A couple of awesome places to visit in the Dordogne

Week 28 in France 2/8-2/15/2026. We have been in our home in the village of Chabanais in the Charente department of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region of France since the middle of December. By the way, the Charente department is the northern part of Southwest France.

Welcome to the 56th weekly post of our Baby Boomers Move to France blog.

This week, on Monday and Tuesday we will stay in an Airbnb in Sarlat le Caneda and visit Rocamadour on the drive over. Fingers crossed we will see the Lascaux caves and have a walk around the Sarlat Market. Updates to follow. We share our weekly update and, in the Lifestyle and Culture section I will tell you about our visit with Ron and Michelle Francis.

Our home in Chabanais

Things on the agenda this week:

There are some things that we want to share with Cindy and Don while they are visiting this week

• Sarlat La Caneda Market
• Lascaux caves
• Cindy’s birthday Lunch at Le Vieux Moulin
• Ron and Michelle have invited us over for coffee

Weather forecast:

It looks like we can expect more of the same weather this week, but not too cold. Highs in the 50s and lows in the low 40s and a bit breezy and a slight threat of snow.

Why this Blog?

Long story short, we are “Baby Boomers” that have moved from Venice, Florida to the beautiful French countryside as retirees. After a little over a year of planning and fretting we sold everything in Venice and made the move on 1 August 2025.

We publish a brief update of our adventures every Sunday to share our experiences, tips and mistakes.

If you are thinking about a move to France? We are happy to share our thoughts and answer questions. Just drop a question in the comment section below and we will get back to you.

If you are wondering what got into our head and inspired us to make the move, check out some of our earlier posts. Again, if you have questions about our adventure, drop your questions in the comment section below.

We are learning a lot about the French culture and lifestyle as we make our life here and each week, we include in the blog some thoughts on what we learn. If you have a specific question about France, let us know and we are happy to answer. Other folks probably have the same question. If we don’t know the answer, we will share resource information.

This Week in General

Monday 9 Feb 2026

A nice drive of a little over 2 hours to Rocamadour

We definitely got our steps in as we walked down to the village of Rocamadour and then back up the hill. Whew, we were all huffing and puffing by the time we got back up to the top. Well, all except Don. He is in great shape and jogged up part of the hill. Lucky for us that he did. He found an opened restaurant. Super nice lunch and a beer and they let Rosie in too.

Cindy took this picture of EB and I at a look out point near the village of Rocamadour and just outside our restaurant that was open for lunch. In the background you can see the ancient village of Rocamadour which is located in the Lot Department in the Occitanie region and is part of the Dordogne Valley area. It is an easy walk down to the village from this spot but the walk back up the hill is a challenge.

Rocamadour has been a world-renowned place of pilgrimage since the 9th century.

It is on the El Camino de Santiago or the Way of St. James where travelers hike to the sacred city of Santiago de Compostela in Spain from various starting points in Europe. There are a number of variants on the way to Compostela (some as long as 1000km). This pilgrimage began in the 9th century. The French variant is the most popular and one of the most beautiful and includes Rocamadour on the way.

At Rocamadour (many years ago) the pilgrims climb up the 216 steps of the grand staircase (on their knees) to the Chapelle Notre Dame where one of the famous Black Madonna statues (Vierges Noires) is located. This statue was carved out of walnut wood. She is sometimes referred to as the “Mother of Miracles”. The Basilica of St. Suveur is also there farther up the path.

The area is known for Rocamadour fromage (cheese) and the whole department grows walnuts. By the way, we can attest that the cheese is sticky, gooey, yummy awesomeness.

It is said that the Madonna was brought to France by St. Amadour from the holy land where it was carved by Luke the Evangelist. St Amadour founded a chapel in France along the river Alzou. It became famous because of the many miracles attributed to this Madonna. Many pilgrims visited the site over the centuries, and it eventually became known as Rocamadour. There is a ton of history about the many black Madonnas located around the world.

There are websites featuring the El Camino de Santiago and the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela and variants of the pilgrimage routes that you may find interesting. You may remember that Martin Sheen starred in a movie called “The Way” in which he hikes the trails to Santiago de Compostela to honor his son who died at the beginning of his pilgrimage.

On to Sarlat La Caneda

After lunch we drove to Sarlat la Caneda. We commented on how nice the weather had been all day. Unfortunately, by the time we got to Sarlat the rain started. We cut our walk around town short and drove to our Airbnb. After a couple of missed turns we found the place through a narrow gateway and gravel road. It’s a nice little place situated on a hill with a beautiful view of the town below and the hillside across a narrow valley. I took this picture through the window as the rain poured down. We might use this place again sometime.

After a couple of games of marbles including the red wild marble and some wine we hit the sack. Thanks to Cindy and Don for teaching us the game and our niece Al, for coming up with the wild red marble idea. Tons of fun.

Tuesday morning we woke up to rain. Still the view was beautiful.

Night view from our Airbnb in Sarlat.

The Lascaux 4 Cave Reproduction is a must see if you travel to the Dordogne

The plan was to go to the Lascaux caves to see the ancient wall paintings created by the Cro-Magnon people. I’m sure that I talked about this place in earlier posts as we had visited the site back in April 2025. EB and I were so impressed with it that we wanted to share it with Cindy and Don. Here is the website if the history buffs out there are interested in learning more about the cave paintings and the history behind them. Check out this website. https://lascaux.fr

Walkway towards the Lascaux 4 caves museum.

The stars aligned just right so we dodged rain and drove to Lascaux and visited the museum.

This place is one of coolest museum I have ever seen. The story behind the caves is wild and the reproduction of the caves brings 20,000 years of history to life.

I learned that the basic story is that the caves were sealed by a rockslide and over time erosion revealed a small hole in the ground. In September of 1940 a boy named Marcel Ravidat, and his dog, Robot, were out for a walk. Robot went into the hole. The boy realized that Robot had found something important, so Marcel came back a couple of days later with three friends and opened the hole large enough for them to slip into the cave. They had found cave paintings made by Cro-Magnon. Scientists soon took over the professional excavation of the caves. In 1948 the caves were opened to the public. In 1963 the caves were closed in order to protect the historical site.

However, to share this important historical discovery a facsimile project was launched in the early 70s. The resulting model was presented in 1980 and is known as Lascaux 1.

The museum has recreated the caves and is known as Lascaux 4. One of these days we will visit Lascaux 3 which is an actual reproduction of a section of the original caves in a cave. As I understand it Lascaux 2 is a traveling exhibition of the caves.

The rain had picked up again, but we wanted to check out the Parc du THOT wildlife park in Dordogne. Entry was part of our entry fee into the Lascaux 4 museum. Despite the rain we went into the indoor displays and found dioramas of Cro-Magnon life. Very interesting. Unfortunately, the rain was more than we wanted to brave to see the animals. We will go back another time. Google “parc-thot.fr” for more info.

Quiet Wednesday included grocery shopping

Thursday: Happy Birthday Month Cindy

We celebrated Cindy’s birthday again as Don treated us all to a fantastic lunch at Le Vieux Moulin (The Old Mill) restaurant in Chabanais. The restaurant features great food, ambience and service and is actually housed in an old mill. It is also featured in the Michelin guide. The interior is gorgeous and the exterior is so welcoming. We will definitely go back there.

Flooding conditions on the Vienne River.

We noticed the river rising over its banks on Thursday morning and as we crossed the bridge over the river on the way to lunch. By the time we were driving home after lunch the river had rising even more and by Thursday evening the wind had picked up too. I have checked out the weather report and see that our department is under “orange” flood warning.

Bordeaux is under a “red” flood warning. Hopefully the flood warning will be reduced by Monday. We have plans to visit Bordeaux on Monday.

Friday invite to Ron and Michelle Francis home

Ron and Michelle invited us over to their home for coffee Friday afternoon. Wow! Ron bakes really well and we feasted on his apple rum cake and a chocolate cake and good coffee.

You might remember that Elizabeth and I met Ron and Michelle at our visa required medical appointment in Potiers, France. They were in front of us in line and we quickly learned, to our great surprise, that we are neighbors in Chabanais. They arrived in Chabanais in July of 2025. They have a really nice place a mile or so away from us. They have a wood stove in the living room that did a great job heating the room.

Ron has built an indoor driving range in his barn loft. He has a launch monitor and a net, and he will be setting up a projector soon. He invited us over to try it out when it is completed. Now I really need a set of golf clubs!!

We spent about 2 hours getting to know each other and enjoyed the time we got to spend with them.

A little update on our house projects

We got the last of our furniture delivered on Thursday. We got a loveseat with double recliners and 2 separate recliners. We moved the couch and the 2 chairs that we purchased as interim furniture up to the summer kitchen so now the summer kitchen has a couch, 2 chairs, table with 4 chairs and a sink, stove and refrigerator. Also, on Friday we finalized our solar power project. I mentioned that our existing solar panel system is not certified compliant to regulations, so the existing system all needs to be redone. We hadn’t planned on this but hey, “in for a dime in for a dollar”. I printed the proposal we signed and scanned the document in and finally got it emailed Friday night.

We are planning and hoping for the project to be complete and operating by the end of April in time for the sunny weather to charge up our virtual battery so we will have plenty of power for the winter.

We also confirmed that the new wood stove and pellet stove will be in place by the end of March.

Saturday: Nice quiet day cold and windy.

A fresh baguette, croissants and really good jelly (confiture) along with good coffee and the morning is started right.

Saturday was really cold. With the wind chill it feels like under 30 degrees F.

So that was our week.

We drove to Sarlat by way of Rocamadour then visited Lascaux caves museum. We celebrated Cindy’s birthday at Vieux Melin and visited Ron and Michelle at their home. The Vienne River flooded over the banks and severe flooding is anticipated. We are lucky to live above the flood zone and should be safe.

French Lifestyle and Culture

A little more about our coffee date with Ron and Michelle

Ron and Michelle have a house in the village about a mile or two from us. They told us about their neighbors who are a mix of French and English and Belgium. I get that they are all pretty friendly and indeed helpful. The older French man from across the road has sort of adopted them and goes out of his way to make sure they are alright. That said, they said that the French neighbors typically stay indoors and are not outgoing.

They had the wood stove going and it keeps the living room warm and cozy.

Ron mentioned that he ordered a stere of wood for his wood stove. A stere is a new term to me. As I understand it, a stere is the same as a a cubic meter of neatly stacked firewood. He expected that the firewood would have be delivered on a pallet. Instead, the wood was delivered in a dump truck, and the delivery mode was the truck just dumped the load of firewood next to the road. Ron and his wife and a couple of neighbors transferred the wood and neatly stacked it in the garage. I will need to figure out how I will transfer the wood from the road into my storage area. I think that I will stack the majority in our cave. I’m sure that the cave will be just about perfect for a cubic meter stack of firewood with plenty of room left over for excess pellets too.

Ron and Michelle have a little fan on top of the stove that works on just the heat rising off of the stove. It really works well and directs warm air into the room with only the energy of the hot air around the stove.

They also have rescue dog that is so sweet. Her name is Stella. Her main thing is to quietly sit and look into your eyes and compel you to pet her and give her love. It’s not a bad thing.

Sunday we will have lunch at Cafe Lillian and will complement Penny regarding the window decorations that she had done. It is painted wisteria and looks great.

Next Week (la Semaine Prochaine)

• More fun times with Cindy and Don and a trip to Bordeaux
• Prep the cave for the firewood
• Update on the Solar power
• US and French Taxes. Follow up tax documents.

Weather forecast for next week

It looks like we have another rainy week ahead and cool temps. Highs in the low 50^o F. Overnight lows get down in the 40s and 30s. Severe weather alerts with potential snow and ice. We are getting used to it.

Signing off for the week

As always, we sign off wishing you all a good week and remind you to take care of yourselves and your family. It has been a fun week with Cindy and Don here. More to come next week.

Keep in touch and leave questions, suggestions and comments below. We really enjoy hearing from you.

Wishing you a good week (Bonne Semaine)

Mark and Elizabeth Beiley

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