What to do and see in the region
Château LeBreuil 1882 is in the heart of the Dordogne, a short drive from the delights of Bergerac, and brilliantly located for visiting prehistoric caves, medieval châteaux, manicured gardens and museums, local markets in bastide towns, vineyards, canoeing down the rivers, and gastronomy – the Dordogne is synonymous with some of the most acclaimed food in France including cep mushrooms, walnuts, foie gras and their prised black truffles.
There’s lots to explore and do. Here’s information about what we can arrange at LeBreuil to enhance your stay, and we’ll share our restaurant recommendations with you too, like Château Les Merles, which you can walk to through the woods.
All times mentioned are the driving times from Château LeBreuil 1882.
Markets
One of the best ways to visit the medieval bastide towns dotted around is to go on market days. Our favourite for being typically French and bustling, is Issigeac on a Sunday (18 mins). Here are the local morning markets:
Sunday: Issigeac
Tuesday: Beaumont holds a (smallish) market
Wednesday: Bergerac, Perigueux and Sarlat
Thursday: Lalinde holds a market, this is a great one to go to
Saturday: Villeréal has held its Saturday market since 1288; Bergerac, Sarlat and Perigueux too
Close-by
Château Les Merles (5 mins) is a hotel with a 9-hole golf course, just down the road from LeBreuil.
Château de Tiregand (10 mins) hosts wine-tasting tours of their vineyards and Arsène Lupin and Giant Cluedo experiences in the château.
For history buffs, the Napoleon Museum at Château de la Pommerie (25 mins) offers guided tours of their private collection of items from the Imperial Family, and if you’re lucky, the Count de Witt, a direct descendant of the Bonaparte family, will lead your tour.
Napoleon Museum (25 mins) is the castle of games and is a brilliant place to entertain children.
Bergerac
The centre of Bergerac is only 20 minutes away and the Quai Cyrano is a great place to start – it houses the tourist office, a wine-tasting center with views over the river, and barge trips (gabarres) on it. There is a small museum called Dordonha which tells the story of the history and architecture of Bergerac – a great place to spend half an hour. Wander up and down the medieval streets discovering the independent shops and soaking up the atmosphere.
Wine is very important to Bergerac, it has 7 appellations including Monbazillac, a sweet white wine which locals pair with foie gras, cheeses and desserts. There are lots of wine château to visit and taste!
On the outskirts you’ll find our favourite grocery shop, Grand Frais, hypermarchés, sports shops and much more.
Prehistoric caves
The most famous cave is Lascaux in Montignac (1h10) which is a facsimile. If you want to visit an original cave with prehistoric paintings from 17,000 BC, go to Font de Gaume or to Combarelles (both 50 mins) for prehistoric engravings.
Châteaux
There are purported to be 1,001 châteaux in the Dordogne, but you won’t tire of spotting them.
Château de Biron (45 mins) was originally built as a medieval fortress, it gradually evolved into an elegant Renaissance residence. They hold modern art exhibitions and concerts through the summer.
Château des Milandes (1h) was the home of Josephine Baker, one of the 20th century’s most influential figures, truly groundbreaking and a French resistance fighter. Her story is told beautifully and there are amazing gardens to explore and a display of birds of prey too.
Château de Castelnaud (1h) is 13th-century fortress offering spectacular views and bringing history to life as the home of the Museum of Medieval Warfare.
Plus Beaux Villages de France
This impressive title has been awarded to several villages in the Dordogne (and only 160 in the whole of France). Limeuil (35 mins) lies at the confluence of the Dordogne and the Vézère. Monpazier (40 mins) was built by Edward I of England in 1284 and is acknowledged as the model bastide with its perfect layout, with streets in a grid pattern around the main square. Go on a Thursday morning when it’s market day. Not far from it is the hilltop village of Belvés (45 mins).
Beynac-et-Cazenac (55 mins) has a fortress high above the village and river, and the village was one of the locations for the film Chocolat. Nearby are Castelnaud-La-Chapelle (1h), La Roque Gageac (1h) and Domme (1h10). Saint-Léon-sur-Vézère (1h) is a very pretty village on the Vézère river, with one of our favourite restaurants, Le Petit Léon.
Gardens
The Jardins de Marqueyssac (1h) with over 6km of pathways surrounded by over 150,000 hand-pruned boxwoods, with viewpoints over the Dordogne valley and châteaux.
Latour Marliac (1h10) was created in 1875 as a magical nursery of waterlilies and lotuses, from where Monet purchased his waterlilies. Eyrignac (1h30) is on the other side of Sarlat and has 10 hectares of topiary and gardens.
Canoeing
There are two rivers you can canoe down, the Dordogne and the Vézère, the rivers meet in Limeuil (35 mins). Canoeing down the Dordogne offers you the chance to see castles and villages, the Vézère is quieter and greener.
Interesting towns
Perigueux (45 mins) is a bustling town with good restaurants, with ancient Roman roots (look out for the ruins around the place), a medieval cathedral (UNESCO) and Renaissance architecture. It’s market around the cathedral is on Wednesday and Saturday mornings.
Sarlat (1h10) is known as the pearl of the Périgord (1h10) with markets on Wednesday and Saturday mornings has the greatest concentration of listed historical monuments per area in France.
