Hello, my family and i were hoping to visit the Dordogne sometime in July or August 08. We have not made travel arrangements as yet, as we had some problems and was unsure as to whether we would be able to visit this year.There are 3 adults and 4 children travelling this year, does any one know of the best locations in the Dordogne to visit? We are also house hunting with the intention of moving to the Dordogne next September 09, so location and house prices are an important issue. We have spent the last 3 years travelling around the south west of France and everyone has said how lovely the Dordgone area is. We will more than likely fly into one of the local airports, which is the best and cheapest way to journey then onto the Dordogne? And is it easy to find some where to stay if we haven%26#39;t booked in some where first?.By the way what is the whether like to travel in December, cold or very cold?
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Welcome to TA, tessa99 , on your 1st post ------
You lucky dog you (just kidding), no really, I envy you in moving to this little-known treasure of France. It is a tremendously fascinating place with loads of stuff to see and do. Some call it the %26quot;land of a thousand castles%26quot; (mostly medeival) --- the %26quot;Black Perigord%26quot; area in particular. As you might know, this is also the land of the Neanderthal and Cro-magnon man (centered in Les Eyzies de Tayac). Of the many many places my family went in our 2005 travels thru France, Spain and Italy, this was our favorite.
For your questions; I%26#39;d suggest you get ahold of a poster here at TA called: %26quot;Berkeley_travelers%26quot; --- she is very well versed on this area and is easy to talk to (type-in: %26#39;Berkeley_travelers%26#39; in the searchbox above or find one of her posts in the Dordogne forum) -- e-mail her your questions.
Other very helpful resources can be found at: www.best-of-perigord.tm.fr and www.arachnis.asso.fr/DORDOGNE and www.leseyzies.com among others. The Perigord site has many links including villages to visit and real estate rentals %26amp; for sale. I%26#39;d definitely recommend visiting places in the Black Perigord area like Sarlat, Les Eyzies, Domme and especially La Roque Gageac among many others. I visited in November so I can%26#39;t say for sure about August but I%26#39;ve heard rumors it does get crowded in Sarlat, mostly young people and campers I think (like most of the EU). I%26#39;d really recommend that you rent a car for whay you%26#39;ve got in mind -- most of the areas are spread-out with little public transport (some buses here and there). Weather: It was a little cold in November and I%26#39;ve seen pictures of snow in the Perigord but here again, you might best ask; Berkeley_travelers and maybe look-up the areas past weather data at www.wunderground.com
Good luck -- have fun , in this wonderful place. P.S. I hope you like canard , fois gras and speak French -- it will make life a little easier but I%26#39;ve heard that if you live there, you%26#39;ll pick it up in 6 months or so.
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Thankyou DMcD for your really helpful web links, I%26#39;m glad you enjoyed your time in the Dordogne. It is reasuring to hear other people%26#39;s views as this will be our first visit. I will try to find Berkeley travelers right now, i will keep you posted to let you know how i get on.
Once again thankyou for taking the time to respond to my post.
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Hi tessa99 --- I glad you found my info to be helpful. I also e-mailed Berkeley_travelers for you asking that she get ahold of you , just in case you couldn%26#39;t figure out how to get ahold of her -- watch for her e-mail to you in a notice in the top right corner of this page, soon.
I also remembered that I%26#39;ve seen several threads about there being a lot of Brits living in the Dordogne (seems to be a favorite -- good thinking). If you Google: %26quot;british expat dordogne%26quot; , a whole bunch of helpful web posts pop-up that will help answer most of your questions about moving to the Dordogne, as a British expat.
P.S. I always like to give a tip about caves (grottes) to people visiting this general area. There are many beautiful and interesting caves , both Neanderthal and uninhabited caverns, throughout this entire area (see: www.grottes-en-france ) and in addition, the %26quot;Lot%26quot; area to the south , has an outstanding beauty called; Gouffre de Padirac which is a subterranean cavern which includes an underground boatride as part of the tour. Anyway, good luck , I suspect you%26#39;ll really love living there.
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Hi there Tessa,
I think you need to consider long and hard about your potential move here. I%26#39;m in the Lot et Garonne. The Dordogne is extremely expensive as there are so many Brits there. The Lot et Garonne is not so popular and a bit cheaper (property-wise), but it%26#39;s still very expensive to live here.
Also, there%26#39;s the Sterling/Euro situation. Most people here are living from day to day, wondering when to transfer Sterling over, including myself.
You don%26#39;t have to live in the Dordogne in order to appreciate its sights. I can get there in less than hour and still have a wonderful day trip and see all the sights.
Bergerac is the main airport and is being developed at this very moment. They%26#39;re making it bigger and going to make it the main airport for this area - Dordogne/Gers/Lot et Garonne. Main airlines like Flybe/Ryanair use this one.
Weather in December is similar to UK and can be worse! Last winter was not so cold but very damp. There should be no problem with hotels, or book a gite - the cheapest way to stay here.
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Hello. You might enjoy reading Ann Barry%26#39;s book about her experiences owning a vacation home in the Dordogne:
%26quot;At Home In France.%26quot;
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