Limeuil Village – A day out from our Dordogne Gites

It’s the 8th of September, our gites are still busy and the temperatures are still hitting an average of 30ºC this week.  Our guests are making the most of their late summer holidays here in the Dordogne by relaxing around the pool so we decided to leave them to it and have a day out to visit what is officially classified as one of the prettiest villages in France.

Limeuil is about 90km (57 miles ) SE from La Treille Gites using the viamichelin website.  We set-off about 11am and arrived about an hour later in the village.  Driving through the village following the sign for Tremolat there was a free car park on the left about 250m outside the main village rather than the main ‘pay and display’ one that you see when you first arrive in the village.

The Rivers meet

The Rivers meet

The river beach at Limeuil

The river beach at Limeuil

The village is nestled on the banks of two joining rivers – the Dordogne and the Vezere.

View down street at Limeuil

View down street at Limeuil

Ancient archway over street

Ancient archway over street

Cobbled street at Limeuil

Cobbled street at Limeuil

With parts of the original fortified walls still surrounding the village, its narrow cobbled streets with honey coloured  houses  gradually meander up the steep hill toward the Ancient chapelle  of Sainte Catherine.

Sainte Catherine Chapel, Limeuil

Sainte Catherine Chapel, Limeuil

Another view of the Chapelle

Another view of the Chapelle

View across the Valley

View across the Valley

Here’s a view across the valley where you can just see some ‘ancient cave houses’ built into the sandstone cliff’s opposite…  Don’t forget you can click on any of these photo’s to enlarge them!

Right at the top of the village was a park but we were too tight to pay the entrance fee of 6 euros each so didn’t venture past the entrance gates.  Apparently the views are pretty spectacular!

Gateway to the parc at Limeuil

Gateway to the parc at Limeuil

Hidden among the shady cobbled streets about half way up through the village are 2 or 3 quaint little restaurants with lovely shady terraces.  They all looked quite busy today as suprisingly for this time of year there were quite a few tourists about.  The food looked and smelled delicious and appeared really good value with one menu listing a 3 course meal with wine at just over 10 euros… so refreshing not to see ‘rip-off prices’ at these top tourist attractions.  We’d already decided to have lunch at the restaurant that we’d seen earlier down near the river where our dog (Ruben) hopefully would behave himself.

Having reached the sumit we started to head back down but were being hotly pursued by this cute little pooch…

Dog on the loose

Dog on the loose

I just had to take his photo as the poor little thing only had 1 eye… I could have so easily have picked him up and stashed him in my rucksack, he’d make a great playmate for Ruben!

We managed to shake the ‘follower’ and kept moving down, Jeff spotted this water tap in the wall and cheekily filled the dogs water bottle…

Helping yourself to council pop?

Helping yourself to council pop?

We reached the bottom and found a table on the terrace at the restaurant.  They were only serving snacks like quiche, croque monsieur and  frits but that was fine with us.

Lunch by the river

Lunch by the river

After we’d eaten we let Ruby go for a paddle in the river…

Ruben paddling

Ruben paddling

We’d definately recommend Limeuil for a day-out, it’s not too far from the gites and with lots of other lovely towns in this area it’s well worth a visit!

Me & Jeff at Limeuil

Us at Limeuil

Posted in Days Out, Places to go, Top 10 Pretties Villages Near La Treille Gites | Leave a comment

Chateau Puyguilhem & Go Karting

Things to do in the Dordogne for all the family

The title of this blog may seem a little strange… that is to say who would put a Chateau and Go-Karting in the same sentence?

Here’s the logic behind my madness… During the summer we have quite a number of families holidaying in our gites and we like to be able to recommend interesting places for them to visit.  Whilst researching ‘places of interest for children in the Dordogne‘ I came across a Go-Karting Venue near Javerlac which isn’t too far from the beautiful Chateau of Puyguilhem.  In my wisdom I thought what a brilliant idea to combine the two places for a fantastic day out where the children (and the adults of course) will love to go go-karting in the morning (and wear them out a little) and then mum and dad could do a spot of  ‘culture therapy’ with the Chateau visit in the afternoon.  Some great photo oportunities at both events are of course promised.

The day we went to have a look at the Go-Karting circuit was unfortunately the day after the schools started back after the long summer holidays here so we were the only people there besides a couple of members of staff.  There are 2 circuits – a small one for the children and a large circuit (over 1200m) for the adults.  They both looked very professional especially the large one ‘La Grande Piste de Karting’ as you can see in this photo…

Go-Kart track at Javerlac

Go-Kart track at Javerlac

Childrens Go-Kart circuit at Javerlhac

Childrens Go-Kart circuit at Javerlhac

We’ll definitely be going back at sometime in the near future with a few friends to ‘have a go’ ourselves.  It’s not cheap at 24€ for kids (gives 3 x 8 minute sessions) and 36€ for Adults (gives 2 x 10 minute sessions) but the kids will love you for treating them.  Click here for a link to this Go-Karting Circuit website.

That afternoon we then headed to the village of Villars and in particular on this occassion the ‘Chateau Puyguilhem‘ which was just half an hour east of Javerlhac and the Go-karting circuit.  Villars is in it’s own right a very pretty village, well worth a visit and of course, famous for the ‘Grotte de Villars‘ – the ancient prehistoric caves, but we’ll leave those for another day…  Today is Chateau day!

Château Puyguilhem

Château Puyguilhem

We paid our 5€ admission fee,  the lady in the reception automatically handed us the ‘English language’ information guide (my “Bonjour” was obviously so ‘English’) and headed into the Chateau.   From the outside it really is in a quite exquisite setting even without the lake that used to be in existence many years ago.   The surrounding open countryside with the valley sloping away from the chateau and a forest behind is very fitting for this glorious castle.  It looked like we’d just missed the start of a guided tour but the guide kindly called us over to join the party… the guide turned out to be quite a character (I guess it goes with the territory) and made the visit so much more interesting with his little quips and jovial manner.  He did go on a little though about the tapestries that hung in some of the rooms.

Tapestry in Her Ladyships Bedroom

Tapestry in Her Ladyships Bedroom

At one point he insisted a couple of the tourists including myself take 3 different photo’s from different angles to help us appreciate the detail of the ‘Leonardo effect’ after the painter of the Mona Lisa.

Tapestry at Puyguilhem

Tapestry at Puyguilhem

Puyguilham tapestry

Puyguilham tapestry

Puyguilhem Tapestry with Leonardo effect

Puyguilhem Tapestry with Leonardo effect

This effect is also known as Trompe-l’œl (to fool the eye) – you can see another blog on this ‘paint effect’ and a local museum in Perigueux that we visited earlier this year.   The guide was obviously very proud of these artifacts and I felt quite a ’smarty pants’ that I understood what he was talking about.  Anyway I’m waffling now so to get back to the subject in hand… your supposed to feel like the horse’s eyes are following you around the room!  Not quite sure it worked on me as I was getting a little flustered at the guides attention and enthusiasm.  The tour took us through about a dozen rooms including The Great Hall, The Dining Hall, The Kitchen, Weapons room and The Lord and Ladyships Bedrooms.  Oh here’s a picture of the guide himself sitting in ‘Her Ladyship’s Bedroom’…

The lovely tour guide at Puyguilhem Chateau

The lovely tour guide at Puyguilhem Chateau

You’ll just have to go see for yourself to see what I mean. x

Posted in Days Out, Places to go | 2 Comments

Dordogne gites For Summer 2010

Vacancies for summer school holiday dates 2010!

La Treille Gites is proving as popular as ever with holiday makers securing their next years summer holidays by booking 12 months in advance.  We are filling up fast so to make sure you do not miss out on your preferred weeks contact us and book your gite now!

Fun in the pool

Fun in the pool

Posted in News Flash | Leave a comment

Friday Market at Brantôme

Our Dordogne Gites are near to Brantôme!

The beautiful town of Brantôme is a ‘must see place’ during your stay at La Treille gites.

Starting from La Treille, following the River Dronne along the D78, it’s a leisurely, 25 minute scenic drive passing through the small picturesque villages of Lisle and Bourdeilles until you arrive in Brantôme.

Ancient Abbey & Church at Brantôme

Ancient Abbey & Church at Brantôme

Fondly known as the ‘Venice of the Périgord’ due to the town being situated on a wide bend of the River Dronne.  With 5 lovely picturesque arched bridges crossing the river at various points leading to the cobbled shady streets of the Centre Ville.  Any day is a good day to visit Brantôme although Friday is market day and this makes it even more interesting, with lots to see including the magnificent ancient Abbey and Church majestically perched above the river.

Market Day at Brantôme

Market Day at Brantôme

Traditional market at Brantôme

Traditional market at Brantôme

rue Victor Hugo, Brantôme

rue Victor Hugo, Brantôme

Strolling through the narrow streets, take your time to  browse the numerous market stalls offering a wide variety of produce…  from Traditional Regional mouth watering delicacies such as Foie GrasConfit and Gratons de Canard (duck scratchings) & Figs au Foie Gras to beautiful jewellery hand crafted by local artisans…  lots of lovely things to spend your holiday cash on whether it’s something to put on the barbecue back at your gite or finding those special presents for friends and family back home.

Saucisses stall

Saucisses stall

Légume Stall

Légume Stall

Foie Gras Stall

Foie Gras Stall

There are also many riverside restaurants and café’s at Brantôme and lots of photo oportunities with wonderful back drop scenery.

Hire a conoe and see the town from a different perspective or if you’re not feeling that energetic there’s always the river boat that you can hop on for a guided tour.

Beautiful Brantôme

Beautiful Brantôme

Brantôme from the river

Brantôme from the river

1 of the 5 bridges spanning the River

1 of the 5 bridges spanning the River

Bonne appetit!

Bonne appetit!

We have been enjoying an an absolutely wonderful summer this year here in the Dordogne,  I can’t remember the last time in rained.  Last week seemed to be the peak with a heat wave and sweltering temperatures hovering around 38ºC mark!

Our guests are happy… having obtained beautiful golden suntans, enjoyed making full use of our lovely swimming pool, visited lots of lovely places and leaving totally relaxed.

Posted in Days Out, Places to go | Leave a comment

Last minute gite offer…

Unbelievably we still have weeks available in our gites from 29th August 2009.

We are offering £50 off our normal web price for any week booked from Saturday 29th August 2009 through till Saturday 26th September 2009.

See our availability calendars for available dates…

Gite 1 ‘Le Ble’

Gite 2 ‘Le Tournesol’

Gite 3 ‘Le Maize’

Posted in News Flash, Special Offers | Leave a comment

Excellent feedback from our guests make it all worthwhile.

The last five years have seen many ups and downs since we moved to France and found our ‘dream property’  La Treille.    Firstly we moved here with my parents but unfortunately it didn’t work-out with us all living and working together, they moved back to the UK after just 6 months…  we should have listened to friends and family who predicted the outcome.  We managed to get through that difficult time and I’m happy to say we’re all friends again now.   Under the false notion that’ should we sell-up within 5 years of buying a property in France we would be subject to a massive tax bill’ we made the decision to stick-it-out here.  We’ve since learned that this 5 year rule only applies to second home ownership.  It would have been so easy to crumble and go back to the UK at that time.

It wasn’t going to be easy… We had bought this large house big enough for all of us, we were now thousands of pounds out of pocket (had to give my parents their money to go back home), I was missing my mum and dad, workmen we’re screwing us around with our pool build and we’d got  only just started to renovate the barn with perhaps 90% of the work still to do.   Considering Jeff is normally a pessimist he was confident we could get through this.

Jeff is not a builder by profession but an enthusiastic DIYer albeit a perfectionist to the point of being a pain in the proverbial.   We had done a considerable renovation job on our old house in the UK so were somewhat prepared for what was ahead.

Anyway, I’ve already digressed too much… the meaning of this particular post was to rejoice the end result of all this hard work and that we have achieved our goal.

One of the most rewarding parts of this business is seeing the  comments left in our guest book – One of our most recent guests wrote “We have ‘Gited’ in many parts of France over the years.   La Treille is by far and beyond the best“.  If that doesn’t make it all worth while I’m not sure what will and like any conscientious hotelier we care about our guests and are delighted to hear that they have had a lovely holiday here at La Treille.

You can see all their lovely comments here!

We are now successful gite owners with happy customers – they must be happy they keep coming back!

Posted in Chit Chat | Leave a comment

Circuit des remparts, Angouleme

This amazing event is held every year in Angouleme and this year should be pretty special as it’s the 70th Anniversary.

An absolute must for classic car racing enthusiasts – the streets in the centre of Angouleme are closed to normal traffic for the racing and the public can get up close and personal with all the action.   Find yourself a perfect viewing spot in one of the many cafe’s, bars and restaurants that stay open all hours especially for this brilliant weekend.

It is being staged over the weekend of Friday 18th September till Sunday 20th September – see the official website for more information.

La Treille gites are just 45 minutes drive from Angouleme.  We still have all 3 of our gites available for these dates so if you are looking for a great getaway, both relaxing and with plenty of action check out our web site and contact us as soon as possible to secure your accommodation

Posted in Days Out, Local Events | Leave a comment

Gites in September in the Dordogne

Looking for a late summer holiday?

We still have a few weeks available for the month of September in our gites – why not book yourself a break from all the hussle and bussle and come and relax in the wonderful Dordogne.  The sun is still shining, the pool is still warm and our gites are still on tip top condition just waiting for you to arrive.  You’ll be given a warm welcome and leave feeling totally refreshed.

The dates we still have available are…

Gite 1 ‘Le Ble’ :  From Saturday w/c 29th August 2009 – just £425 for 7 nights!

Plus other dates in our other 2 gites – just ask!

La Treille Terrace

La Treille Terrace

Posted in News Flash | Leave a comment

Biker friendly gites – Dordogne

If you love motorbikes and are looking to have a biking holiday in France have you considered the Dorodgne region?

About an 8 hour ride from the Ports at Calais etc you will be given a warm welcome when you arrive at your gite(s) at  La Treille.   We are ex-bikers ourselves and understand the ‘needs of bikers’.   We have 3 seperate gites that are perfect for groups of  up to 14 ‘well-behaved bikers’.

Here’s a few photo’s of our previous guests and their machines…

Bill & Olwen with their GPZ's

Bill & Olwen with their GPZ's

Bill and Olwen with their GPZ Kawasaki’s – GPZ1100 and GPZ500.   They stayed with us last year for 1 week and came back this year for 2 weeks this time.    Here they are  all kitted-up ready for their homeward-bound journey having enjoyed 2 lovely relaxing weeks in the sun.

David with his Honda Valkyrie Cruiser

David with his Honda Valkyrie Cruiser

David and his lovely wife Norah were here just last week.  They are members of the VRCC and you can read their feedback of their stay at La Treille here!

FJR & Blackbird - June 08

FJR & Blackbird - June 08

Our mates came to visit last year on their bikes – lovely aren’t they!

Robo Cop aka Pete on his FJR!

Robo Cop aka Pete on his FJR!

Biker guests

Biker guests

This snap was taken pre-renovation of the barn when our biker mates from the UK visited us.

And here’s our bikes.  They’re still here but unfortunately not ‘on the road’ at the moment.  Read all about it on my ‘bike blog‘!

The babyblade and the busa!

The babyblade and the busa!

Posted in Chit Chat, News Flash | Leave a comment

Dordogne gites & Local Fêtes

July has been a busy old time for all the villages, towns and cities in the Dordogne and around our little piece of heaven here at La Treille – I think we’re Fêted out and we’ve still got August to get through.

The weather has been glorious as normal for this time of year, unlike the UK which I hear has not been having the heatwave the weathermen had predicted.   Our guests have been getting well and truly chilled-out whilst holidaying here… relaxing around the poool, having a BBQ in the evening, enjoying the regional food at our lovely local restaurants and hopefully leaving with many happy memories.

New restaurant in Tocane 'Rouge'Janice & Paul owners of 'Rouge'

We have a new local restaurant that opened just last week in Tocane St Apre. It’s called ‘Rouge’ and is already a hit with our guests and ourselves. The local newspaper or should I say journal, the ‘Sud Ouest‘ promoted the opening with the owners Janice and Paul Studer standing proudly at their bar! Janice’s cooking is ‘to die for’ and already you have to book to guarantee yourself a table – according to one of our guests Janice’s “Lavendar Scones” are amazing and Paul’s ‘Special Coffee’ is the best in the Dordogne!

Guests enjoying a BBQPlaying table tennis

You too could be here at La Treille,  perfect for families – enjoying a BBQ, playing one of the many games, having a swim in your glorious pool or just watching the sun set over the glorious views.   Just book yourself a little piece of heaven at La Treille Gites! There’s plenty to do all year round but during July & August there’s even more to do and see – every weekend there’s a different fête being held, all within  shouting distance of La Treille and the beautiful gites.  Here’s just a few that we’ve visited this month…

The Fête at Montagrier…

Montagrier Twinned with Lanorae, QuebecBrowsing the vide grenierDancing at the FêteMontagrier FêteMontagrier Fête

Creyssac Fête…

Creyssac FêtePony rides at the Fête of CreyssacDragon sculpture at Creyssac FêteJazz band at Mensignac Fête

You may be surprised that I haven’t mentioned what I thought would be the biggest festival in the whole of France… ‘Bastille Day’. To be absolutely correct it is known as ‘Fête Nationale‘ or more commonly ‘quatorze juillet‘ (14th July) and not ‘Bastille day’. Some of us may remember learning about the historical event from our school days… the storming of the Bastille fortress-prison on 14th July 1789 and the beginning of the French Revolution. But like many historical events the origins and meanings have become jaded over the centuries and having mentioned this to a few friends I’m not the only one who mis-understood the true meaning of this National Fete. I guess we all think of it like Independance Day for the USA but I have recently learnt that a huge majority of the French public do not actually celebrate this event. I’m no history teacher so will not try to explain but it’s all here if you want an explanation. The bigger towns and cities do ‘put on’ a show and Perigueux apparantly had a pretty good Fireworks display over the river although we decided this year to spend the day and evening at Montagrier. suffice it to say that the Fête Nationale is not as much a big deal as I thought, especially in smaller towns and villages!

Posted in Local Events | 1 Comment