(Tuesday 12th Feb – 6.5 km/2 hrs)
This walk can be started right from our front door. Here’s a few snaps of the views around La Treille and the start of the walk up our top drive to the woods at the top. The second snap is of the view looking back down towards La Treille.

Just about to cross the D1 road at the top of our drive and go straight over into the woods…

Through the woods…

and then up a little hill, cross the road and past a couple of houses at Roufait and Laguionie.

At the bottom of the wooded path just past Laguionie you come to a little brook, nice place to take a breather and Ruben has a paddle to cool down. It may only be February but it’s a beautiful sunny day and quite warm, about 16ºc.

Moving on, we passed an unharvested cornfield… very strange as it’s normally harvested in the Autumn. Looks like they forgot this one or maybe… it made me think about a documentary we’d recently been watching where drug barrons had been using corn fields to hide their marajuana plants… probably all perfectly innocent here of course! Anyway, following the track at the side of the cornfield we came out at a little hamlet at the top of the hill called Senzens. Turning right through the hamlet down a track…

back into more woods. Then you come to a bit of a climb, it’s a bit of a treck up here. At the top it brings you out at the rear of a woodyard when the company look like they’re storing wood to dry out and old stone blocks from renovation jobs…

Passing through the wood store brings you out on the D104 road into the village of Montagrier. The village sits at an altitude of 145 m so you get some fantastic view pints, here’s a few shots around the village…

Here’s the Chapelle Saint Sicaire – it’s hidden away behind the main street in the village. “Saint Sicaire was supposed to have been one of the infant martyrs slain on the orders of Herod. The church at Brantôme is also dedicated to him”. *

The war memorial…

Here’s the Auberge which co-incidentally is also called La Treille. New management took over last November and I hear the food is now very good with new menu’s etc. My husband Jeff plays for their pool team and last year they won the regional championship, their winners cup is on display in the bar. It is a lovely place to dine winter and especially summer where you sit out on the terrace under the shade of the extensive grape vine canopy.

Passing the Auberge just down the road you pass under an arch – part of what’s left of the Roman fortress wall. Following the road brings you to the village school that’s still in use today – the village has a population of about 500 inhabitants.

Just past the school you come to the church of Ste Madeleine … it’s stands in a very majestic spot overlooking the Dronne Valley and it’s river… the door was open so I took a sneaky peak inside, it was so peaceful, I couldn’t resist taking a photo…

Behind the church and cemetary is an excellent view point and just to the side of this is a quaint peaceful garden of rememberance.

Going back past the church and turning right through the village we head towards home via the hamlet of Capitaine. At the top of the hill just before going down into Capitaine there is a vine yard and from here if you look North East you can just make out our place – La Treille and the back of the Gites.

Pass through Capitaine, turn left at the end of the lane and back up the hill to home…

Back home, that’s it for another day!

* Comment courtesy of Julianna who runs a website dedicated to mythologies and churches all over the world… here’s a link to Julianna’s fascinating website http://www.green-man-of-cercles.org/index.php?page_id=20