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A wooden gabarre on the green Dordogne below the château and cliffs of La Roque-Gageac
Regions of France

Dordogne & Périgord

Castles on the cliffs, truffles in the oaks, and painted horses older than history itself.

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The valley

Quintessential France — and older than all of it.

The Dordogne carves between limestone cliffs and walnut groves, and along its banks the medieval châteaux stand like sentinels — six hundred of them. The air smells of truffle and duck confit. And in the cliffs above, ancient hands painted the stories we still cannot fully explain.

600+ castles2,000+ figures at Lascaux10,000 kg of black truffles a yearFrance's only biosphere-reserve river
The medieval fortress of Beynac at dusk above its village
Sentinels of the Hundred Years' War

Fortresses that watched each other.

Beynac faced Castelnaud across the river for centuries — French bank against English, arrow against arrow. The stone remembers all of it: knights, troubadours, sieges, and the long peace that finally came to the valley.

We take you inside the keeps the tour buses circle — a private evening in a fortress after the gates close, a historian who reads the walls like a book, a dinner where the valley's whole bloody, beautiful past hangs in the air.

A dark tasting board of pâté, honeycomb and red wine
The most decadent table in France

The Périgord table.

Foie gras, black truffle, walnut, duck. This is where French gastronomy goes to indulge.

A medallion of foie gras terrine with pear and compote

The delicacy

Foie gras
Duck or goose, prepared to perfection — the region's crown.
Confit & magret
Duck slow-cooked in its own fat, or seared pink.
The whole bird
Nothing wasted. It's the Périgord way.
Whole black truffles preserved in rice

The black diamond

Truffe du Périgord
Ten thousand kilos a year, hunted under the oaks — worth their weight in gold.
Truffle omelette
The simplest dish, and the one you remember.
The winter market
Sarlat and Périgueux, where the earth smells of it.
Seared duck confit on a golden purée

The market basket

Cabécou
The little disc of goat cheese, nutty and fine — as Périgord as the castles.
Walnuts & chestnuts
AOC-labelled, in everything from oil to cake.
Périgord strawberries
A springtime jewel, gone before you know it.
A slice of walnut tart surrounded by walnuts

The sweet & the vine

Tarte aux noix
Walnut tart, dense and caramelised — a whole grove in a slice.
Monbazillac
Golden, honeyed, sweet — the perfect end.
Bergerac & Pécharmant
Bordeaux's quieter, deeper neighbours.
A canoe on the green Dordogne beneath golden limestone cliffs
Every Dordogne we design is different

No two of our journeys are the same. Tell us yours.

Speak to Marie
Château de Castelnaud above the honey-stone bridge reflected in the Dordogne
Castelnaud & the river

The only river France calls a treasure.

The Dordogne is the only river in France in UNESCO's World Network of Biosphere Reserves — a green ribbon between the cliffs. Paddle it past castles and cave-villages, or watch it turn gold from a terrace above. Either way, it sets the pace of everything here.

A sketch of what we\'d build you

Journeys we've made here.

Six we've designed here. Open one to see how it goes.

The medieval fortress of Beynac on its limestone cliff
A fortress at closing time
The castle after the gates close
See the journey
The clipped-boxwood hanging gardens of Marqueyssac above the valley
Gardens in the clouds
A hundred thousand hand-clipped shrubs
See the journey
A honey-gold medieval lane in Sarlat at golden hour
The golden town
Sarlat when the stone turns to honey
See the journey
Canoes on the green Dordogne between golden cliffs
Paddle past the castles
Downstream between the cliffs
See the journey
A Périgord fresh black truffles resting in salt
Under the oaks
Hunting the black diamond
See the journey
The ochre horses of the Lascaux cave paintings
17,000 years old
Standing beneath the painted horses
See the journey
0104
Marie Tesson, founder
A travel house — not a tourism office

Why us.

A tourism office sells you a castle ticket and a canoe rental. We hand you to the people who are the Périgord — the trufficulteur and his dog, the château owner who pours you a glass after closing, the prehistorian who has stood beneath the bulls a thousand times and still lowers his voice. Twenty-five years of friendships open doors no ticket can.

iTwenty-five years of real relationshipsNot suppliers on a commission — friends who open their own doors.
iiAround fifty journeys a year, never off-the-shelfEach built from nothing. We turn most inquiries away.
iiiMarie reads every inquiry herselfA real conversation, and a reply within two days — or nothing at all.
Start a conversation
Begin here

Tell us the Dordogne you want to feel.

A fortress kept open just for you, a truffle lifted from the frost at dawn, a canoe drifting past a thousand years of castles.

Marie reads every inquiry herself and writes back within two days.

No itinerary · No brochure · A real conversation
Write to Marie