Trip to the Gironde - La Dordogne to Limoux

Leaving St Emilion we decided to take the scenic route back to Limoux. For once, and happily for me “scenic” did not mean narrow mountain trails with potential disaster around every corner – it actually meant “picturesque, charming and/or beautiful.”

We took a regional road south and east from St Emilion and drove past Bergerac. From there the road hugged the Dordogne which is a

tributary of the Gironde. The Dordogne is very attractive hill country, full of old villages and towns, castles, farms, streams and rivers.

There were camping grounds everywhere – the French love le camping. One town was having a festival on the lac – kayaks and swans everywhere. Very scenic.

Some of the towns had been on the 2017 Tour de France route and were decorated with colourful bikes mounted on light poles, large statues of riders and flowers made by school children. It looked like a community effort and it continues to amaze us how much influence the Tour has on communities from a social and economic perspective.

We left the Dordogne at a Carsac-Aillac and drove to Gourdon, a mediaeval town with a fortified gate and half-timbered houses and

then onto the A20 which would take us directly to Toulouse and then Limoux.

This is definitely an area that deserves a closer look – also on our “see again” list. Some of the beautiful towns to revisit are: St-Cyprien, Beynac-et-Casenac and Sarlat-la-Caneda as well as those we missed.

Unfortunately with a dirty windscreen, blurry camera, glare in our face and dodgy photographer we did not capture on camera the beauty of the region – there is only so much photo editing can do.

Back in Limoux we unpacked and prepared for our next trip – 3 days later - a tour of the Arctic – Finland and Norway.

Our friends Ruth and Andrew arrived in Limoux and house sat for us for a few days. I understand they had a lovely time socialising with our neighbours and seeing the sights.

Next: Arctic Circle Tour 2017