Day 14 - Chaumont sur Liore to Domme Le Port (385kms)

Today was a bit of a transition day, trying to make our way south west.  Yet again we managed to sleep in despite the best intentions to get up early and get some kilometres behind us.  I think it is because of the late nights we are having.  By the time we finish dinner and talk about our day it seems to to after 10:00pm before we considering getting ready to turn it.

We decided today to commit to a more inland route south toward Toulouse in southern France (than maybe Bordeaux) on the way to the Pyrenees, as I had read about some beautiful towns in the Dordogne Valley.  On the way had to make a little detour when a towns main street was closed for some ceremony, but with the help of the trusty Google Maps we were back on track soon enough.

Our first stop for the day was a cute little town - in the same way as the one I described yesterday.  We hadn't planned lunch this early, but when we saw the most quaint 'le pain boulanger' (bakery) we had to check out the offerings.  Needless to say we all walked out with sweet treats to eat in the park, even before we decided that we'd have lunch in the same park while the kids played in a playground.  

After our lunch stop we followed the D20 motorway south for most of the afternoon before turning off in the direction of Domme.  We loosely followed the Dordogne river and passed through another small town called Montfort.  There seemed to be a castle high on the hill and the small cobblestoned streets and surrounding houses looked quite charming.  So we pulled over to walk around the streets of another little town, except most of the houses surrounding the castle seemed relatively modern by french standards, but still in keeping with a historic feel.

We read that the Montford castle had been mentioned in french history since 1214, but has been demolished and rebuilt several times.  The currently standing castle has been there since 1827 and is now privately owned and not open too he public.   It was hard to photograph from close up with the surrounding houses, but the surrounding streets and houses were nice all the same.

Our destination of Doome was our next stop.  As we approached on the other side of the river, we could see the  town high on a cliff above the river.  We crossed the river and drove around the front of the Dome stronghold and approached the town from the east, winding up the narrow and in some places steep roads to a designated camper van parking areas outside the town walls.  Given that the sun was very low in the sky, and seeing Doome this afternoon was going to involve leaving the camper van and walking, we decided to head back down to the riverside and setup camp in a camping area we passed.

The campground was a small yard with an automated (pay by credit card) system to open the boomgate, and you could stay for up to 24hrs for only 9 euro.  Despite not having any facilities onsite, it was still good value considering it included electricity and free WIFI - albeit very slow.