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Montignac
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Some 26km up the Vezere valley,
MONTIGNAC
is the main base for visiting the
Lascaux caves
. It's a more attractive place than Les Eyzies, with several wooden-balconied houses leaning appealingly over the river, and a lively annual
arts festival
in mid-July, featuring international folk groups. On place Bertran-de-Born in the old hospital, the
Musee Eugene-Le-Roy
(July to mid-Sept daily 9am-6.15pm; rest of year Mon-Sat 9-11.15am & 2-5.15pm; 10F/1.52) displays local crafts and trades, and it includes a reconstruction of the household of Jacquou le Croquant, the peasant protagonist of the novel of the same name by Eugene le Roy, the Dordogne's native novelist, who lived and died here in Montignac. The novel describes the harshness of peasant life in the early nineteenth century and the depredations of the local squirearchy in spite of the reforms of the Revolution.
The tourist office shares the same building as the museum on place Bertran-de-Born (July to mid-Sept daily 9am-7pm; rest of year Mon-Sat 9am-noon & 2-6pm; tel 05.53.51.82.60, fax 05.53.50.49.72). Tickets for Lascaux II must be bought here, from the office on the ground floor. Accommodation , as everywhere around here, can be a problem. The Hotel de la Grotte , on rue du 4-Septembre (tel 05.53.51.80.48, fax 05.53.51.05.96; 160-220F/24-34; restaurant from 65F/9.91), is the cheapest in town, with a pleasant stream-side garden. Then it's a big leap up to the three-star Soleil d'Or , also on the main rue du 4-Septembre (tel 05.53.51.80.22, fax 05.53.50.27.54, www.soleil-dor.com ; 300-400F/46-61; closed mid-Jan to mid-Feb), whose restaurant menus start at 110F/16.77. For not much more, however, you can stay in the pretty, period rooms of the ivy- and wisteria-clad Hostellerie de la Roseraie , across the river in quiet place d'Armes (tel 05.53.50.53.92, fax 05.53.51.02.23; 400-500F/61-76; closed Nov-March; restaurant from 175F/26.68). And finally there is a cheap municipal campsite on the river bank 500m downstream (tel 05.53.51.83.95; closed mid-Oct to March).
There are other worthwhile hotel options in the area. Two of the most attractive are
La Table du Terroir
at
LA CHAPELLE-AUBAREIL
, about 15km beyond the Lascaux caves (tel 05.53.50.72.14, fax 05.53.51.16.23; 220-300F/34-46; closed Nov-March), which has a swimming pool and an excellent restaurant (menus from 70F/10.67), and
Hotel Laborderie
, further south at
TAMNIES
on the Les Eyzies-St-Genies road (tel 05.53.29.68.59, fax 05.53.29.65.31; 160F/24-500F/76; closed Nov-March) offering equally good food (evening menus from 105F/16.01). For other possibilities, ask the tourist office in Montignac for their extensive list of B&B and farm
campsites
. A particularly good spot for campers with a taste for luxury is the
Le Paradis
site (tel 05.53.50.72.64; closed Nov-March) near the exquisite riverside village of
ST-LEON-SUR-VEZERE
, some 9km south of Montignac. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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France,
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