Fortified Villages in the Dordogne

We left our nice position in Sarlat-le-Canada and drove south west to Gourdon - another fortified village.

I know Gourdon as port near Aberdeen where you can get fish and chips. I don’t know if the name comes from the same place. Apparently Gourdon in France stems from the Visigoth name for crows.

We did self guided tour of the old city first seeing a very old church.

We then went up the old, very narrow old streets, so many interesting sights on the way.

There is a big Square in the centre with the 1300s church of Saint Pierre.

There was a big hill behind it where the old château had been. It had been under siege by the English including Richard the Lionheart.

It had been deconstructed in the 1700s as punishment by King Louis as the Château had sided with his enemy.

It was a fantastic view from the top and table viewfinder showing the direction of town near and far in France.

Going back down through the narrow streets, there were many signs of its medieval past. There was one old mansion that is now the tourist office that had an old garden area. Several vegetable patches were separated by walls.

The apple trees had been trained along the walls. Here is the explanation why.

We headed down the hill to pick up Gus and then drove onto our next destination.

It was a very windy road through a national park to get to Rocamadour. We stopped for photos of the valley. Many times the road was narrow and on the edge of the cliff - a bit nerve wracking!

We arrived in Rocamadour, which was very busy with tourists. We parked in a big grassy and tree covered car park. After all the cars left, it was just us and three other vans so it was quite lovely.

We went for a walk and found a nice bar to get some photos of the village hanging onto the rock opposite.

We went back to the van and had dinner and prepared ourselves for a special night trip on the petit train. It was a great excursion - we went down through the old town and then through tunnels to the road opposite where we got great views of the town. The night lights were amazing and we got lots of photos.

We went back home to Gus and had a very quiet night.