The Dordogne Valley and Bastides - Days 41 to 44

Cave dwellings and the Dordogne river at Roque Sainte-Christophe

Sunday in Montignac was a chilling day, I used the thermal cooker again and made a Chinese stock which then made the most delightful Chinese pork. We chatted for a long time to a couple from Ross on Wye, and soaked up the ambiance of a little town.

I may have boycotted Brian’s Neanderthal cave painting, after chatting the previous day, and took us to La Roque Saint Christophe a troglodyte village (website link here). I’d read this and assumed more Neanderthals, and yes they did live there, but the 1km long, 80 m high limestone wall was inhabited on five levels as a fort and town through the Middle Ages until the start of the Renaissance. 

Roque Sainte-Christophe

It was a really interesting visit. We could have stayed there in a beautiful woodland, but it was only lunchtime so we felt we should move on, which we did, towards Domme, our first Bastide town. A Bastide was a ‘New Town’ in the 13th century. They then became associated with fortifications as the English and the French built more and more of these towns and needed to protect the villagers from the other side! The Aire was good (here's the location at grid reference: 44°48'02.5"N 1°13'18.4"E), though we, along with the other two vans all parked horizontally rather than straight on in the spaces, but that was ok, what it would be like in the summer.... it was free, the ticket machine had a sticker on saying gratuit, but they had locked the toilets. It’s not been that cold yet! The route to the Aire was also fairly convoluted, they were not letting us camping cars in the town so began signposting from about 10km away. Still it worked.

More cave dwellings at Roque Sainte-Christophe

The city gates of the walled town of Domme

From Domme we headed toward Monpazier, past Pechaud where we stayed in Judith and Richards house three years ago, they have since sold it, so we didn’t pop in. We had slowed down our travel a smidge, a Housesit had come in on the email, about 70 km away on Sunday for two little cats. Would we get it?

The beautiful Dordogne valley from the ramparts at Domme 

We walked to an old windmill, but this water tower conversion was much more interesting

Yes we did, so we are now on a very gentle potter, except we want to be very nearby by tomorrow night as Saturday may be a very bad day to be on the roads. The cost of diesel has gone up dramatically in the past year, it’s more expensive than in the UK for the first time ever, and there are country wide demonstrations and drive slows planned for Saturday!

Arriving at the fabulous square at Monpazier

Monpazier was a beautiful town, the standard town square with arcades all around and a market place where the daily cep mushroom market takes place at this time of year. Apparently it gets used in many movies set in the Middle Ages. We also went on a nice walk over some fields, found a book exchange, with a good English shelf, in an old phone box and had a long chat with an American couple who moved there 18 months ago. Here's a link to the Aire we stayed in: 44°41'05.0"N 0°53'40.4"E

The amazing Medievil square at Monpazier. The walled town is one of hundreds of Bastides in the region. A Bastide is a fortified walled town, some constructed by the English, when they possessed this western part of France, and others by France. They were fortified during the Hundred Years War and changed hands a number of times. Monpazier was an English Bastide, constructed by King Edward I

The corners are cut away to allow pack horses to enter fully loaded

A long drive was on the cards, about 20 minutes, to Biron. I don’t think we realised that all that was at Biron was the chateau, but that seemed to be it. It is in the process of being beautifully restored and was a good visit. There was some really interesting sculptures about the place though we couldn’t work out if they were being put up or taken down. We’d parked in the car park planning to stay (location: 44°37'49.2"N 0°52'17.1"E), but everything then conspired against us. The restaurant was shut on Wednesday and were planning on finally having a ‘formule’ set lunch as we haven’t yet, at all. 

The covered market at Monpazier. All Bastides are laid out in a similar way, all have a central market place, all have covered walkways round the outside, they are laid out in a square grid pattern and all have a church that is close but not in the market square (something to do with religion and politics being kept separate

Jackie finds a book exchange in an old phone box in Monpazier

The tourist information was closed, but the WiFi worked, we could almost see the building but our WiFi booster let us down, so despite the beauty of the pitch we decided to move on. First to Villereal where we found a funfair pitched up on the Aire, so no stopping there, we carried on to Castillonnes where we had an appointment this morning with Dick Boggs a local raconteur and guide, but the municipal campsite was shut, and it was a bit early to stop on the non van specific roadside parking, though I’m sure we would have been fine. 

The chateau at Biron

Beginning to feel a bit desperate having left our beautiful pitch we carried on 15 minutes to Lauzun where we found the Aire, a tiny fenced off bit of ground big enough for two 8m vans (just) next to a house and the bins! (location: 44°37'39.5"N 0°27'35.2"E) Actually the view the other way was the lake and despite being quite bizarre was a spot we were really happy with. The toilets here were open, so that’s a bonus. Lauzun was nothing special, but worth a walk around and the lady in the tourist information was lovely.

The chateau courtyard

We saw this little bat clinging under the stairway on our way up the tower

On leaving this morning we walked down the road to check that yes, we could get past the red car. B returned to Ted while I heard a mewing, only to find a kitten on the window sill I’d met a cat yesterday. OMG it was beautiful, and wanted fuss, and climbed back up me when I put it down..... it was so nearly in the van! On our way back to Castillonnes then to meet Dick, a young looking 75 year old who has lived here 20 years, he’s now on the council and does walking tours of an hour and a half, charging €3 a person that he is made to charge that he then uses to fund the museum that he has bought and set up. Thoroughly enjoyed our morning with him, such enthusiasm is infectious so we learnt loads. Here's his contact email if anyone is passing and wants to do his walking tour: dick.bogg@wanadoo.fr

They used very big nails in the roof of the chateau and didn't seem too worried about cutting the ends off

Interesting sculptures in some of the rooms

Our final stop is Monflanquin, another Bastide town, so walls, streets in a grid and central market square, again very picturesque, but perhaps we’ve seen enough. We will nip back into town to use the tourist information WiFi to post this though. Here's a link to the Aire we're staying at: 44°32'04.1"N 0°46'11.0"E

We are planning to go and meet Louise and the cats tomorrow as she is busy Saturday and Sunday at the local bazaar, and will be setting off from her partners mid way to Bergerac airport at 03.30 Monday morning. So we’ll stock up with food, fill up with fuel and be local to our destination. Anything for a stress free time!

The two vehicle Aire at Lauzun

Lauzun chateau

Jackie finds a little kitten as we leave Lauzun

Another Bastide, this one is Castillonnes, where we had our guided tour. It changed hands between the English and French no less than nine times during the Hundred Years War

Our campsite tonight at Monflanquin

Monflanquin is another Bastide (a French one), built on the top of a hill, and laid out in the same grid pattern

Here's the market square (where I'm sitting right now uploading this blog using the Tourist Offices free wifi)

Our stop for afternoon tea and cake on Monflanquin