Loop from Périgueux

01 Church

Périgueux Cathedral

Cathédrale Saint-Front

With its Greek-cross plan and five domes, the cathedral recalls St Mark's in Venice, and Paul Abadie restored it extensively in the 19th century. The architect later drew on it for the Sacré-Cœur in Montmartre. Look up at the bell tower, whose lantern of slender columns carries a conical spire covered in scales.

02 Castle

Château de Bourdeilles

On a long rock above the Dronne, Bourdeilles brings together a medieval fortress and a Renaissance palace built from 1588 to 1598 by Jacquette de Montbron. You can climb to the top of the octagonal keep, thirty-five metres high, facing the village and its medieval bridge. In the palace, the décors of Ambroise Lenoble echo period furniture.

03 Abbey

Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Brantôme

Set against a crescent-shaped cliff on the banks of the Dronne, the Abbaye de Brantôme first sheltered monks who lived in the caves of the rock. From the riverbanks, look for its 11th-century Romanesque bell tower standing apart from the church, perched on the escarpment. The 18th-century convent buildings now house two museums and the town hall.

04 Castle

Château de Hautefort

Discover it on its rocky spur above the village, with the look of a Loire château that is rare indeed in the Dordogne. Ravaged by fire on 30 August 1968, it was restored identically by the Baroness de Bastard, who poured her fortune into it. All around, formal French gardens unfold their box-hedge embroidery in terraces.

05 UNESCO

Lascaux

Grotte de Lascaux

Discovered in September 1940 by Marcel Ravidat and three companions, this cave in the Vézère valley holds paintings from the Upper Palaeolithic. The original, closed since 1963, is off limits to you, but life-size replicas recreate its chambers. Aurochs, horses and deer gallop across the rock, painted in the early Magdalenian according to most prehistorians.

06 Village

Saint-Amand-de-Coly

In the heart of the Périgord Noir, away from the main roads, the village fills the valley of the Chironde. Above the rooftops rises the fortified silhouette of the abbey church, built in the 12th century for Augustinian canons. Around it cluster houses of pale limestone, crossed by the GR 461 on its way to Coly.

07 Archaeology

Roque Saint-Christophe

Site de la Roque Saint-Christophe

For a kilometre above the Vézère, this cliff lines up terraces and shelters hollowed out by the river and frost. Inhabited from the Upper Palaeolithic, they later served as a troglodyte refuge, until the destruction of the Wars of Religion in 1588. You follow the path to the terrace halfway up, where the rock keeps the holes of old timber frames.

08 Museum

National Museum of Prehistory

Musée national de Préhistoire

Look up at the cliff of Les Eyzies, where the National Museum of Prehistory has occupied the Château de Tayac since Denis Peyrony founded it in 1918. A contemporary building by Jean-Pierre Buffi, opened in 2004, backs onto the rock and houses thousands of stone and bone tools. Many come from the sites of the Vézère.

09 Cave

Font-de-Gaume

Grotte de Font-de-Gaume

Opening halfway up a limestone cliff, the cave unfolds a narrow passage where the figures only appear after a tight squeeze. Bison, horses, mammoths and reindeer make up more than two hundred engravings and paintings, including two reindeer facing each other. You'll understand why visitor numbers are limited each day: the cave must be able to recover overnight.

10 Village

Sarlat-la-Canéda

Capital of the Périgord Noir, Sarlat has kept a dense medieval and Renaissance centre, where mansions and stone-slab roofs surround the house of La Boétie. In 1964 it became the first town given a protected heritage district under the Malraux law. Stroll across the Place de la Liberté on a market day, among walnuts, truffles and foie gras.

11 Castle

Château de Beynac

Clinging 150 metres above the Dordogne, the castle of the Barons of Beynac, built in the 12th century, concentrated its defences on the plateau side. During the Hundred Years' War it held for France against English Castelnaud, on the opposite bank. From its terraces, follow the Dordogne, which then served as a frontier.

12 Garden  · Family

Jardins de Marqueyssac

On a rocky spur 130 metres above the Dordogne, the gardens of Marqueyssac unfold six kilometres of shady paths among 150,000 hand-clipped box shrubs. Carry on to the belvedere, from where the view sweeps to Castelnaud, La Roque-Gageac and the valley. Redesigned in the 19th century by Julien de Cerval, the park prefers curves to symmetry.

13 Village

La Roque-Gageac

The houses of La Roque-Gageac huddle between the Dordogne and a high south-facing limestone cliff. Feel the warmth the rock holds, enough for an exotic garden to thrive at the foot of the cliff face. From the riverbank, the blond stone façades line the water's edge, beneath the cliff.

14 Village

Domme, Dordogne

Domme

Founded in 1281 by Philip III the Bold, the bastide of Domme stands on a cliff more than a hundred metres above the Dordogne. From the edge of the rock, follow with your eyes the river winding through the valley. Shaped by the terrain, the fortified town forms a trapezium rather than the usual rectangular plan of bastides.

15 Castle

Château de Castelnaud-la-Chapelle

Château de Castelnaud

At the confluence of the Céou and the Dordogne, Castelnaud faces Beynac, its medieval rival. From the valley, follow with your eyes its 13th-century keep rising above the spur-shaped enclosure. Retaken from the English in 1442, the fortress has housed a museum of medieval warfare since 1985.

16 Castle

Château des Milandes

Above the Dordogne, discover this château built in 1489 for the Caumont family, with its turrets and gargoyles. Josephine Baker rented it in 1937 and then bought it, raising there the twelve adopted children of her rainbow tribe. Crippled by debt, she had to leave it in 1969.

17 Village

Rocamadour

Clinging to a cliff that rises 150 metres above the Alzou valley, the Marian town has drawn pilgrims since the 12th century. Climb the great staircase that some still ascend on their knees, up to the sanctuaries where the Black Virgin keeps watch. Higher up, a Way of the Cross leads to the castle and a viewpoint over the valley.

18 Cave

Padirac Cave

Gouffre de Padirac

Around 35 metres wide, a shaft opens in the Causse de Gramat and plunges 103 metres down to an underground river discovered by Édouard-Alfred Martel in 1889. Glide by boat across this clear water, beneath vaults that vanish into the shadows. Daylight fades at each stage of the descent.

19 Village

Limeuil

Limeuil stands exactly where the Vézère flows into the Dordogne, in the Périgord Noir. From the bank, watch the waters of the two rivers meet at the foot of the houses. The lanes then climb steeply to the top of the village, which overlooks the confluence, on the route of the GR 6.

20 Castle

Château de Monbazillac

Built in a single campaign around 1550 by Charles d'Aydie, the château forms a rectangle flanked by four stout round towers, with machicolations and a wall walk. It stands guard at the edge of a plateau, facing Bergerac, surrounded by 25 hectares of vines, and has belonged to the wine cooperative since 1960. Let your gaze drift towards the Dordogne valley.