The Dordogne in France

by Janice Rossen

There are two compelling reasons to visit the Dordogne in France.  One is Le Vieux Logis in Tremolat, and the other is L’Auberge de L’Etang Joli, just outside of Les Eyzies.  To set foot in either of these establishments, to actually dine there, will create a glowing, incandescent memory of practically Proustian proportions.  The food is so fabulous, and the whole experience so much fun that your whole holiday will be coloured with these happy recollections.

The other reason to consider carefully the possibility of going to the Dordogne is that this is where Europeans often choose to travel, for their own holidays.  It is worth paying attention to this choice, I think.  With the whole of the continent to choose from, there were a vast number of Dutch travelers and also French tourists in this wonderful, wooded area, on our recent two-week trip there.  In fact, we found it to be possible to have a guided tour in English of the historic castle of Castelnaud—there were two tours offered in English per day.  There were four, in Dutch.

The Dordogne Valley is essentially the region in the Aquitaine (south of Paris, and a bit inland from Bordeaux) which is centered around a long and winding river, with beautiful, steep hillsides.  It is part of the region called the ‘Black Perigord,’ due to the presence of a certain oak tree (dark in colour, as opposed to lighter shades which grow in the ‘White Perigord’), and it is a great center for two very disparate things.  There is a museum devoted to Prehistory, in Les Eyzies, because cavemen lived there, several centuries ago, and drew amazing pictures on the walls of caves in the area.  (You can actually see some of these, though only if you reserve tickets far in advance.)  There is also a huge industry devoted to the production of foie gras, and the endless fields of corn testify to the intense desire to overfeed those ducks and geese with that grain, and thus to produce a gourmet delicacy.

Somewhat weirdly, even if you really like foie gras (and I myself am wild about it), you will grow tired of it, if you are offered some every single day (a neat proof of the cliché, ‘Feast every day, no feast’).   And it’s also strange to find that nearly every third store in, say, the highly picturesque village of Sarlat-le-Caneda is selling tins or jars of it.  This is merely to say, it is a vivid presence.

The other main feature of the Dordogne area is castles.  The area was a kind of border between the English and the French, and endlessly fought over.  Hence there are simply astonishing and enormous stone castles, in addition to picturesque ‘bastide’ towns (small villages built on a grid-type plan, which were defensively walled, in case of attack). 

Now, if you are an outdoors enthusiast, there are endless possibilities for renting canoes.  This is part of the reason that the Dutch tourists are so happy to holiday in this region—they are absolutely at home on the water.  And if you like tromping around castles and chateaus, and perhaps learning a bit more about medieval warfare, the Dordogne is entrancing.  For this reason, I adore it there.  The addition of really sumptuous cuisine makes it perfect.

Our plan was as follows:  to take the train from the Netherlands, where we now live, to Bordeaux, and stay one night there.  Then we rented a car.  Hereby begins a tortuous explanation of the fact that nearly all European cars have gears:  if you can only drive an automatic, you are in the soup.  It has been explained to me, by an English friend, that automatic transmissions are for handicapped people.  Well, in this sense, we are handicapped.  It was possible (at vast expense) to rent a car with this feature, but it made for a very long and involved adventure to get it.  (My friend Norbert rolled his eyes, when I revealed to him this train-to-Bordeaux scheme, and said, a bit crossly, ‘you should fly to Bergerac and rent a car there.’)  He was right, of course.

Not that it was a bad idea, in the end, to stay in Bordeaux, which is a very formal, elegant, 18th C. city.  Our hotel was wonderful—quaint and charming.  La Maison du Lierre is also located only a few blocks from a classic French bistro, Le Noailles, which had simply marvelous food and which simply hated tourists.  It was obviously a favorite spot for the locals, and the waiter allowed us a table on sufferance.  The real gem of the whole Bordeaux experience occurred when we returned for one night, after our two week visit to the Dordogne Valley, and met up with a super driver.  This was quite by accident, as we merely stepped into the next taxi in the queue, at the rail station, and asked to be taken to the hotel.  But this most excellent young man, Bruno, has a passion for his work, and it turns out that he makes all sorts of trip arrangements.  His real enthusiasm is for taking clients to visit the vineyards for which Bordeaux is so famous.  I was enthralled, just hearing about the trips he had organized.

Once we had collected our automobile, we set off for the ‘bastide’ town of Domme, which is fantastically picturesque.  Set high upon a hill overlooking the river, it commands a striking view across the valley, and as you sit on the terrasse with your breakfast coffee, you can see the flotilla of holiday-makers paddling their canoes up the river, far, far below.  The Hotel Esplanade has the very best view in the whole of the city, I think, and we sat outside for both dinner and for breakfast. 

From this point on, our holiday turned into a happy succession of tromping around staggeringly enormous castles (Beynac and Castelnaud were the favorites, being the largest and grandest, though Chateau Commarque was the most picturesque, being nearly a ruin) and having fabulous meals.  Everyone seems to love cooking, in the Dordogne, and it is impossible not to have a smashing meal.  One of my favorite discoveries was the Café de la Riviere, on the main road in Beynac (as you come down from the road leading from the castle, turn left and carry on until you see stairs ascending to a merry little terrace shaded with branches).  For eleven euros—eleven!—we had a four-course meal, starting with garlic soup (an entire tureen of it was brought to the table), then salad (with walnut dressing), followed by lovely beef with green peppercorn sauce and absolutely transcendent potatoes, and choice of fromage or a dessert.  The reason that the leafy terrace held such magnetic attraction is that the Dordogne can get very hot, in the middle of the summer.  Moreover—and this is a real drawback—it becomes insanely crowded during the month of August, especially in the city of Sarlat-la-Caneda, where we stayed for our last week.  (Even when positively heaving with other tourists, however, the village—with much of its medieval architecture preserved—was still enchanting.  I simply would avoid traveling there in August, next time we go.)

And it is very easy to avoid the crowds, by heading out to one of the smaller villages or country inns.  As I said at the beginning, we absolutely fell in love with the ultra-glamorous Le Vieux Logis (in the tiny village of Tremolat).  We had stayed there on a previous trip to the Dordogne, many years ago, and I was keen to see it again.  As it turns out, they offer a spectacular lunch, where the chef sends out a series of small dishes (we counted at least twenty!), while you sit under a thickly-woven ceiling of entwined branches, sighing with pleasure.  The hotel itself has magnificent gardens, and it makes for a most tranquil setting.  When I add that this entire gourmet extravaganza was offered for the sum of 38 euros per person, you will understand why the entire terrace was filled with local diners (which makes for lots of fun in covert people-watching!).  We went back for lunch yet again, the following week, and many of the dishes on the menu had changed, as the chef was clearly continuing to follow his inspiration where it lead . . . .  

The other favorite discovery on this trip was the country inn, or auberge, of Madame Montfort (where we managed to dine for three lunch-times!).  The Auberge de L’Etang Joli is in the middle of the countryside, with green expanse of lawns, a very family atmosphere (I counted at least three dogs, trotting about), and the most ebullient and generous hostess.  Madame Montfort’s grandparents originally owned the inn (I believe that I understood this correctly—my French is not brilliant), and she presides over the kitchen.  The cheerful dining room had fresh flowers on every table (each a different arrangement, as the flowers had clearly come from the garden), and to sit down to lunch at the auberge is pure delight.  One starts with a bowl of the  ‘white’ (or, garlic) soup. Then, wonder of wonders, a succession of huge pots of rillettes and terrines (along with a jar of pickles) are set upon the table, and each diner carves out a slice (or sometimes two) of each one, according to taste.  Madame Montfort makes at least one new terrine every day, and she let me see a pot of duck rillettes bubbling away in a pot back in the kitchen.

In the midst of all of this bounty (it is a set four-course meal), one can choose a slightly more expensive menu, which includes (what else?) a serving of foie gras (perfectly prepared, of course—either in a pate or else lightly cooked in butter), and the main course is beef with the sarladaise potatoes (sort of like scalloped potatoes, with lots of garlic to flavour them).  Then arrived the cheese (to be cut by the individual diner, to taste), and then a serving of home-made walnut cake.  If you are very lucky, you can then ask for, and be served by the hostess herself, a glass of Madame’s special digestif, which has been macerating for something like three months.  This mysterious and marvelous drink (served in generous ladle-fulls in a huge brandy glass) involves an orange, and some coffee beans (oh dear, well—again, my French was not adequate to the task of reproducing the recipe), and which we can assure you has about the highest alcoholic content of anything we have ever tasted.  Perfect ending to a meal!

This is artisanal cooking at its best—and extremely friendly, as well.  Madame Montfort waved us farewell, on our final meal at the auberge, and even sent along a pot of the famous duck rillettes, for that evening’s picnic.

For the rest of our Dordogne adventures, I will only add that we very much enjoyed going on a tour of the Chateau Puymartin, partly because it was small and also lived in.  We had a lovely lunch in Sarlat at Les Delices de Lauralice (I will admit, we ordered the salad with foie gras, as one must seize one’s chance while in the Dordogne, and it was fantastic).  And I still dream of the white peaches, which we bought at a stall at the Saturday market.  The Dordogne is farming country, and a gourmet’s delight.

The best farewell celebration possible was our final dinner in Sarlat, the evening before our departure, at the family restaurant Restaurant Rossignol, where we went with our Dutch friends, Hans and Maria.  Chouchette, the beautiful gray cat du maison (I have emphasized that this is a family restaurant!) was astonishingly friendly, and curled up in my lap, purring, for the duration of the entire meal.  Only in France.

A few notes:

La Maison du Lierre, 57, rue Huguerie, 33000 Bordeaux, Tel. 05 56 51 92 71, infos@maisondulierre.com,  http://www.maisondulierre.com.  Breakfast is not included in the room price, but it was really lavish and wonderful, and they offer freshly-squeezed orange juice, along with croissants and bread, yoghurt, coffee or tea.

Bruno Lerouge, Taxi Bordeaux, ‘Toutes destinations,’ his card says, and I truly think he would drive you wherever you wanted to go!, and I should add that he speaks excellent English.  He really knows about vineyards, and has a fund of knowledge himself about wine.  Tel. 06 25 33 74 30, lerouge.bruno@sfr.fr

Hotel L’Esplanade, 24250 Domme is the grand hotel in the tiny hillside town, and the website is www.esplanade-perigord.com, and they can be reached at esplanade.comme@wanadoo.fr  or Tel. 05 53 28 31 41.  We stayed in a room which had a view of the valley, but found that it was difficult to actually keep the wooden shutters fixed in the very strong wind that continually swirls around the hilltop.  There is a weekly market in Domme on Thursdays, which is lots of fun to walk through, and the town is chock-a-block with gourmet stores selling Perigord gourmet foodstuffs.  We are still enjoying the walnut oil which we bought in Domme (and which, luckily for us, Hans and Maria brought back to Delft for us in their car!).

Chateau de Castelnaud, 24250 Castelnaud, Tel. 05 53 31 30 00, chateau@castelnaud.com, www.castelnaud.com  Their museum of medieval warfare is extraordinary—a display which runs throughout the castle, including full-scale armour, actual models (life-size) of catapults, and video displays.  The guided tour (which we took in English) was fantastic, and both the history of the area and the mechanics of trying to take over a fortified castle were clearly explained.  (The short answer is:  threats, bribes and blackmail.  The architects have done their job, to prevent sabotage.)

Chateau de Commarque, 24620 Les Eyzies, Tel. 05 53 59 00 25, www.commarque.com  Being nearly a ruin, this was the most picturesque castle.

La Treille Hotel Restaurant, Cuisine Gastronomique et Regionale, Le Port, 24200 Vitrac, Tel. 05 53 28 33 19, hotel@latreille-perigord.com, www.latreille-perigord.com.  We stayed here for a couple of nights (it is quite close to Castelnaud and Beynac), and were charmed by its friendliness—it is very much a family-run hotel.  We dined each evening on the terrace, along with young families, other holidaying middle-aged couples, and a few extremely well-behaved dogs lying under their owners’ tables.  This is Europe, after all.

Café de la Riviere, Le Bourg, 24220 Beynac, Tel. 05 53 28 35 49

L’Auberge de l’Etang Joli, Isabelle Montfort, 24620 Les Eyzies, Tel. 05 53 35 29 87.  The auberge is just south of Les Eyzies, and not at all difficult to get to, although you will have to keep a sharp eye out for the sign on the road which tells you to turn off into the countryside towards it.  They also offer accommodation. 

For information about prehistoric sites in the area, there is a centre for this at 1 rue de Musee, 24620 Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, Tel. 05 53 06 86 00, fontdegaume@monuments-nationaux.fr, www.monuments-nationaux.fr.  The Musee National de Prehistoire is in Les Eyzies, and is easily accessible (consisting mostly of bones and stones, it also has some prehistoric art works on display).  In order to enter the caves, you must have tickets in advance, as there is limited access, so be sure to write in advance, if you have set your heart on seeing the original paintings.  When we turned up at the ticket counter, they informed us that access had been fully booked through the end of the month.

Le Vieux Logis, 24510 Tremolat, Tel. 05 53 22 80 06, vieuxlogis@relaischateaux.com, www.vieux-logis.com  Part of the magic of Le Vieux Logis comes from its past history—it was a family country home that was turned into a guest house—and to the passion of the current owner, Monsieur Giraudel (who is the son of the original owners).  The building dates from the 16th century, and is beautifully preserved.  It is essential to book ahead for the special lunch (which is not offered on weekends or on holidays).  And of course, it would be heaven, to stay there;  the hotel is now open all year round, and I still remember walking in the front door in the dead of winter, many years ago, and seeing a wood fire glowing in the fireplace.  Le Vieux Logis is perfect in every detail.

Hotel Bon Encontre, Rue de la Plane, Sarlat, Tel. 05 53 59 59 55, contact@hotel-bonencontre.com, www.hotel-sarlat-bonencontre.com  We stayed here for a week, along with the Dutch friends with whom we met up, and the staff could not have been more delightful.  On more than one occasion, we all sat outside on the hotel terrace and had a delightful picnic together.  We were able to buy fabulous fresh fruit, at the weekly Saturday market, along with sensational cheeses and sausage.  The hotel was a bit inconvenient, as you have to walk down a very steep hill, to get into the center of town (and, of course, back up again, to return).  At the same time, we were all very pleased with it, especially with this picnic for dinner option (the hotel concierge brought us plates and silverware, out on the terrace!), and it was very tranquil (as opposed to the center of town, which was extremely crowded).  Not the least of its virtues is that it has not only a swimming pool, for combating the ravages of summer heat, but air conditioning.

Restaurant Rossignol, 15, Rue Fenelon, 24200 Sarlat, Tel. 05 53 31 02 30  The Michelin Guide lists this restaurant, somewhat unaccountably, as being closed on Thursdays;  however, when we were in Sarlat, it was closed on Mondays.  You can have a delicious set menu or else a lovely salad for dinner.  The cat is, of course, optional as a dining companion, but she really made my trip.

Les Delices de Lauralice, Place Beauvau, 24200 Sarlat, Tel. 05 53 30 29 00  There is also a fabulous used book store right across from the entrance to the restaurant, which makes for a fun treat after lunch.  I found a classic paperback copy of Balzac’s Pere Goriot which had uncut pages!  Pure pleasure, to be the very first person to read that particular copy.

Le Chateau de Puymartin, 24200 Sarlat, Tel. 05 53 59 29 97, www.chateau-de-puymartin.com.  This chateau offered one of the best tours we have taken.

A final note on language:  the Dordogne has long been a tourist destination, and not only are all of the hoteliers and restaurateurs extremely gracious, there will always be someone around who speaks English.  They do appreciate a token attempt at French, on the part of visitors (‘s’il vous plait’ and merci and pardon are enough, even), and the key cultural difference is that in France you must greet everyone in the shop or restaurant as soon as you walk in the front door.

Photographs by Janice Rossen