Sunday 22nd October 2023

Sarlat to Beynac

Today we were headed for Beynac recognised as one of the best historical towns in Dordogne because of its riverside setting and being a one time home of Richard The Lioheart (RTL)

It was predicted to be cold and a chance of rain and the cold part was right with it around 8 degrees when we left. The lovely downward trail of yesterday was taken in reverse this morning and it had the lungs pumping.

Breakfast was with a room full of touring artists and a bunch of Yanks, whose trials and tribulations of overseas travel have to make you laugh.

We were quickly up into the hills, with a great look back into town, but not as good as the crew in the hot air balloon which soared overhead. No bird noises but lots of trail bikers and baying hounds.

We soon came across the hunters, who owned the dogs, in 3 vans that seemed to zoom past us but not fire a shot within earshot. The further we got into the forest the louder the barking became. Out of nowhere a deer arrived and tried unsuccessfully to hurdle a 6 foot high fence several times, before bouncing back onto the road and heading off.

Next it was a wild boar and not sure who was most started to see one another- we froze and he reacted like the deer before successfully burrowing through a hole under the fence.

It all happened in a matter of moments, with another startled boar just ahead of the hounds in the woods. Not sure if he was smarter or dumber than the others because he butted open a gate and then turned around and ran down the road.

Within minutes the baying hound with their GPS fitted collars arrived and ran straight through the gate – was it subterfuge by the pig that put them off we wondered.

After a few minutes out they ran and guess who had a ham croissant in their bag- they gave me a sniff and took off again, not to be seen until later in the back of the hunters van looking rather forlorn and bark free.

Looked like it was Prey 1 Hunters 0 this round.

We passed a whole lot of unhunted animals after that in paddocks and heard some hounds in another directions and a bit of gunfire and that was it. The motorbikes were still off in the forest roaring about.

Wound our way out of forests snd steeply into St Andrade which had a beautiful church and a remarkable cemetery . Many of the graves were covered with rememberance ornaments rather than flowers, with some desgned to represent the departed’s interest – one was obviously a keen outdoors person. Several graves were of prominent French Resistance fighters who had made great contributions to the cause,but paid with their lives.

We made pretty good progress until some slight confusion with the instructions, map and App had us doing an unscheduled 3 km detour. We finally found our way back after seeing some nice countryside including quite palatial homes/ chateau’s and equally derelict and deserted ones. We found out that many families choose to leave them derelict rather than transfer ownership after someone’s death to avoid inheritance tax. Can also imagine cost of upkeep would have something to do with it.

On the track and making better time we were soon at the magnificent Chateau de Beynac.

What a history this place had. It was home to Queen Eleanor the mother of Richard the Lionheart , wife of a French and English King ( Louis VII and Henry II) as well as being one of the most prominent women of her time.

The chateau itself perched high above the Dordogne changed hands many times but was primarily in French hands. The river at one stage was the unofficial border between England and France. England had a slightly less grand chateau not more than 3 Kms away on the other side of the river.

The Beynac one has been revamped beautifully over the last 50 years and it’s counterpart is currently being renovated.

It was a fascinating visit to a building that was more about defence than opulence. Not much ornate work, though the bedrooms of Queen and RTL had been restored, along with the kitchen and dining room.

Dining room was interesting as the table had scabbards attached to the table so the knights etc were not too far from their weapons.

One interesting point about those Crusade times was that RTL went to recapture Jerusalem- some sort of hike on a horse.

It was hard to believe that such a strategically placed chateau high up on the hill and surrounded by twin moats and several drawbridges could change hands- just walking down the cobblestone steps was a chore. We passed one poor lady who was totally chuffed after about 200 metres and looked a likely candidate for the strategically placed defibrillator that was about 100 metres further on up the hill.

Our hotel? just off the river, was small and we think there may only have been us and several others staying.

We changed and went for a drink in the waterside bar, owned by our hotel. Several boats were doing river tours on the swift flowing Dordogne whilst two ballon’s we’re giving people a Birds Eye view.

We had plenty of time to kill so went for a stroll along the river. Tourism is obviously big here based on the number of hotels, restaurants and camping grounds. That said one major hotel was obviously abandoned but the number of camping sites more than made up for that.

The camping ground had every possible option with powered sites, glamping and mini homes. The season is obviously closed with only one motor home in the entire park.

Abutting the park wete huge fields of corn with unharvested plants about 2.5 metres high. Not sure if it was a lazy farmer or if they were saving it for stock feed.

Wherever you went the chateau was keeping an eye on you and it must have been a distraction for any goalkeeper at the southern end of Beynac FC ground . Hope they were more successful than depicted by its sscoreboard/dressing sheds and food stall – all looking a little worse for wear

Being so close to the river you can imagine a few errant kicks drifting away with the current. Maybe one of the canoe hire places has a ballboy afloat on match day.

Just beside the field were two bridges, one in a state of disrepair and permanently open to boat traffic and the other a beautiful arched structure with an amazing reflection off the river.

Headed back to town through the corn fields and then detoured through the walnut field before a pre-dinner drink in an outdoor bar.

We enjoyed a riverside dinner and headed home to our mini room to rest up for tomorrows walk to Domme, yet another historical cliff top town. Just hoping the weatherman gets the forecast wrong,