This is one of the most beautiful areas we love in France. We have been to this region many times over the years. This river flows slowly and peacefully through farm lands and over many eons has created this valley. In the background you can see the lighter colored cliffs. Our town was called La Roque Gageac. It is on the right hand side set of cliffs in tthe background of this picture. I took this shot one day after a great lunch overlooking the river from a town called Domme. It does not get much prettier than this. We stayed in this valley for a week.
The town we stayed lies riverside as you can see. In the afternoons the balloons (montgolfiers- if I spelled that right) would float right by our house. They almost touched down into the river and then would lift off again and float right back up and drift away with the breeze. It was great advertising for them. We looked into hiring a ride, but it cost $500.00 per couple. We could not quite swing that. But it was fun to watch them up so close. Many times we could hear their blowers from our outside patio before we could see them. The castle in the background that looks white in color, back in the day was the kings castle. He lived close to his town but not (in) his town. It was only about 1000 ft from the last house in the row. It was good to be King! On this stretch of river, you can take a tour boat ride (1 hour) and hear the history of this area. Its incredible and hard to believe. There are 5 castles within about 5 miles of each other. At different times they were owned and controlled by different countries, and whoever survived the take-overs were forced to abide by the new King's ( or ruler's) rules, and their current religion and have to speak their new ruler's language or else you were out, done, dead. No other options. And these castles can see each other from one hillside to the next and warred and spied on each other constantly. In fact they built "Castlenaud" only about 1/2 mile from Castle "Beynac" on the hilltop literally to spy on them so they could not be surprised by their actions and attacks from across the valley. It is mind boggling that two families in castles could fight so hard and for so long ( The Hundred Years War was a biggie) and actually fight to the death with people who were really your neighbors. It was really interesting to hear all this. Remember the book (and then movie) "Timeline," it was filmed in the Castles Beynac and Castlenaud. They did not make that stuff up. Its HERE.
The house with the red shutters in the middle is the house we rented. Lorenzo found this place on VRBO.com and it was a fantastic find. It had 2 bdrms upstairs and 1 bdrm downstairs, with fully stocked kitchen, large living room and fireplace on ground floor. Also, there was a really nice outter deck/patio we spent a LOT of time on in the afternoons when we were done exploring the nearby towns, lunch spots, and wine caves. We loved staying in this place. It was busy with tourists in the day time, but in the mornings and evenings it was quiet. We were the only thing happpening here. It was great!
This was our patio deck on the right. There were grape vines covering it creating nice shade from the sun in afternoons. We would be sitting there enjoying ourselves laughing and giggling about whatever we may have been talking about at the time, and people who would be hiking UPHILL passed us would then realize we were there, until then unnoticed, hidden in the shade relaxing and loving life. The looks on their faces would drive home our thoughts... "Oh what a great place to be in the world.!
This is one of the most beautiful areas we love in France. We have been to this region many times over the years. This river flows slowly and peacefully through farm lands and over many eons has created this valley. In the background you can see the lighter colored cliffs. Our town was called La Roque Gageac. It is on the right hand side set of cliffs in tthe background of this picture. I took this shot one day after a great lunch overlooking the river from a town called Domme. It does not get much prettier than this. We stayed in this valley for a week. 
The town we stayed lies riverside as you can see. In the afternoons the balloons (montgolfiers- if I spelled that right) would float right by our house. They almost touched down into the river and then would lift off again and float right back up and drift away with the breeze. It was great advertising for them. We looked into hiring a ride, but it cost $500.00 per couple. We could not quite swing that. But it was fun to watch them up so close. Many times we could hear their blowers from our outside patio before we could see them. The castle in the background that looks white in color, back in the day was the kings castle. He lived close to his town but not (in) his town. It was only about 1000 ft from the last house in the row. It was good to be King! On this stretch of river, you can take a tour boat ride (1 hour) and hear the history of this area. Its incredible and hard to believe. There are 5 castles within about 5 miles of each other. At different times they were owned and controlled by different countries, and whoever survived the take-overs were forced to abide by the new King's ( or ruler's) rules, and their current religion and have to speak their new ruler's language or else you were out, done, dead. No other options. And these castles can see each other from one hillside to the next and warred and spied on each other constantly. In fact they built "Castlenaud" only about 1/2 mile from Castle "Beynac" on the hilltop literally to spy on them so they could not be surprised by their actions and attacks from across the valley. It is mind boggling that two families in castles could fight so hard and for so long ( The Hundred Years War was a biggie) and actually fight to the death with people who were really your neighbors. It was really interesting to hear all this. Remember the book (and then movie) "Timeline," it was filmed in the Castles Beynac and Castlenaud. They did not make that stuff up. Its HERE.
The house with the red shutters in the middle is the house we rented. Lorenzo found this place on VRBO.com and it was a fantastic find. It had 2 bdrms upstairs and 1 bdrm downstairs, with fully stocked kitchen, large living room and fireplace on ground floor. Also, there was a really nice outter deck/patio we spent a LOT of time on in the afternoons when we were done exploring the nearby towns, lunch spots, and wine caves. We loved staying in this place. It was busy with tourists in the day time, but in the mornings and evenings it was quiet. We were the only thing happpening here. It was great!
This was our patio deck on the right. There were grape vines covering it creating nice shade from the sun in afternoons. We would be sitting there enjoying ourselves laughing and giggling about whatever we may have been talking about at the time, and people who would be hiking UPHILL passed us would then realize we were there, until then unnoticed, hidden in the shade relaxing and loving life. The looks on their faces would drive home our thoughts... "Oh what a great place to be in the world.! 
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