15th February – This was our 1st attempt at a walk around Riberac but had to be cut short due to Jeff being in agony with a foot problem. He’s since been for an operation to ‘fix his foot’.

The town of Riberac can be quite sleepy, especially in the winter except on Friday Mornings when it comes alive with it’s weekly market – it’s reputed to be the biggest market in the Dordogne. From early spring through to Autumn the town is a lot livlier – the café’s are buzzing with tourists and locals. During the evenings local musicians (traditional and modern) give live free performances on the terraces outside the café’s in the main square during the evenings.

Anyway, today is not a Friday and still pretty much ‘winter time’ so the town is quite – almost deserted!. Luckily for us the weather is dry and about 10ºc so perfect for walking. So with Ruben securly on his lead off we headed…

This is walk No.2 ‘Boucle du Puy du Cros’ on the ‘Canton de Ribérac’ guide and only 5km long. It sets off right outside the Tourist Information Centre (where the staff are very helpful andwhere you can buy these maps btw) right in the centre of the town.

Here’s the map & Signpost outside the gates of the Tourist Information.

Just across the square named ‘Place Charles-de-Gaulle’ stands the ‘Palais de Justice’.

A stone pony – sculpted by local artist Edmund Ashby – http://edmundashby.com/

Heading through the square we cross the main road (rue Marc Dufraisse) and head up a small passage (rue Notre-Dame) to the church also called Notre-Dame – you can just see it’s spires behind the houses. This is probably it’s best feature as close up it’s not very inspiring.

Just to the side of the church the walk leads up onto the quaintist little grassy pathway ‘chemin herbeux’ that looks over the towns residents back gardens (lovely if your quite nosey like me). This is heading up the hill behind the town.

Here’s a couple of the resident chickens pecking away on the path.

At the top of the path you pass by another church (this one much prettier) ‘Collégiale Notre-Dame’ and with lovely views across the rooftops and the town.

And another view shot from the top of the hill with the spire of the first church ‘Notre-Dame’ on the horizon.