Visit the Dordogne: when to go, what to see and what it costs

The most visited area, around Sarlat. The medieval town, the best preserved in the Perigord, is best walked early or in the evening, away from market hours. Downstream, the river winds below the cliffs: Beynac and Castelnaud, rival castles facing each other, La Roque-Gageac tucked under its rock face, Domme on its balcony and the clipped gardens of Marqueyssac. An hour by flat-bottomed boat links it all by water.

The painted caves cluster along some twenty kilometres between Montignac and Les Eyzies. Lascaux is visited as a facsimile, the original closed since 1963; the ticket is timed. Font-de-Gaume, one of the last caves with original polychrome paintings still open, applies a strict quota, partly drawn by lot the same morning. The National Prehistory Museum at Les Eyzies puts it all in perspective.

The centre of the department, more rolling and more agricultural, named after the pale limestone of its buildings. Perigueux layers two towns: the Gallo-Roman city of Vesone, with its tower and arena, and the medieval and Renaissance town crowned by Saint-Front cathedral and its five Byzantine domes, a stop on the road to Compostela. Nearby, the Chateau de Hautefort, Classical and symmetrical, ringed by 30 hectares of gardens, and the bastides of Saint-Astier and Neuvic-sur-l'Isle, among strawberry fields and walnut orchards.

The north of the department, wetter and more wooded, hence the name. Brantome, nicknamed the Venice of the Perigord, is encircled by an arm of the Dronne; its Benedictine abbey has the oldest bell tower in France, from the 11th century, and rock-cut halls in the cliff. The river is paddled by canoe between Brantome and Bourdeilles, over about 8 kilometres.

The south-west, around Bergerac, drier and sunnier, named after the colour of the vines in autumn. The old town of half-timbered houses, on the quays of the Dordogne, keeps the memory of Cyrano, made a Bergerac man by Edmond Rostand. The vineyard has thirteen appellations over 12,000 hectares, from sweet Monbazillac to red Pecharmant; the wine house occupies the Recollets cloister, and the Chateau de Monbazillac, a Renaissance building with the look of a fortress, is visited with a tasting.