The southwest is farming France, a peaceful land nurturing crops from sunflowers to wine grapes. Bordeaux wines are renown worldwide. Visitors are mainly drawn to the wide Atlantic beaches, the vineyards of Bordeaux region and the rural calm of the Dordogne. Great cooking is a specialty of the area: foie gras, mussels and oysters, ducks, truffles are components of the great regional recipes. Wine is thoroughly used in local cooking.

Southwest France is also well known for its spectacular rock formations with a collection of extraordinary rock paintings dating back to the last ice age. These art forms were created when prehistoric peoples evolved and began engraving, painting and carving.

Built on a curve of the Garonne river,it has been a major port since roman times. Along the waterfront of this wealthy wine metropolis is a long sweep of elegant 18th century classical facades. Adding to the magnificence is the Esplanade des Quinconces, the Grand theater and the square de la Bourse.

The great wine producing areas straddle two rivers, the Garonne and the Dordogne: Medoc, Graves, Libourne, Sauternes, St Emilion. The land between the rivers (Entre Deux Mers) produces lesser quality white wines. The five main grape varieties are: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Malbec.
Some of the better producers are: Margaux, Latour, Palmer, Cheval Blanc, Haut Brion.
Bordeaux wine chateaux: a chateau includes a mansion house and a vineyard. Some chateaux welcome visitors for wine tasting.
The Maison du Vin in Bordeaux is the main source for informations on the wine trade.

Amidst its vineyards, it is built in amphitheater on the edge of a limestone plateau overlooking the Dordogne valley. Its ramparts, medieval monuments and pedestrian alleys climbing the hills on which the town is built will attract the most spoiled visitors. There is also an interesting monolithic church, dug out of the chalky cliff by followers of St Emilion who lived there in a cave in the 8th century. Famous chateaux in the district include Figeac, Cheval Blanc and Ausone. (1 hour east of Bordeaux)

Sarlat

This medieval town is the capital city of the Black Perigord country, the well-treed agricultural region bounded by the Dordogne and Vezere rivers. The town grew around a Benedictine abbey founded in the 9th century. Sarlat's rich market town reached its peak in the 13th and 14th centuries. You may read French architecture styles from the cumulative extensions over the centuries on its tradition mansions facades, with Renaissance upper stories built over a medieval ground floor, the whole topped by roofs laden with classical details. (1 hour 1/2 east of St Emilion)

The discovery here of cave paintings and prehistoric shelters contributed to the scientific investigation of prehistory. The village stands attractively in a grandiose setting of steep cliffs crowned with evergreen oaks and junipers, at the confluence of the Vezere and Beune rivers.
The national museum of Prehistory located in the former troglodyte castle of the barons of Beynac, hangs 1/2 way up the cliff. Its extensive collection of prehistoric art and crafts make it a must when touring this area. The Font de Gaume prehistoric cave is open to the visitors: it runs back in the form of a passage 130 yards long with chambers and ramifications leading off it. Detailed examination of the wall paintings date them to the Magdalenian period. All the drawings of horses, bisons, mammoth, reindeers indicate great artistic skills. (1/2 hour west of Sarlat)

The original cave was closed to the public to preserve these world heritage prehistoric paintings. You may visit a full size replica which took over 7 years in the making, called Lascaux II. ( 1/2 hour north of Les Eyzies)

Beynac castle stands on a remarkable site, rising from the top of a rock. It commands the beautiful Dordogne Valley as it winds between hills crowned with castles. From the castle, a unique medieval stronghold, there is a wonderful panorama of the valley and from left to right, of the Domme Barre and castles of Marqueyssac, Castelnaud and Fayrac. (15 minutes south of Les Eyzies)

This little town is located on a rocky crag overlooking the Dordogne Valley. From the promontory, the view embraces the Dordogne Valley from the Montfort Meander to the East, to Beynac to the West. You will enjoy strolling through the streets of this walled medieval town with its tower gateways, covered market, governor's house. (1/2 hour east of Beynac)

Towered over by its slender castle keep, Rocamadour groups a mass of old dwellings, oratories, towers and precipitous rocks on the rugged face of a Causse cliff, rising 500 feet over the Alzou canyon. It used to be a major place of pilgrimage, as the Notre Dame chapel hosts the Black Madonna, a reliquary known for its miracles. (1 hour east of Domme)

The Padirac chasm provides access to wonderful galleries hollowed out of the limestone mass of Gramat Causse by a subterranean river. A visit into the vertiginous well and a tour of the mysterious river and the vast caves adorned with limestone concretions give the tourist a striking impression of this fascinating underground world. ( 1 hour east of Rocamadour)

European Group Tours