Having done a fairly long driving stint the previous day, we were parked up only 25km away from our first of two stops for the day - the highest sand dune in Europe. Reaching 110m high it was hidden by a forest and suprisingly not really visible until you got close - not even from the parking areas. We walked from the car park up past the tourist shops that were yet to open for the day. The foot of the sand dune was up a path through the trees. The sand was so ...

Le Roque Gageac is a little village in a stunning setting beside the Dordogne river. It had a great feel to it - spacious and relaxing, with a small shopping area, we arrived early and then cooked breakfast and chatted to the Scottish couple in the next campervan while Scott explored the river. Then a walk through the small village for most of us while Scott stayed at the river trying his luck to entice a local fish with salami on half a coke can ring. It would h...

The Perigreux region of France is known for its caves, and the prehistoric art found within. Most of the caves have limited entry numbers per day to preserve the artwork, and with tickets only available to purchase on the day, queues have been known to form from 7am. We had a couple of hours travel ahead of us to reach the general area. We were pleased to find one of the caves we were thinking of had a split sales time with afternoon tickets available from 2pm. ...

A visit to one of the most reknown chateaux in the Loire Valley - Chenonceau was the agenda for the day. It has an interesting history of ownership - having changed hands many times. An intriguing story of strong female characters (with the men mainly absent) who oversaw the construction and some of the major alterations.Initially built by partially demolishing and redeveloping a fortress and mill to showcase the art collection of some aristocrats, some owners w...

Our first chateau, Amboise was a good place to look at first. We saw the site where Leonardo da Vinci was initially buried - and the Chapel his body now lies in. The original Chapel burnt down so a new Chapel was built about 50m away and he was exhumed and moved. Kate had thought this was the chateaux with the models of his inventions - Darryl had seen another chateaux in close proximity that he thought was that one - with no Internet data at the time to confirm ...