The beautiful towns of the Black Perigord - Beynac, Domme & Saint Cyprien

We realised in the middle of planning our holidays for 2014 at the start of this year, that whilst we have spent the last four years exploring various parts of Europe, we had completely neglected France.

We've been to Paris twice, which we hated the first time, but loved the second, and did a quick hop over the border from Germany to Strasbourg, but other than that it had just completely dropped off our radar.

We decided to rectify that with two trips to France for each of the May Bank Holidays. The first would be to the Black Perigord region and the towns along the Dordogne, and the second would be further South to Provence.

So at the start of May we flew into Bordeaux, hired a car and drove a couple of hours East to the Perigord. Bergerac airport would have been closer for the region, but flights are a bit more sparse to Bergerac from the UK as they are to Bordeaux.

We arrived in the late afternoon and hoped to arrive in the tiny town of Vitrac before dark. This would have worked out wonderfully had we not driven in circles around Bordeaux for over an hour wondering why all their bridges looked the same... the answer is they don't, it was the same bridge we went over about three times.

When we finally managed by a fluke to get the right road out of Bordeaux, it was a beautiful drive alongside hundreds of vineyards and tiny towns. Having lost so much time, we stopped at the McDonalds just outside Bergerac for dinner to take a break before continuing to Vitrac.

We stayed at the beautiful L'Ombriere Bed and Breakfast just outside Vitrac in the even tinier town of Montfort. We stayed in the top room which had a great view out over the back garden.

After a very large French breakfast the next morning, with some excellent local jams and honey, we headed back along the river to Saint-Cyprien where there is a weekly market on Sunday's.

French markets really are as amazing as you would have heard. They sell everything from homewares to clothes, but mostly they sell local produce with some of the most amazing roast chicken and potatoes we've ever had!

 We couldn't help but stop and pet this sleepy cat warming itself in the sun

The old town of Saint-Cyprien is lovely to wander around, with all the old stone houses, plus with everyone else at the market, we had the streets to ourselves.

I loved all the brightly coloured baskets, which all the French women were carrying their purchases home in. I bought an aqua blue basket, which we then had to use as one of our carry-on bags. The other carry-on we brought with us was crammed inside our other bag! Well I couldn't really leave the basket behind...

Our next stop along the river was the town of Beynac-et-Cazenac, with its huge castle looming over the town from the cliffs above. Beynac has been named as one of the most Beautiful Villages in France. Before visiting we pretty much just picked everywhere we wanted to visit off this list!

The town is right on the Dordogne river and was so beautiful and quiet the day we visited. These towns get pretty busy in the Summer so visiting in Spring or Autumn is a nice alternative.

We parked our car in a carpark down the road from the town, we chose the car park the furthest away so we didn't have to queue for the one slightly closer.

We walked up to the castle first, where you can get some amazing views out over Beynac and the surrounding towns and countryside. The admission fee is worth it for the views alone.

As usual we found the outside of the castle more interesting than the inside! Though the inside did have some beautiful spiral staircases and stained glass windows.

We took so many photos of the countryside, and with there not being too many visitors, it meant we stayed admiring the view for much longer than we meant too!

Eventually hunger made us start the slow walk down to the town, in search of pastries and quiches to eat by the river. French patisseries are so good for picking up things to take away when you don't feel like having a sit down meal. I love their Apple Tarts and Croque Monsieur's!

After lunch we drove along the river to La Roque Gageac, another of France's Most Beautiful Villages. There isn't as much to see here as in Beynac, and they were doing roadworks along the main street so I think it perhaps wasn't at its most beautiful when we visited!

The streets wind through the town up to a Troglodyte Fort in the side of the cliffs, and give a fantastic view over the town and along the river. Unfortunately the fort was closed for safety reasons so we were unable to walk the whole way up the path. So whilst La Roque is a beautiful village, I think we were just unlucky that everything seemed to be shut when we visited.

So we didn't stay too long at La Roque, and drove across the river and up to the larger town of Domme. Domme was much more touristy than the other towns we had visited so far, with lots of shops, cafes and restaurants and due to its high elevation, we again had great views over the countryside. All the towns in the Black Perigord are so beautiful but we did find that after two full days of exploring they all start to blend together!

Underneath the town there are large caves discovered in the 1950's, full of stalactite and stalagmite formations. We arrived too late in the day to see these but the photos looks amazing, so I'd recommend getting there early to make sure you don't miss out like we did.

The town itself is easy to explore, with the main street being busy with tourists, and all the other tiny streets being completely empty!

After Domme we headed North to Sarlat le Caneda, the largest and most popular town in the region. The main street in town is pedestrianised, so you can wander the length of the town without worrying about cars. Sarlat (and many of the surrounding towns) is full of shops selling Foie Gras, the regions specialty. We didn't try it whilst we were there, horrified at the process involved. Shops were selling tins and tins of it, entire streets full of Foie Gras shops!

Sarlat retains many of its original old town features, with arched windows and turrets everywhere you look. In the centre of town is a large open square, the Place de la Liberté. The square is full of cafes and has a great view of the Church and the belltower overlooking the square,

After spending the day visiting tiny towns, Sarlat was a bit too big and bustling for us, so we headed back to Montfort in time for dinner.

We sat in the fading evening sun with two large platters of various cheese and meat and watched the sun go down over the vineyards, before slowly making our way back to our Bed and Breakfast. We managed to fit in so many towns in our first day, and we had lots to see the next day too!