Dordogne Valley – Perigueux

We drove a total of 861km today, first driving around 300km to La Rochelle, and the remainder to Perigueux. The city of Perigueux has a market every Saturday, has free parking for camper vans, and a campground that is relatively cheap. This is why we chose to drive the insane amount of km’s to this city, that and we want to enter Spain before the end of November. We woke early that Saturday morning in hopes to visit the Speedy we had passed the night before and to visit the Saturday Market, but when we read up on the market to find out where it was in the city, we learnt that there was relatively no info on it. There was however, another city about 65 km south of Perigueux, Sarlat-la-Caneda that has a market every Saturday as well and happens to be the most famous in all France. That being said, we drove the 65 km to Sarlat and visited the market before it closed at 1pm. The market was extremely huge and we could see why it was such a draw. Despite this, we did not purchase a thing. Walking the streets of Sarlat was even more rewarding than the market. Its small medieval streets and buildings really made it a joy to explore. I would have taken pictures but it was about as busy as a mall during Christmas. Plus, you can’t always get the best pictures when it’s so narrow. We would recommend visiting this town. The Dordogne valley is most famous for the oldest cave art drawings ever found, which we decided not to see, because they only allowed viewings of reproductions of the originals. When we got back to the van it was time to find a place to stay and have a shower (it has been awhile for us) and found out that Perigueux was the closest, cheapest and the only one open until we reach the Bordeaux region. We drove back to the campsite and decided on spending 3 nights, as there is a discount, plus it also allowed us the time to get an oil change done on the van and do a small load of laundry. The oil change cost us 34.90 euros and all they did was change out the oil, not the filter, it’s an additional 30 euros to get the filter done too which they didn’t have on hand anyway. Besides taking a late night stroll into the city centre, we pretty much just hung out at the campsite trying to keep up with everything until we get on the road again, this time heading to Rocamadour, a town built on a cliff with apparently Roland’s sword Durandel stuck in the rocks and then to Cahors where they make a “black” or deep purple wine. Finally, we end the day with our last stop in Bergerac.