Walking & Cycling
Walking
The Dordogne offers the walker a beautiful environment in which
to walk, surrounded by delightful pastoral countryside, sweeping fields
of crops and walnut orchards plus dramatic vistas from cliff tops. Explore
this countryside at your own pace, as you go through valley bottoms,
into woodlands, pass medieval castles, honey coloured stone-built
villages, meandering streams and prehistoric sites, not to mention
the wildlife you will see along the way. Then sit in the delightful surroundings
of a village café and sample the region’s gastronomic delights.
With a varied landscape that is rolling and lush, 6000 km of signposted
tracks and a scenery to captivate at all times of the year, this is a
walker’s paradise. Click
here to
see more photos of the scenery.
Cycling
The Dordogne and Vézère valleys provide pleasant,
relaxed riding with long views of rolling hills, castles looming at the
top of cliffs like the Chateau de Beynac, and fortified towns perched
on hilltops called "bastides" such as Domme. Cycling can
be on back roads, minor highways as well as on the completely car-free ‘Piste
Cyclable’, a disused railway line that has been converted into
a smooth tarmacadam cycle way. The route runs through shaded wooded areas
making this activity quite pleasant even in the summer. It starts from Sarlat
up to the Dordogne river with off-shoots at the end. Once over the river,
the Piste Cyclable gives way to country lanes that continue on to the
village of Grolejac, ideal for a picnic. Click
here to see more photos of the scenery in this region.
We can provide sample walking/cycling itineraries. |
- The Dordogne-Périgord has 4,600 kms of marked
cycle paths
- Montignac tourist office sells a comprehensive cycling and walking
map with 31circuits. There is also another circuit which focuses on
prehistoric sites.
- April is already warm here. In Spring, (May, June) and in Autumn (September,
October) the countryside is more lush and the scenery even more beautiful,
since the daylight is slightly less harsh than in the summer. Temperatures
in autumn and spring are typically 21-26 degrees.
- France has a very large network of secondary and tertiary roads
for cycling, which can be found on Michelin 1:200,000 maps
- NCF offers a train + bike ticket. Your bike goes free or at a small
charge depending on the train (TGV, Corail or TER), and is either dismantled
or travels as it is.
- Bikes can be hired locally on a half day (cost 7 eur), full day or
weekly basis at a shop near us (10 minutes walk)
- For walkers there are footpaths marked accordingly: red and white for
the “GR” routes
(long-distance footpaths), yellow for the local routes, and blue for the “PR” routes
(walks)
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