Montignac

Day trip in the Dordogne – Today it’s lovely Montignac!

Pretty village house with decorated wooden balconies

More pretty flowered streets

Even the bridge got flowered!

View of Montignac from the bridge

View across the river to the town

Bedecked with Garlands

Pretty streets of Montignac

Promenade along river bank

Circuit Historique sign with description

View over rooftops at Montignac

Jeff and Ruben in the Vieux Quartiers

Rooftop view at Montignac

It’s funny but when choosing which village or town to visit we obviously try to pick one we haven’t been to before.  Montignac, like many of these ‘hidden-gems’ we discover on arrival, is in-fact somewhere we have been before, albeit, if only passing through.  It’s starting to become a  joke between us… I guess we should be thankful that at least we can remember and that one of us isn’t starting to suffer from Alzheimer’s.  I have thought of that though and realised I can always refer back to my blog in the future to remind ourselves of where we have and haven’t visited yet!

Montignac is approximately an hour and a half from La Treille Gites and according to via michelin 97km (60 miles).  The town straddles the River Vézère, has lots of cafés, bars and restaurants but the main attraction of the town is that it is home to the world famous Lascaux caves.  I’m ashamed to say that we have not yet visited the caves due to them being a replica which has put me off and today was just a reccy visit with Ruben in tow.  One of these days I will go as according to this write-up they are pretty spectacular – even if they aren’t the original!  There was a lot of publicity around the town advertising the Festival of folklore that starts next week… another reason to make a return visit!  It was a good time to visit as the town was adorned with thousands of garlands of hand-made flower buntings draped across the streets, shop door and windows (I’ve spent many an hour myself making similar garlands for our own village festivals).  We had a promenade along the river and then headed into the ‘Vieux Quartiers’  and the ‘Circuit Historique’ to check-out the old town.  Lovely narrow cobbled streets with rickety ancient village houses again all adorned with the obligatory colourful plastic flowers. We even came across an ancient CV that looked like it hadn’t moved for decades in an overgrown back yard… I bet a few passers by would love to have a go at restoring it!

I’m sure there’s so much more to see around the town of Montignac that I’m sure we’ll be making another trip soon!

If you have time you may want to head back up the D704, turn right onto the D6089 and pop into Terrason which is also a very pretty town well worth a visit.  We made a visit to Terrasson in July 2009, you can read my blog about that too if you want!