For the first time in a weeks walking in the Dordogne we come across the walnuts being harvested.

From the village of  Loubressac we followed the edge of the Parc Des Causses De Quercy to the Plus Beaux Village de France of Autoire, visiting the ancient Chateau des Anglais perched on the side of the valley of the River Bave.  Having witnessed the harvesting of walnuts near Lespinasse the walk passes the Chateau de Montal finishing at Saint Cere.

Date walked: October 15th 2016

Distance: about 11 miles (give or take a bit  – we got lost)

(Today’s walk is the bottom section of the red line between the two black lines)

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This  self-guided walk was booked through Keith Starr of Dordogne Experience. For every day’s walk we had been supplied with  extracts of the 1:25000 maps with our route highlighted, together with a detailed turn by turn description of the route; our bags were being transferred between hotels.

Our last day of walking. And from the view from my balcony at The Relais de Castelnau it looked likely to be blessed with fine weather.  Shallow mist occupied the Dordogne valley below us….

Some people describe this mist as Dragons Breath

…, but as I sipped my cup of ginger green tea (supplied by moi – only once had there been a kettle in the rooms, so I was glad that I had packed my mini travel kettle) the sun came over the horizon and lit up the trees of  its upper slopes.

Breakfast was OK – the usual pastries etc and for the first time a (slightly half-hearted) fruit salad.

Our route took us back through the village, where a seat overlooking the valley of La Bave provided a good spot for Bob to take a snap of me (you don’t see nearly enough of me on these walks).

Nice pic, Bob

A rather chunky  stone cross marked us leaving the village.

Disproportionately large plinth?

We were walking on a limestone plateau just outside the edge of the Parc Naturel Des Causses du Quercy. Limestone is a naturally well jointed stone, making it a convenient building material, so all the field walls and outbuildings made use of it.

A small stone shelter  was mentioned in Keith’s notes….

….  and just after this our path passed a small Neolithic Dolmen.

Clematis vitalba growing through the trees behind it

I clambered over the wall for a closer look.

If it was raining hard this would make a very good shelter

La Ferme de Siran was described  by Keith as “isolated” but he doesn’t mention the flock of  Angora goats (the source of Mohair wool).

These were the mostly cuddly of creatures, and very pretty, so I took lots of pictures.

There was another goat of a different family who was very inquisitive.

Mildly threatening

As I stopped admiring him he leapt effortlessly  over the fence and began to munch on his owners garden.

Just a few hundred yards from the farm is the hamlet of Siran. It boasts the most fabulous view over the thickly wooded valley of the river Bave.

Needless to say with such dramatic cliffs come warnings.

Would 10 year old be able to read this sign? Would it put them off?

Our route took a cliff-top path to a metal staircase that descended the face of the gorge…..

Careful now

…. to bring us to a ledge with the rock face towering over us.

We passed a group of three climbers who were scaling the cliff. They were French but one chap (whose age became a brief topic of speculation for us) spoke reasonable English so we stopped for a chat. No, not about Brexit.

Just beyond here was a strange building known as the Chateau des Anglais. It seems that this remnant of a much more extensive settlement has little, if anything, to do with the English.

Described in the link above as a shelter in case of attack, it was difficult to imagine how this narrow stronghold would have been used.

Pause for another pic of me.

Such a fine figure of a man

The narrow path that descends the valley side was steep at times ….

….but it was stable and with a good surface……

…. so we were soon at the bottom, facing a choice of routes.

Turning right would have taken us to a waterfall but we decided to crack on to Autoire, in hope of a coffee.

Autoire was the last of the Plus Beaux Villages de France that we would be visiting on this trip. As with all the villages it was a very quiet place, stuffed with many attractive buildings. We passed the Chateau de Lamargue on the way to the small central square.

Strange architecture, this tower on the side of a tower thing

The church of Saint Pierre probably deserved a visit…..

… but I forewent the pleasure in favour of a cup of coffee in a small restaurant opposite it. “Non” to requests for pastries. “Non” to crepes.

Keith’s directions out of the village seemed clear enough, following a steep road up the hill.

But somewhere we went amiss and we took a track that climbed up the valley side, heading back in the direction we had come from.

Towards the top we came across a couple having a picnic who were themselves spectacularly off the route that they had intended to take. We were able to put them right but not able to reconcile any of Keith’s pointers to where we found ourselves, or indeed, feel confident where we were on our map.

Relying on a sense of where we need to get to and our compass we began to explore the paths that headed in roughly the right direction.

We probably spent an hour taking unconfident turns through a labyrinth of paths, passing the odd ruin…..

I love a ruin

… and at least one farmed boar enclosure….

They are elusive creatures

…..until we came to a farm and a metalled road.  We were definitely somewhere but not sure where. This road began to descend and we scanned the views for anything that we might relate to our map without much success until we came across a telegraph pole with “Crezou” on it. This was a very good sign as Crezou appeared on Keith’s directions. Humming “We once were lost but now are found”, it was with some relief that we saw ahead the chateau that Keith refers to.

I find in my pictures at this point a rather sweet group of pigs; I have no recollection taking the pic but I offer it anyway as light relief.

The chateau Saint Medard de Presque at Crezou was tidy (in the Welsh and English sense).

I don’t think it opens to the public, but it is on the tourist map so I could be wrong. I often am.

It had a big barn opposite .

I should have taken a closer look at the plaque

Re-united with Keith at direction No.11, we followed the road from the chateau to join the (quite busy) D807.

Having crossed the D807 and turned uphill to follow it, we gently disputed Kieth’s advice to “almost immediately” fork left onto a little path. It was 200 metres, Keith. Nevertheless a yellow and blue sign in the moss covered wall reassured us that the barely visible steep path  we found on the sharp right hand bend was the right one.

Not sure what Blue and Yellow signify, but Keith told us to look out for it

The path emerged at a hamlet called Lacaze and from there we took another “proper” road down the hill.

At the bottom of the hill we came across something we had not seen all week – people working in the walnut orchards.

One guy had an attachment to a tractor that clasped the trunk of the trees with rubber padded jaws and then shook the tree vigorously for a few seconds. This produced a heavy shower of falling walnuts.

Do watch this little clip I posted on YouTube of it. 

Meanwhile a second guy raced around after him with a sweeper upper that swept the walnuts into the thing, spewing out the leaves and twigs behind him

And here’s a clip of him, too.

I’m sure that this is difficult to understand but I found this really exciting.

Our road flattened out as it headed for St Jean Lespipinasse, passing a rather nice little barn…

… some black-eyed-and-eared  sheep…

OK, sheep fanciers, what are they called?

…. and a little building that was just too sweet to have been allowed to fall into ruin.

A latter day toll booth?

After passing through the village, ahead of us was a golf course, set off nicely by  the Chateau de Montal.  Our path took the approach road to the Chateau and then skirted around the building, giving us a few glimpses of its beautifully sculpted walls.

I sometimes wish I had a better zoom lens on the camera

Over to our left was the main road heading into Saint-Cere but we took a quieter one, running parallel to it. For the first time in the week we had that sense of suburbia. But French suburbia, where local residents were out collecting their own walnuts.

Back breaking work unless you attend pilates classes – or yoga?

On the very edge of the town there was an enormous house that was clearly unoccupied and in a poor state of repair, but which would make a palace of a home for some walnut and foie gras loving Francophile.

Would love to know what that might sell for

A concrete bridge across the river took us into town and a couple of directions from Keith found us the Hotel de France on the far side of the main square.  It was an unassuming place in a quiet street, but we received a warm welcome and our rooms were pleasant and comfortable. The owners were going to be catering for some event at the golf club that night , so we were out on the town. It was  Sunday night and most eating places were closed but we  found a friendly  bar (free nuts with our second beer) with tables outside for a couple of beers and some crib, and settled on a pizza place on the square for supper. It was a good choice. The pizzas were fab.

An early night was required as we needed a taxi at 5am to get us to a nearby train station for our journey home. The hotel owners offered to get up to give us breakfast, which was heroic of them but we were happy to let them sleep in.

So that’s it, folks. I hope you enjoyed the trip – we certainly did.  I would highly recommend Dordogne Experience – we liked their choice of hotels, all the baggage transfers were made without a problem and notwithstanding a couple of glitches the maps and directions guided us well through this easy-to-walk countryside. In fact we think we will be booking with them again for another trip later in the year. Toodle pip.