Dordogne - Quercy
Walking Tours in France
2010 prices

Quercy is a large limestone plateau cut out by the valleys of the Dordogne, Lot and Aveyron rivers and by many other streams that delimit the Causses - arid stretches of land covered with sparse meadows and grazing flocks of sheep. To the north, Haut Quercy – formed by the Causses de Martel and the Causses de Gramat – leans against the Massif Central. The majority of this hike crosses through the Dordogne River Valley, from Souillac to Saint-Cere, at times straying to the Causse de Gramat, to discover magnificent sites such as the valley of Ouysse, the hillside town of Rocamadour, Castelnau, and the Cirque d'Autoire. You will be thrilled by the Gouffre de Padirac’s underground river, a strange and marvellous underworld. Though your days will be spent investigating the wilderness of the region, your evenings won’t let you forget that this is one of the main centers of gourmet cuisine and gentle living.

Currency Converter	DURATION: 8 days TOURCODE: C100CO GRADE: Easy: grade 2 DAY STAGES: 16 to 20 kms DATES: April to October 2010 PRICE: 1075 euros / person (twin-share) Single Supplement : 310euros SINGLE TRAVELLER: 1510 euros Accommodation: *** hotels 5 nights and ** hotel 2 nights Budget travellers : 782 euros accommodation in 2-star hotels (rooms with en-suite facilities)

 

Luxury Walking Tour.In this tour, we give priority to comfort and service of hotels and to the quality of the restaurant. You will stop in 2,3 star hotels located in beautiful places and very often recommended by important guidebooks such as the Guide Rouge or the Gault-Millau Guide. We don’t hesitate to escort you by taxi at the end of the walk to stay in the best hotel in the area (old castles, farmhouses or water-mills…)
For info and bookings on walking tours, contact us.

Dordogne walking tour
Day 1 : Arrival at SOUILLAC, a small, prosperous town built around a Benedictine abbey on the banks of the Dordogne river. Spend the day visiting the Musée des Automates (museum), and the remarkable abbey with three cupolas on pendentives, fine carved capitals and a statue of the prophet Isaiah, a masterpiece of Romanesque art. Stroll in the old historic city near the abbey.
Dinner, lodging and breakfast in a 3-star hotel

Day 2 : SOUILLAC - CALES (19 km). You will have a few hours before the hike to look at Souillac in the softer light of morning. Late morning, a taxi will escort you to the Lanzac viewpointwhich overlooks the entire Dordogne valley. From here you will take a charming little route across the western portion of the Causse de Gramat to reach the hamlet of La Bastit, a small village along the Dordogne with a strange castle overlooking the river. You will continue through a forest of scraggly oaks, through tobacco fields and grassy stretches where sheep graze, to arrive finally in Cales.
Dinner, lodging and breakfast in a 2-star hotel with swimming-pool

Day 3 : CALES - ROCAMADOUR (18 km). Escort by taxi to the Pont de l’Ouysse where the Belcastel chateau rises in the distance. You will visit the Grottes de Lacave (1 hour and a half tour) and make your way up the Ouysse valley (a remarkable site in the Lot department), wild and mysterious and spotted with old watermills, including the 13th century fortified watermill of Cougnaguet where everything works as it used to! The subterranean waters of the Gouffre de Cabouy rise above ground here as the the source of the Ouysse. You will continue the hike through the Alzou Valley and will arrive in Rocamadour for the night.
Dinner, lodging and breakfast in a 3-star hotel

Day 4 : ROCAMADOUR – MEYRONNE (17 km). This morning will begin with a quiet visit of Rocamadour city. This is the second-most-visited place in France after le Mont Saint Michel. Once a revered site among the Christian community, Rocamadour remains a holy place for many pilgrims, notably those on the path to Santiago de Compostella. Clinging to the cliffs of the Alzou canyon, the medieval village has many interesting facets : vestiges of a former castle and a hospital for pilgrims, Basilica of Saint Sauveur and the pilgrimage chapel of the Black Virgin, narrow old streets lined with beautiful gates and homes dating back to the Middle-Ages. You will leave the city through l’Hospitalet, a village built on the cliffs’ edge, and pass through Le Causse and the picturesque villages of Mayrinhac-le-Francal and Bougayrou to arrive in Meyronne, an old cliffside village that looks out over the river, yet sits in the shadow of an old fortified castle converted into a comfortable hotel where you will rest for the night.
Dinner, lodging and breakfast in a 3-star castle-hotel with swimming-pool

Day 5 : MEYRONNE - CARENNAC (20 km). You will wander luxuriously through the streets of the village and leave it to walk down to the banks of the Dordogne River. You will pass through the Causse towards the lovely village of Montvalent and the hamlet of Veyssou, and continue to the edge of the cliffs of the Cirque de Montvalent. From this point you will look out over the beautiful panorama of the Dordogne Valley. You will pass through the forests towards the small villages of Veysse, Floirac and Mezels before arriving in the charming village of Carennac.
Dinner, lodging and breakfast in a 3-star hotel with swimming-pool

Day 6 : CARENNAC - LOUBRESSAC (19 km). The village of Carennac has developed from the 11th century onward after a priory was founded by the abbey of Cluny. The village has a number of houses dating back to the Middle-Ages, and a beautiful 12th century Norman church called St Pieter’s. Its cloister, half-Romanesque half-Flamboyant-Gothic, shelters a remarkable 16th century entombment. You will leave the village and walk across the Gramat Causse to the Padirac Gouffre. Here you will be treated to a boat tour that begins 103 meters below ground and takes you along 500 meters of river. Next will come a guided walking tour through the vast cavernous galleries, including the Grand Dome that reaches 94 meters in height! You will exit again into open air and continue your walk to Loubressac, a beautiful village opposite the feudal castle of Castelnau, a very imposing 12th to 15th century fortress and one the finest examples of the military architecture of the Middle-Ages.
Dinner, lodging and breakfast in a 3-star hotel with swimming-pool

Day 7 : LOUBRESSAC – BRETENOUX (16 km). In the morning, you will visit the charming village of Loubressac, with its narrow, flowered streets, ancient houses and its castle. After leaving Loubressac, you will walk to a beautiful site : the Cirque d’Autoire. From the top of the cliffs, a spectacular view of the Bave Valley spreads before you. You will walk down to the village of Autoire, nestled in the hollow of the valley lined by impressive cliffs. You will descend towards the Chateau de Castelnau, one of the most beautiful fortified castles in France. After having toured the chateau you will continue on to the charming village of Bretenoux, which was built up around the Place des Consuls. A taxi will now escort you to your destination for the day, Saint Céré, a pleasant town sitting quietly in the shadows of the towers of St Laurent.
Dinner, lodging and breakfast in a 2-star hotel with swimming-pool at St Céré

Day 8 : SAINT CERE. Escort by taxi to the Bretenoux/Biars train station in late morning.

The price includes:
Dinner, bed and breakfast in a double bedroom for 7 days (see tour description)
luggage transport from one hotel to the other during the tour
the road book

Transfers by taxi : Souillac-Lanzac viewpoint, Calès–pont de l’Ouysse, Bretenoux-St Céré, St Céré-Biars railway station (or Souillac with extra-cost)

Not included:
Lunches, drinks, and sundries.
Insurance for cancellation.

To get there: By train: Souillac is on the Paris-Toulouse line and is about 5 hours from Paris Austerlitz station. To return, tranfer by taxi to the Biars station to join Brives on the Paris-Toulouse line.
By road: Souillac is accessible by the RN20 Paris-Toulouse raod and the A20 motorway.
Car park facilities: free and unsupervised car parks at Souillac. Transfer by taxi between St Cere and Souillac to take your car.