La Roque-Gageac to Beynac: The Dordogne by Canoe

Required Activities

• Paddle the Dordogne downstream from La Roque-Gageac to Beynac, passing under the cliff village, then the boxwood terraces of Marqueyssac on the right bank, and finally between the two rival castles — Castelnaud on your left and Beynac on the cliff above your right

• Visit the Château de Beynac, the medieval castle on the cliff above the river

• At Castelnaud, find the full-size siege engines rebuilt in the grounds — trebuchet, mangonel, bricole, couillard — and work out which of them could actually have thrown a stone as far as Beynac across the river; inside, the war museum holds 300 weapons from the 13th to the 17th century, the second collection of its kind in France after the Musée de l'Armée

• Take a gabare out from La Roque-Gageac, then climb the lanes behind the quay into the exotic garden the south-facing cliff makes possible — palms and bananas under a Périgord limestone face — and scan the rock above for the peregrines it has been protected for since 1990

• Walk out along the hand-clipped box of Marqueyssac — planted by Julien de Cerval after 1861 and still cut by hand — to the belvedere 130 m above the river, and name all five places you can see from it: Beynac, Fayrac, Castelnaud, La Roque-Gageac and Domme