The Vezere valley in the Dordogne holds the densest concentration of Palaeolithic art anywhere: fifteen sites on the UNESCO list, including Lascaux, painted around 17,000 years ago and found in 1940 by four teenagers and a dog. The caves were opened to the public, the visitors' breath grew algae and crystals on the paintings, and they were closed again in 1963. What you visit now is a replica, and it is an extraordinarily good one.
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Above the river, the medieval war is still legible in the landscape. Beynac and Castelnaud stand on opposite cliffs a few kilometres apart, French and English respectively through the Hundred Years War, each built to watch the other. Between them the Dordogne runs green and slow, full of canoes in summer. The food is duck, walnut and truffle, the markets are the best in France by many accounts, and one department, the Dordogne, is roughly what people mean when they say Perigord.
What Makes the Dordogne Different to Pack For
The caves are cold, and that is the point
Original caves and replicas alike are held at around 12°C to 13°C year round with very high humidity, because that is what preserves the art. You will walk in from a 32°C August afternoon and be genuinely cold within ten minutes.
A layer you can carry is the single most forgotten item here. A merino wool base layer for women handles it and the cool evenings, and takes no space.
Everything worth seeing must be booked
Lascaux IV, Font-de-Gaume, which is one of the very few original polychrome caves still open, and Grotte de Rouffignac all limit numbers, and Font-de-Gaume in particular releases a small number of tickets and sells out far ahead. Turning up is not a plan.
A continental summer and a damp winter
July and August run 28°C to 34°C and can exceed 38°C, with thunderstorms. Winter is 8°C to 11°C, grey and wet, and much of the tourist infrastructure closes from November to March. Spring and autumn are the right answer.
The villages are vertical and cobbled
Sarlat, Domme, La Roque-Gageac and the bastide towns are steep, cobbled and uneven, and the castles involve stairs cut into rock.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
The Dordogne Packing List
Footwear
Flat shoes with grip for the villages, which are cobbled and polished, and for the caves, where the floors are wet stone and often sloping. Several cave visits do not permit large bags, so a small one is better.
For the clifftop paths, the walk up to Domme or La Roque-Gageac's troglodyte fort, or the Vezere valley trails, waterproof hiking shoes are the right tool.
Clothing
Light summer clothes with a genuine warm layer carried every day for the caves. Long trousers for the evenings, when mosquitoes come off the river.
Covered shoulders and knees for the churches and abbeys. The Dordogne is rural, comfortable and unpretentious; nothing here requires dressing up, though the restaurants take food very seriously.
For rain and sun
A packable rain jacket, because summer thunderstorms are sudden and the shoulder seasons are wet. A wide brim sun hat and sunscreen for the canoe, where there is no shade for three hours and people burn badly.
For the river
Quick drying clothes and a dry bag for the canoe. Water shoes, since you launch and land on gravel and may need to get out in shallows. Nothing in your pockets that water ruins.
Practical
Book Lascaux IV and especially Font-de-Gaume as far ahead as they release. Cash for the markets, which are the reason to be here on a Wednesday or Saturday in Sarlat. A cool bag if you intend to buy from the markets in summer, because you will. A car, since public transport between villages barely exists.
What to Wear at Key Sites
Lascaux and the painted caves
Lascaux IV is a complete facsimile of the cave with a museum around it. Font-de-Gaume near Les Eyzies is an original cave with polychrome paintings still open to small guided groups. Rouffignac is entered on a small electric train and has mammoths.
Practically: take a warm layer into all of them, and book Font-de-Gaume months ahead if you want the real thing. Photography is prohibited in the originals. Large bags are not permitted. The floors are damp and uneven and some passages are low. If enclosed spaces are difficult, Lascaux IV is the easier visit.
Sarlat
A dense medieval and Renaissance town of golden limestone, remarkably intact because it was too poor to rebuild itself for three centuries, with a Saturday market that fills every street.
Practically: go to the market early and leave the car outside the centre. The town is compact and entirely walkable, and it is very busy in August. The covered market is in a deconsecrated church with a glass door by Jean Nouvel.
Beynac and Castelnaud
Two castles on opposite cliffs, Beynac the French side and Castelnaud the English, both climbable and both with extraordinary views over the valley.
Practically: Beynac involves a steep walk up through the village from the car park and stone stairs inside with drops. Castelnaud has a good siege engine collection and is the easier family visit. Doing both in a day is a lot of climbing.
Canoeing the river
The classic run is La Roque-Gageac to Beynac or Castelnaud, a few hours with the current, passing beneath both castles.
Practically: this is the best way to see the valley and it is genuinely easy, but there is no shade, so hat and sunscreen matter more than anything else. Life jackets are provided and should be worn. The river is low and slow in summer and can be closed after heavy rain. Operators run a shuttle back.
La Roque-Gageac and Domme
La Roque-Gageac is a single row of houses pressed between the cliff and the river, with a troglodyte fort above it and an exotic garden that survives on the reflected heat. Domme is a bastide on a clifftop with a view along the whole valley.
Practically: La Roque-Gageac has had rockfalls from the cliff above it and some paths are closed accordingly; obey the signs. Domme's viewpoint is one of the great views in France and the town is small.
The markets and the food
Sarlat on Wednesday and Saturday, Le Bugue on Tuesday, plus truffle markets in winter and the night markets in summer villages.
Practically: cash, a bag and an appetite. Foie gras, walnut oil, cabecou goat cheese and, from December to February, black truffle. Be aware that foie gras production is contentious, and that the region does not hide it; it is entirely reasonable to skip it.
What Not to Bring
Leave a plan that involves turning up at a cave. Leave the warm layer behind at your peril, because every cave is 13°C.
Leave heels for the cobbles. Leave the expectation of good public transport. Leave a winter trip expecting things to be open. And leave Rocamadour off the list if you are counting Dordogne sights, because it is in the Lot, an hour away, and is a different department entirely.
Essential Resources for Women in the Dordogne
Emergency numbers in France: 112 is the European emergency number and works for everything. 15 reaches the SAMU medical service, 17 the police and 18 the fire service, who also handle river rescues and cave incidents.
Tourist support: France has no dedicated tourist police force. A theft requires a plainte filed at a gendarmerie, which can be pre-registered online at the pre-plainte-en-ligne service, and you need it for insurance and for a replacement passport.
US Consulate: there is no consulate in the Dordogne. The US Embassy in Paris, 2 avenue Gabriel, telephone +33 1 43 12 22 22, at fr.usembassy.gov, covers the region, with Bordeaux about two hours away as the nearest city of size and Paris around five by road or two and a half by train from Bordeaux. Enrol in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program at step.state.gov before you travel.
Main hospital or clinic: the Centre Hospitalier de Perigueux is the departmental hospital, with a smaller one at Sarlat serving the valley. Anything major goes to the CHU de Bordeaux, roughly two hours away. EU and UK visitors should carry the European Health Insurance Card or the UK Global Health Insurance Card; everyone else needs travel insurance, and check it covers canoeing.
Official health authority: the French Ministry of Health at sante.gouv.fr, with Meteo France for the summer heatwave alerts, which this inland valley gets, and for storm warnings.
US State Department travel advisory for France: current advisory level and detail. Read it directly rather than relying on this page.
UK FCDO travel advice for France: entry requirements, safety and health guidance, including the extreme heat advice and the national terrorism threat level.
Official tourism authority: Atout France at france.fr, with the Dordogne departmental tourism service for market days and opening seasons, and the Lascaux and Font-de-Gaume booking sites, which are the two things to sort before anything else.
Solo women safety assessment: the Dordogne is one of the safest and most comfortable regions in France for a woman travelling alone. It is deeply rural, prosperous, and used to visitors without being overrun, crime against travellers is rare, street harassment is uncommon and mild, and eating alone in a village restaurant is completely ordinary. There is a large British and Dutch resident population, so English is widely spoken, which makes it an unusually easy region if your French is limited. Sarlat and the larger villages are safe to walk at any hour. Petty theft is modest and concentrated in the market crowds and, more significantly, in theft from parked cars at trailheads, canoe launch points and castle car parks, which is the commonest problem in rural France; leave nothing visible. The genuine risks here are physical rather than criminal and they are mild by the standards of most destinations in this series. Cobbles and castle stairs cause falls, and Beynac's stone steps are steep and worn with real drops. The caves have uneven wet floors and low passages. The river looks gentle and is: it is slow, shallow in summer and canoed by families, but it does rise fast after heavy rain and operators close it for good reason, and life jackets should be worn rather than sat on. Summer heat inland is significant, with 38°C days and heatwave alerts, and a canoe with no shade is where people get into trouble with it. Finally, the rural roads are narrow and winding with agricultural traffic, and mobile coverage is patchy in the deeper valleys, so tell someone if you are walking a long clifftop path alone.
Reading On
The Dordogne rewards a week, a car and a booked cave ticket, and it is the part of France where prehistory is closest to the surface. The France travel guide for women is the parent for the country and the France packing list for women covers a trip across it. West, the Bordeaux packing list for women covers the city two hours away and the wine country, which is the usual arrival point. North, the Loire Valley packing list for women covers the chateaux and the Paris travel guide for women the capital. Northwest, the Brittany packing list for women covers the Breton coast. East and south, the Annecy packing list for women, the Chamonix travel guide for women, the Nice travel guide for women and the Corsica packing list for women cover the Alps, the Riviera and the island. The travel packing guide for women is the parent for all destinations. For why a thin wool layer is the right thing to carry into a 13°C cave on a 34°C day, the best merino wool base layers for women explains the fibre, and the Roman Trail collection is where the tops themselves live.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
