SW France in Autumn

Reasons to join us

Small group - maximum of 10 people: Travel off the beaten path: Wander the streets of 'les plus beaux' villages: Experience authentic Dordogne and Gascogne cuisine: Visit traditional mills: Learn the secrets of breeding sturgeon for caviar and geese for foie gras: Visit Troglodyte cities and breathe in the history of the Hundred Years War along the Dordogne River

Departs:

Gare St Jean Train Station in Bordeaux

Duration

9 nights, 10 days

Inclusions

Fully escorted tour with Antonio and Fiona - English speaking tour leaders and local interpreters - travelling in a private air-conditioned mini-bus with charming and well appointed accommodations. The tour includes all meals with table wine and soft drinks, all entry fees and additional activity costs as described in the itinerary.

Please advise us of any dietary requirements as we can cater for vegetarian and gluten free.

Please note: vegans will have difficulty in this part of France

Exclusions

Air fares, travel insurance, food and beverage outside of meal times unless stated in the itinerary, additional beverages other than what is provided, personal purchases, other activities not listed in the itinerary and personal travel costs.

What to Expect

Our tours cater to those who have an endless curiosity for the world, have most likely been to the major cities and seen a fair share of castles, cathedrals and museums. We aim to show you le Gers-Gascony and La Dordogne-Perigord - not sanitised, not sophisticated, but raw and beautiful.

The Dordogne is a land of Troglodytes, Romans and Celts; It is rugged with limestone ranges, dark forests of holm oaks, open plains of fertile soils and the ever present Dordogne and Vezere Rivers that shape the landscape. It is the home of the Lascaux Caves with a great find of cave drawings from pre-historic times. The river was the front line of the Hundred Years War, you will find over 1000 chateaux, abbeys, bastide (walled) towns and rock dwellings that reflect the vast history of this area.

Le Gers, by contrast, is open country and filled with natural beauty; It is a land that has been invaded and conquered many times but it is fundamentally a rural region with farmland and small towns, focussed on vegetables, vineyards, orchards and animals.

You will experience the regions' natural beauty, eat some extraordinary food specialties and breathe in the life of the forests and rivers. You will visit small towns that still support local communities and see not only how they used to live, but how they adapt to modern living in ancient buildings. You will realise that France is so much more than Paris, Citroens and the Cote d'Azure

SW France in Autumn Itinerary

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

We collect you from Gare St Jean train station in Bordeaux at 11am. Then we travel SW towards the small town of Lectoure - our base for the next four days. Along the way we will stop for lunch at a hilltop castle with views to the Pyrenees and arrive at our accommodation around 3:30pm. The afternoon is yours to unpack and wander the small town before we meet up at 6pm for aperitivo and follow this with a welcome dinner.

This morning is market day in Lectoure, so we will spend some time wandering the stalls, looking for local produce to nibble through the day and maybe buy some unique baskets or clothes.

Then we head down the hill to a small factory that uses traditional methods for creating blue dyes from a local plant. Afterwards we stop for lunch and spend the afternoon exploring the antique markets, admiring the exceptional views and exploring the town.

Today we will visit an Armagnac distillery (including a private tasting) and visit some of the beautiful bastide towns of the region. Lunch in a local brasserie, dinner in Lectoure

Our first stop is an exceptional Cistercian Abbey founded in the 12th Century. It boasts a traditional potager, cloisters, refectory and sleeping cells. It also houses a permanent collection of art works including works by Toulouse-Lautrec, Cézanne and Renoir
Afterwards we head to the smallest fortified village in France - le petit Carcassonne. Here we will wander the town and receive a personalised tasting of Floc - the local fortified wine, before taking lunch with a view of the town walls. Our afternoon is spent in the local centre of Condom - a beautiful; medieval village with boutique shops, coffee shops, tea houses a cathedral and a statue to the Four Musketeers

We farewell Lectoure and the Gers and head north towards the Dordogne Valley and our next base for the remainder of the trip. We will stop for lunch in a medieval walled town then visit a sympathetically restored chateau that provides views back to the Pyrenees and gives a hint of the forests we will find in the north.

We arrive at our accommodation around 4pm and will have a delightful meal in the town centre.

The town of Montignac-Lascaux is the centre for exploring cave drawings, but today we will explore the traditional creation of dry pastels for drawing and a cannery that produces and cans traditional foods including rillette, truffles and foie-gras, Naturally, we'll be tasting some of the products too! Our afternoon will walk off some of the excesses by visiting a troglodyte settlement in the side of the cliffs along the Vezere river. This is exposed to the elements to a degree, but we will counter this with a late tour of a local distillery that uses fruit to create some extraordinary brandies, liqueurs and creams.

Market day in Sarlat - one of the biggest in the region, so we will spend the morning wandering the stalls and looking for specialties before we head west along the Dordogne to visit several of the "Plus beaux villages'. These villages have strict criteria to qualify including small population size and traditional housing types. First we will stop at a formal garden to admire the 17/18th Century styles and take in the breath-taking views of the Dordogne River valley. We will lunch by the rivers side and visit a traditional paper mill that relies on the river and the region for its reputation.

Ready for fish? We head to one of the regions top caviar farms for a tour of the farm and a masterclass tasting at least four different caviars, sturgeon rillette and butters, accompanied with vodka (traditional) and champagne. We extend the experience with lunch in the Domain with a strong focus on seafood and local produce.

Afterwards we visit a nearby oil mill for traditionally milled nut oils. Quite the experience and this also includes a tasting

We visit a local goose farm to see how they are raised, what the force feeding actually entails and how they are harvested. This is not a cruel process as portrayed in the media. Lunch by the river and then a short visit to a photography exhibition in a re-purposed railway station before we head to a local chateau where two women were raised and now share their experiences of living the privileged life in the Dordogne.

Our final day as we head back to Bordeaux. You will spend a fairly leisurely morning in Sarlat before we hop into the car around 10am and stop in the town of Bergerac. This morning is market day in Bergerac but it is also a lovely village to wander. We will have a leisurely lunch here before continuing our journey to Bordeaux, arriving at Gare St Jean around 3:30pm in time for you to check in to your next hotel or catch a TGV to Paris for the evening.