritating. We finished our drinks and decided to head back to the campsite – we found another path that led us back to the top of the valley – it was now twilight and could just about make out the path climbing steadily up, again with a series of switchbacks, but it afforded us a splendid view of the Chateau, now all lit up against the night sky. We were glad to get back to civilisation. Using a torch, we traversed across through the dark fields and back to the Van where we had a cuppa, had a fly swatting session (there seemed to be an abundance of these critters around here) which had invited themselves into the Van and refused to leave and decided that we had experienced enough of Rocamadour and plotted the next stage of our adventure.
And allegedly the weather was suppose to be improving and getting a lot warmer!!!!
