France Trip 2023 | Cadouin Abbey - Limeuil - Bergerac

In case you're interested, here are the previous posts of this journey.

This is going to be a fairly long and photo-heavy post as I wanted to get the rest of our France trip into this post and not split it up any further. So, let's get to it.

Leaving Beynac we turned west again to slowly return to Bordeaux over the course of a couple of days. Of course, not without stopping at a few more spots. The first one was the

Cloitre de Cadouin

An abbey that was founded in the 12th century and I just love the medieval architecture that survived the centuries, usually with a lot of changes over time but wonderful nonetheless. Hence - there are lots of photos incoming from around the monastery which from the front looks very unassuming, big, and fairly ugly to be honest.

But once you stepped through the entrance, on the left to the church and on the right to the inner sanctuary garden - it was as beautiful as expected.

Wandering along under the age-old cloisters (? not sure if that is the right word) made me feel very small and humble once again. Look at all the details carved in the stones and imagine the people who built this and wandered on the same stones over the centuries...

I am going to spare you most of the pictures from the adjacent church but trust me when I say that the stained glass windows were truly magnificent, the photos won't do them justice.

From the monastery, we took a little detour to check out and have lunch at Limeuil. In order to do so we got a sandwich a.k.a. baguette to-go in a little bakery/shop in the small village that formed around the monastery. But we had to earn our lunch walking up long and winding roads to the top of the hill to the lovely (and hot) Panoramic Gardens of Limeuil.

It was well worth it because their name is accurate. They are overlooking the two rivers (Vezere and Dordogne), and bridges, that meet in Limeuil.

From Limeuil next stop, our next B&B, and then the next morning:

Bergerac

Yup, THE Bergerace with Cyrano - there's also his statue in the middle of town. The old town is fascinating with all the old, very crooked half-timbered houses. Well worth wandering around for a couple of hours and taking in more history before having a little rest by the river.

Then, last on our itinerary before returning to Bordeaux airport for our flight back home was yet one more castle.

Chateau de la Brede

Like the monastery, it doesn't look very flashy but - it has a moat! A moat in operation is actually quite complicated, sluices and all.

Unfortunately, we had just missed the guided tour to see the insides of the castle and we didn't want to wait around for an hour to catch the next one. So instead we just wandered around the very expansive grounds, complete with a maze, and marveled at the different sights of the castle.

Here are the photos in the order we walked around, literally, the castle.

And - that's a wrap!

This has been our trip to France 2023. We were there just over a week, arrived Tuesday, worked the first three days, and left the following Thursday. I think we packed a lot into this week and saw so many wonderful things. We had the best of times and would do it again in a heartbeat. Hopefully, this hasn't been the last time for us in France.

Till next time!

Have a great rest of your day!

Cheers,
(Ocean)Bee

_{99% of photos taken with my Fuji X-T5, maybe some iPhone pics}

France Trip 2023 | Cadouin Abbey - Limeuil - Bergerac - Chateau de la Brede

Cloitre de Cadouin

Bergerac

Chateau de la Brede

And - that's a wrap!