Back to the Bastides

We’re back in France, this time in the Dordogne Valley to revisit the bastides. We were first here in 2015. These are hilltop fortress towns that were fought over for centuries. Now tourists fight over limited parking spaces in these towns.

Our home base, as it was seven years ago, is Domme. This is a gorgeous village with views of the valley below. The Hôtel Esplanade is still under the same ownership. Unlike last time, we’ll be spending three nights here instead of one. Our friend Bruce is here for the fun, although Laurie had to go back to Michigan yesterday.

We went back to two villages we also visited in 2015, Beynac and La Roque-Gageac. The former has a fort built into the side of the cliff that one can climb and visit – for a fee. Despite our aging knees, Bruce and I made it up there. The fort was rebuilt after a rockslide took it and six buildings below out in 1957. The fort now has modern metal reinforcements holding things up, along with a metal stairway. Beynac is also built into the side of a cliff.

The specialties of the Dordogne are walnuts, foie gras, and strawberries. You will find many purveyors of foie gras in the bastides. We brought a couple of cans home last time. The strawberries are excellent. We’ve had some with our breakfasts at the hotel. The red-veneered tasteless ones one gets in the US are no match.

We had to take Bruce to a rail station so he could catch a flight home from Paris. On the way back to Domme, we stopped at Sarlat. This is one of the larger cities in the area. We were underwhelmed. The ratio of souvenir shops to genuine attractions was too high. Parking was a mess. If the city was so crowded at the end of April, July and August would be an absolute nightmare. I think I’ll stick to Domme.