It might be early winter here in the Dordogne but that doesn’t mean we have to hibernate.  The local towns and villages are just as pretty as we may remember in the summer but they take on a different hue and are just as pleasant to visit in these cooler seasons. 

Just a 10 minute drive from La Treille heading NE on the D78 towards Brantome is the pretty village of Bourdeilles.  The narrow cobbled streets and pretty little houses are clustered around the Renaissance Chateau and it’s Fortress.  The River Dronne meanders along side the chateau and through the village making it perfect for a brisk afternoon winter walk.  Others obviously had the same idea as us as there were quite a few people promenading arm in arm along the river.  It’s possible to take a tour of the chateau and a climb up to the top the tower gives visitors a magnificient view over the town and surrounding countryside.

 We walked around the narrow streets and then called in for a warming coffee in one of the little cafe’s that still had a few tables and chairs outside. The cafe owner was preparing a huge couldron of duck and vegetable soup ready for that evening.  He asked us if we would mind tasting his soup to make sure he hadn’t over salted it… it was delicious!

Want to know more about Bourdeilles – click here!

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 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

Ancient archway over street

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

Another view of the Chapelle

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

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

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?

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

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

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!

Us at Limeuil