Southwest France: Bordeaux, the Dordogne and Carcassonne

1. Jour 1 : Arrive in Bordeaux

   Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport or Bordeaux Saint-Jean station to your hotel in central Bordeaux

   • Environ 30 min de route
   • Welcome dinner
   • Nuit : Bordeaux
   Détail du jour 1

   Fly into Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport (BOD), about 15 km west of the centre, or take the TGV from Paris to Bordeaux Saint-Jean, about two hours. A driver meets you and takes you to the hotel in the old centre, listed by UNESCO in 2007 as the Port of the Moon for the crescent the Garonne makes in front of it. The afternoon is yours to rest or walk. At about 6 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the days ahead, then leads a first walk along the quays: the Place de la Bourse and the Miroir d'Eau, the shallow sheet of water that reflects its façades, and the narrow streets of the Saint-Pierre quarter behind them. As the light goes we sit down together to a welcome dinner of southwest cooking, with a glass of Bordeaux for those who want one.

   Compris

   • Pick-up at Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport (BOD) or Bordeaux Saint-Jean station
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Evening walk: the Place de la Bourse, the Miroir d'Eau and the Saint-Pierre quarter
   • Welcome dinner

   Temps libre : Free until the evening briefing

   Activité : Plan to arrive by about 4 pm to join the briefing; later arrivals are met and join the group at dinner.

   

2. Jour 2 : Bordeaux on foot and the Cité du Vin

   Central Bordeaux on foot, the Marché des Capucins, then the Cité du Vin by tram

   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Bordeaux
   Détail du jour 2

   A morning on foot with your guide through the stone city that wine money built in the 18th century. We start at the Grand Théâtre and the Place des Quinconces, walk down the Cours de l'Intendance to the Cathédrale Saint-André and the Pey-Berland tower, then through the Grosse Cloche gate to the Saint-Michel quarter, where the free-standing spire rises 114 m over a neighbourhood of market stalls and cafés. Lunch is at the Marché des Capucins, the city's covered market, at a counter of oysters, grilled duck or whatever is good that day. In the early afternoon the tram takes us north along the river to the Cité du Vin, the wine museum on the old docks, where the visit ends with a glass and a view over the Garonne from the top floor. You are back in the centre by about 5 pm, and the evening is free for the wine bars of the old town.

   Compris

   • Walking tour of central Bordeaux with your guide: the Grand Théâtre, the Cathédrale Saint-André, the Grosse Cloche and the Saint-Michel quarter
   • Lunch at the Marché des Capucins
   • Tram tickets for the day
   • The Cité du Vin, with a tasting glass on the top floor

   Option plus active : When it is open for visits (seasonal), climb the Flèche Saint-Michel for the view over the river and the Pont de Pierre.

   Temps libre : Evening free

   Activité : About 5 km on foot over the day on flat streets, with benches and cafés on the way.

   

3. Jour 3 : Saint-Emilion, then east to Sarlat

   Bordeaux to Saint-Emilion, then via Bergerac to Sarlat-la-Canéda

   • Environ 3 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Sarlat-la-Canéda
   Détail du jour 3

   We leave Bordeaux after breakfast for Saint-Emilion, about 45 km east, a hill village of honey-coloured stone in the middle of its vineyards, listed by UNESCO with its wine country in 1999. We are there by mid-morning, before the day coaches, for the tourist office's guided visit of the monolithic church, carved out of the limestone hillside in the Middle Ages, and the catacombs beside it. Then a short walk down through the vines to a château for a cellar visit and a tasting of the local merlot-led reds. Lunch is in the village. In the afternoon we drive on through the Dordogne valley past Bergerac, about two hours with a stretch stop, and reach Sarlat in the late afternoon. Your guide walks you from the hotel into the medieval town, and dinner tonight is Périgord cooking: duck, walnuts and potatoes sarladaises.

   Compris

   • Guided visit of Saint-Emilion's monolithic church and catacombs
   • Vineyard walk, cellar visit and tasting at a Saint-Emilion château
   • Lunch in Saint-Emilion
   • Orientation walk in Sarlat
   • Périgord dinner in Sarlat

   Option plus facile : Ride to the château in the minivan instead of walking down through the vines.

   Activité : Saint-Emilion is steep and cobbled; the church visit has some uneven steps underground.

4. Jour 4 : Lascaux IV and the Vézère valley

   Sarlat to Lascaux IV at Montignac, then Saint-Léon-sur-Vézère and back

   • Environ 1.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Sarlat-la-Canéda
   Détail du jour 4

   Half an hour north of Sarlat, Lascaux IV at Montignac shows the painted cave found by four teenagers in 1940. The original has been closed to the public since 1963 to protect it, and this full-size replica, opened in 2016, copies its bulls, horses and stags to the millimetre, in the same cool half-dark. We take the first timed slot of the morning, so the guided visit is not in a queue of school groups. After the cave there are rooms on what the paintings may mean, and you can take your time. Then we drive a few minutes down the Vézère valley, part of the UNESCO listing of its prehistoric sites since 1979, to Saint-Léon-sur-Vézère, a small village of stone houses and a Romanesque church on a bend of the river, for lunch on a terrace. We are back in Sarlat by about 3 pm, and the rest of the day is yours.

   Compris

   • Lascaux IV, the International Centre for Cave Art, guided visit on a morning slot
   • Saint-Léon-sur-Vézère with your guide
   • Lunch in Saint-Léon-sur-Vézère

   Option plus active : In the free afternoon your guide can point you to the La Roque Saint-Christophe cliff shelters, a short drive from Saint-Léon, by taxi at your own cost.

   Temps libre : Afternoon and evening free in Sarlat

   Activité : About 2 hours on foot at Lascaux IV, on level floors; the cave is kept cool, so bring a light layer.

5. Jour 5 : Sarlat market, Domme and a gabarre at La Roque-Gageac

   Sarlat on foot, then Domme and La Roque-Gageac on the Dordogne

   • Environ 45 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Sarlat-la-Canéda
   Détail du jour 5

   Departures are set so today is a market day in Sarlat. We start early with your guide in the old town before the stalls get busy: the Place de la Liberté, the Cathédrale Saint-Sacerdos, the Lanterne des Morts and the carved front of the Maison de La Boétie. Then you shop for lunch with the group budget: walnut bread, cabécou goat's cheese, duck rillettes, strawberries in season. We drive about 12 km to Domme, a hilltop bastide founded in 1281, and picnic at the belvedere, high above a long bend of the Dordogne. After lunch we drop down to La Roque-Gageac, its houses pressed under an overhanging cliff, and board a gabarre, a flat-bottomed boat of the kind that carried wine and timber down the river, for about an hour on the water beneath the castles. We are back in Sarlat by late afternoon.

   Compris

   • Sarlat old town on foot with your guide
   • Sarlat market, with a picnic lunch bought at the stalls
   • Domme and the belvedere over the Dordogne
   • Gabarre boat trip from La Roque-Gageac, about one hour

   Option plus facile : Sit out the old-town walk at a café on the Place de la Liberté and join the group for the market shopping; the gabarre needs no effort at all.

   Option plus active : Paddle the Dordogne by canoe from Vitrac to La Roque-Gageac with a local outfitter, about 2 hours, instead of the gabarre; included, booked ahead with your name.

   Temps libre : Evening free in Sarlat

   Activité : The canoe stretch is flat water with no rapids; life jackets are provided and you need to be able to swim.

6. Jour 6 : Rocamadour early, then Autoire and Loubressac

   Sarlat to Rocamadour, then Autoire and Loubressac, and back to Sarlat

   • Environ 2.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Sarlat-la-Canéda
   Détail du jour 6

   We leave Sarlat at about 8 am and stop first at L'Hospitalet, the viewpoint across the canyon of the Alzou, where Rocamadour hangs on the cliff in tiers: houses at the bottom, the sanctuary in the middle, the château on top. By about 9 am we walk in through the Porte du Figuier, before the day coaches arrive, and climb the Grand Escalier, the 216 steps pilgrims once took on their knees, to the sanctuary. Your guide shows you the Black Virgin in the Chapelle Notre-Dame and the Basilica of Saint-Sauveur, part of the UNESCO listing of the routes to Santiago de Compostela. From there it is about half an hour to Autoire, a village of turreted stone houses under a ring of cliffs, for lunch and a short walk up to its waterfall. On the way home we stop at Loubressac for the view over the Dordogne valley.

   Compris

   • Rocamadour with your guide: the L'Hospitalet viewpoint, the village and the sanctuary
   • Rocamadour lifts, both ways
   • Lunch in Autoire and the walk to the Autoire waterfall
   • Loubressac viewpoint

   Option plus facile : Take the lift from the village to the sanctuary and the inclined lift up to the ramparts instead of the steps.

   Option plus active : Walk up from the sanctuary to the château ramparts by the Way of the Cross, a shaded path of switchbacks.

   Temps libre : Evening free in Sarlat

   Activité : 216 steps in Rocamadour if you walk, and a short uneven path to the Autoire waterfall.

   

7. Jour 7 : Pech Merle, Saint-Cirq-Lapopie and on to Toulouse

   Sarlat to Pech Merle and Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, then Cahors and Toulouse

   • Environ 4 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Toulouse
   Détail du jour 7

   Today is the longest drive, about 250 km and three and three-quarter hours on the road, so it is broken into three parts. We leave Sarlat after breakfast and drive about an hour and a half south into the Lot valley for a morning slot at Pech Merle, one of the few painted caves in France where you still see the originals: spotted horses, mammoths and hand stencils made more than 20,000 years ago. Visitor numbers are capped each day, so the tickets are booked in your names. A few minutes on, Saint-Cirq-Lapopie stands on a cliff about 100 m above the river; lunch is in the village, with time to walk its lanes. In the afternoon we stop in Cahors at the Pont Valentré, a 14th-century bridge with three towers, then take the motorway to Toulouse, arriving at about 6 pm. The evening is free.

   Compris

   • Pech Merle cave, guided visit on a morning slot
   • Saint-Cirq-Lapopie with your guide
   • Lunch in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie
   • The Pont Valentré in Cahors

   Temps libre : Evening free in Toulouse

   Activité : About an hour on foot in Pech Merle with some steps; no photos are allowed inside the cave.

8. Jour 8 : Carcassonne, then Toulouse in late light

   Toulouse to Carcassonne and back, then the centre of Toulouse on foot

   • Environ 2.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Toulouse
   Détail du jour 8

   We leave Toulouse at about 8 am for Carcassonne, a little over an hour south-east, and walk into the Cité through the Porte Narbonnaise while the lanes are still quiet. The double ring of walls, about 3 km round with more than fifty towers, was heavily restored in the 19th century by Viollet-le-Duc, and the whole fortified town has been listed by UNESCO since 1997. Your guide takes you into the Château comtal when it opens and along the ramparts. Lunch is cassoulet, the white bean, duck and sausage stew the region argues about, at a table in the Cité. We drive back to Toulouse by about 3:30 pm. In the late afternoon your guide walks you through the pink-brick centre: the Place du Capitole, the Basilica of Saint-Sernin and the cloister of Les Jacobins, ending on the quays of the Garonne as the sun drops. The farewell dinner is in the old town.

   Compris

   • Carcassonne's Cité with your guide
   • The Château comtal and its ramparts
   • Cassoulet lunch in Carcassonne
   • Walk in Toulouse: the Place du Capitole, the Basilica of Saint-Sernin, Les Jacobins and the Garonne quays
   • Farewell dinner in Toulouse

   Option plus facile : Skip the Toulouse walk and rest at the hotel before dinner.

   Option plus active : Walk the full circuit of the lices, the grassy lane between Carcassonne's two walls, about 3 km, after the château.

   Activité : Cobbles and some steps on the ramparts at Carcassonne.

9. Jour 9 : Depart from Toulouse

   Toulouse to Toulouse-Blagnac Airport or Toulouse Matabiau station

   • Environ 15 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner
   Détail du jour 9

   The trip ends after breakfast. Our driver takes you to Toulouse-Blagnac Airport (TLS), about 10 km from the centre, or to Toulouse Matabiau station for a train to Paris, Bordeaux or the Mediterranean coast. Your guide sees the group off and checks everyone's flight or train times the evening before. If your flight is in the afternoon, leave your bags at the hotel and spend the morning at the Marché Victor Hugo, Toulouse's covered food market, which is open every morning except Monday, or walk along the Canal du Midi, a UNESCO-listed waterway that runs past the station towards the Mediterranean. If you would like to stay longer in Toulouse, or go on to Albi, the Pyrenees or the coast, ask us to add nights before or after the trip when you book. Please book a departing flight after about 11 am so the transfer runs without a rush.

   Compris

   • Drop-off at Toulouse-Blagnac Airport (TLS) or Toulouse Matabiau station

   Temps libre : Free until your transfer

   Activité : Book a flight leaving after about 11 am.

Faune et météo : May, June and September are warm and green with fewer visitors. July and August are hot and the valley roads are busy. From mid-October some boats stop running and sites shorten their hours.

• Bordeaux2 nuits
• Sarlat-la-Canéda4 nuits
• Toulouse2 nuits