Walking in the Dordogne
After leaving our chateau in Bordeaux, we headed by car to
the small village of Creysse. While planning the road trip we discovered (just
in time) that there are two places named Creysse, about 150 Km apart – we had
earlier arranged to drop off the rental cars at the wrong one, but a quick
series of phone calls to the rental company finally sorted it out. Our
accommodation was in a hotel-restaurant called Le Auberge de L’Ile – nice little
place with really good food – the food was to be a feature of this walking
segment – all of the hotels chosen by the travel company that organised the
walk itinerary (Inn Travel) were excellent, and featured great food and plenty
of it. No chance of dieting or losing weight, despite all the day time walking.
The next day’s walk was to Lacave, via the very quaint mediaeval village of Mayrinhac-Le-Francal.
In Lacave we stayed alongside L’Ouysse river (a tributary of the Dordogne) in a
beautiful hotel, named for a ruined bridge adjacent to it - Le Pont de
L’Ouysse. Their restaurant had a Michelin star so the food and wine were
excellent, if a tad pricy. But “in for a centime, in for a Euro …”, and we
managed to eat and drink enough to do our bit to stimulate the French economy
in this little area. Next day we walked to a belvedere overlooking the Dordogne
river via the small village of Pinsac (which we went through at least twice due
to taking a few wrong turns), passing a trufferie along the way. Next day’s walk
followed the Ouysse to the hilltop town of Cales where we ate more excellent
four course meals which would have fed a small army. Thus fortified we set off
for the last day’s walk to Rocamadour, a seriously picturesque town which was
on the old Middle Ages pilgrims path to Spain. The walk was fairly easy along
the river valley until we reached our destination and had to walk the final few
Kms to our hotel, up the very steep main street and then another Km or so out
of town. There is a steep walk up the hill past the Stations of the Cross which
the more penitent pilgrims would walk on their knees; however, none of our
party felt the need to try this approach. Once more, excellent food and wine at
the hotel, so all of those calories burned off by walking were quickly
replaced.
We spent a great morning at the Rocamadour Raptor Park - they have a wide variety of hawks, eagles, parrots, owls and even vultures and condors. Twice a day they have a show where a large number of the birds are released, then return to do various tricks guided by their trainers. Very impressive and the birds seemed to really enjoy it.
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