The Dordogne River Valley (Sunday, 8 June 2014)

Although we were somewhat torn about leaving Château Lagrézette for a day, we have a number of friends who rave about the Dordogne region, and being only about an hour away from it, this chance to visit proved to be irresistible.

We spent a happy, but increasingly hot, Sunday morning in Les Jardins suspendu de Marqueyssac.

The gardens of Marqueyssac ... offer more than 6 kilometers [sic] of shaded paths, edged with 150,000 hand-pruned boxwoods aged over hundred years.... The park, designed for walking, is situated on a spur and overlooks the entire Dordogne valley with its chalky cliffs.  It reveals the most spectacular panoramic view possible of Perigord.

The view from the entrance to Marqueyssac, included Chateau de Castelnaud and Beynac.  These two castles have long and interesting histories, most notably during the 100 year war (1337 to 1453), when Castlenaud was a key French stronghold and Beynac likewise for the English.

We wandered around the gardens for a couple of hours, and eventually made it to the Belvedere, “a fabulous balcony, 192 metres high and 130 metres above the river, which unveils an exceptional panoramic view of the Dordogne River and Valley.”

By now we were wilting a bit in the heat.  We stopped for a yummy but painfully slow lunch at Marqueyssac, closely watched by a peacock and peahen who were on the lookout for surplus food.

Grace and peacock

After lunch we drove to Castelnaud, and as soon as we arrived, we were drawn into trying some old-fashioned weapons.  With a little help from Dad, Xavier scored a bullseye!

As we entered the fortress proper, we heard cannon-fire!  Partly we had been attracted to Castelnaud by the distant sounds of cannon-fire we heard in the morning while at Marqueyssac, and now it sounded close; we had arrived just in time for the afternoon demonstration of large gun and cannon firing.

As you can see from the photos, the viewing public were very close to the action, and the explosions were extremely loud.  Partly driven by concerns over ringing ears, and the discomfort of Xavier and Grace, we gradually increased our distance from the event to improve our enjoyment of it.

This demonstration was a special event, conducted as part of Castelnaud’s current operation as a museum of the art of warfare in the Middle Ages, including full size reconstructions of war machines, such as the trebuchet and siege catapults,

... and small arms and armour inside the castle.

Xavier in his new shirt, joins Dad and William in the medieval photo.

Similar to Marqueyssac, the steep elevation of Castelnaud provided another magnificent panoramic view of the Dordogne River and Valley.

As the time approached 5pm, the heat had sapped of us of energy, and it was at about this point that:

• Andrew and Elle agreed that if this was the weather in early June, we would not be returning to the south of France in July or August (a sure sign of our advancing years); and
• the lure of Château Lagrézette proved too great to withstand any longer.

On the way home we briefly stopped to admire the beautiful village of La Roque-Gageac, built up against (and up into) a steep rock cliff which immediately borders the Dordogne River.