On Monday morning we started the long journey north but took a slight diversion to a vantage point above the Dordogne River at Trémolat:

We then drove back up through Perigueux (and a seemingly huge number of road works!) to a another beautiful little town – Brantôme. The core of the town is set on a small island in the River Dronne so there are excellent views with water and bridges whichever way you look. The main attraction is the old Benedictine abbey and the caves immediately behind it dug out by the monks.

After one night in the town’s aire we spent the morning heading further north, reaching the Loire and stopping at the campsite at Amboise.

Attentive readers may spot the view above from a blog post almost exactly a year ago (but with different cocktails!). We stayed here last year and liked it so much we decided to stop off again for two nights before heading for home. Due to an overdose of Chateaus last year we missed out on the one in the town so on Wednesday morning we paid it a visit. Set on the rocks above the town it has impressive views over the Loire and surrounding countryside.

It also contains a small chapel housing the grave of Leonardo da Vinci.

On Friday, after two nights at Montignac we drove further south east, finally crossing the Dordogne river but continuing on to the very popular location of Rocamadour. The town has a spectacular but quite bizarre setting – set into the northern cliff face over the river Alzou are three distinct levels. At the bottom is a medieval town; set in the cliffs above is the the Cité Religieuse, a collection of seven chapels which was once a very busy pilgrimage destination. These two part are connected by a huge stone staircase known as the Grand Escalier, for the non-pilgrim tourists a lift has also been installed! On the cliff top is a large château now connected to the Cité Religieuse by a funicular railway. There was free overnight parking for the van in the car park behind the van so we took the easy funicular/lift route to visit the chapels and town. Although the setting was very impressive we thought the Main Street of the town was a little too crowded with souvenir shops.

On Saturday we drove west to a village on the banks of Dordogne river called Limeuil and booked into a campsite on the opposite side of the river for two nights rest. The location is one of France’s designated ‘most beautiful villages’. It is built on steep hill overlooking where the La Vézère river meets the Dordogne. We climbed to the top of the village to find a recommended restaurant (Garden-Party) and were not disappointed with the delightful meal. On the walk back we passed the Village Fete in full swing on the riverside with the band playing past midnight.

This is the view from the campsite across to Limeuil with some bloke floating past spoiling the picture!

On Tuesday we walked to the other side of Périgueux were there are many remenants of the Roman civilisation that thrived here 2000 year ago.Sitting next to the railway line here’s a tower which was the central part of a Roman temple:

Behind the tower the remains of a large Gallo-Roman dwelling was discovered in 1958. Very recently a huge glass structure has been placed over restored ruins to preserve them, creating a unique museum which also contains many amazing artefacts from the period. The museum is called Vesunna after the name of the Roman town the dwelling was part of:

We returned to the town centre for a very pleasant meal that evening, crossing the river Isle and catching the early evening sun on the cathedral. The rather odd ‘house on the wall’ turned out to be a 14th century lookout on the city walls.

The following morning was market day so we spent a few hours wandering the streets looking for some tasty items for future lunches and dinners.

Around midday we packed up the van and headed east. After an hour’s drive we stopped at a very nice campsite in Montignac. The site had some very welcome facilities including a bar and a swimming pool – very useful for cooling down as the temperature had now reached 30C! 

Within walking distance of Montignac and the campsite was the Lascaux Centre International home of the most impressive prehistoric art in Europe. In 1940 three boys & their dog discovered a small opening the hillside caused by a tree collapsing in storm. The opening lead into caves housing the most incredible prehistoric art dating from approx. 20000 years ago. In 1948 after the war the caves were opened to the public but within 15 years the pollution caused by over 1 million visitors was causing significant damage to the artwork. The French government closed the caves to the public in 1963 and since then they have been building increasingly accurate replicas of the caves so that the public can appreciate the fantastic art for themselves. The latest replica was opened 18 months ago at huge expense after years had been spent on the latest digital 3D imaging techniques. You are guided through exact replicas of the caves (just a few hundred metres from the originals) and the latest AV tools are used to explain what you are seeing including a touch of Virtual Reality!

Yesterday we were both due to return to the wine festival to use our remaining wine sampling allocations. Unfortunately Sue had a nasty stomach bug overnight and decided to rest up and recover. So off I went with the challenging task of using up two lots of allocations (i.e. another 12 wines to taste!).At the end I even attended a short ‘unusual pairings’ session at the wine school stand – it was all in French but the wine and food were excellent!

Today we drove east into the Dordogne and stopped at an aire in Périgueux, the district’s capital. It’s a delightful town, full of narrow cobbled streets and very attractive old buildings. Note their solution below to a lack of building space – balance your house on a wall! After walking around the area surrounding the Cathédrale St-Front which dates back to the 13th century we are going back tomorrow to check out the Roman remains (and maybe a nice restaurant).

Today we took the tram back into the city to visit La Cité du Vin – a temple to, and a celebration of, everything related to wine. The building even looks like a ultra modern cathedral:

Inside, every modern technology you can think of is used to communicate everything you could possibly want to know about the liquid the French regard so highly. It’s all done in a very entertaining way that keeps your attention for the 2 – 3 hours of your visit. Their wine shop (I should say Cave) looks impressive as does the view from the top floor.

After we walked through the very busy main shopping street, Rue Sainte Catherine, to the ‘proper’ Cathedral St-André which looked quite spectacular in the late afternoon sun.

Yesterday, after a visit to the supermarket, we headed south from Saintes to a campsite on the north side of Bordeaux – Le Village du Lac. We are staying here for four nights to visit the biannual Wine Festival which this year takes place at the same time as the end of the Tall Ships race from Liverpool to Bordeaux via Dublin.

The weather has been very mixed to say the least but it was looking brighter at lunchtime today so we caught the tram into the city and exchanged our tickets for a wine glass, a natty wine glass carrier and a card allowing us to sample 12 different wines (it’s a tough job…).  There are stalls set out along about 2 km. of the river front, each offering wines from different areas around Bordeaux.  You should only get a 5 cl measure per sample but some of the staff were a little more generous. We started at one end but only made it halfway along by the end of the day – we’ll be back for the rest later!

Tied up alongside the same section of the riverside were at least a dozen of the Tall Ships – including some very impressive ones from Russia, Spain, France, the UK and India. Many of them were allowing you on board for a tour. Overall a very spectacular sight!

After a leisurely start we walked into Saintes town centre to see the sights in this very historical town. First stop was the Abbaye aux Dames, a women’s monastery now being used for a music school and an unusual hotel. There was an exhibition of opera costumes as well..

We walked past the Arch of Germanicus built in Roman times (18AD) and then over the footbridge to Saint-Pierre Cathedral stopping en-route for a very tasty lunch.

This was followed by a walk across town to another impressive church – Saint-Eutrope Basilica. There are some famous Romanesque crypts under the building but they had been shut a few days earlier for renovation work🙁. Our last stop was at the Roman Amphitheatre, one of the best preserved in France.

We spent most of our second day driving south, through Alençon, around Le Mans and then down to Angers. We stopped at Camping d’Angers in Lac de Maine on the outskirts of the city. 

The following morning we caught a bus from outside the campsite into the city centre and paid a visit to the very impressive Angers Chateau – a huge fortress built in the 13th century to protect the city. The walls are almost half a kilometre long housing 17 towers each about 30 metres high. Inside the walls there is an impressive royal residence and chapel and the moat has been converted to some attractive formal gardens. The biggest draw in the Chateau however is the Apocalypse tapestry, commissioned in 1375 by Louis I, Duke of Anjou. It is 100 metres long and 6 metres high and tells the story of the Book of Revelations, the last text of the New Testament. In 1996 it was rehoused in a new gallery in the Chateau and we would certainly recommend a visit.

After a very pleasant lunch in a restaurant in the centre we took the bus back to the campsite, packed up the van and headed south to Saintes, stopping at the municipal campsite for 2 nights.

Off to France for a three week trip heading initially to Bordeaux for their wine festival (no surprise there!) and then heading roughly in the Dordogne direction – we’ll see how the weather turns out.

After a midday Eurotunnel crossing we’ve driven around to the west side of Rouen to a delightful Aire at La Mailleraye sur Seine.  We had seen good reviews online and we were not disappointed. The clue was in the name of the town – the Aire is right on the banks of the Seine and we have been watching plenty of commercial traffic on the river, presumably heading somewhere between La Havre and Paris.

Tomorrow the plan is to head for the west coast – maybe La Rochelle and Ile de Re.