D is for Dreamy Daglan and Dordogne dog-days, France

We came here almost by accident, but ended up loving our week in this quiet part of the Dordogne.

We loved:  Hanging about on the gorgeous campsite, splashing in the river Ceou, canoeing on the river Dordogne, beautiful Daglan and cycling along the nearby veloroutes.

Hints: Castelnaud is a handy base where the Dordogne and Ceou meet. You can hire canoes and bikes here, and there’s a big riverside beach / picnic spot.

Here’s our top Dordogne 5

After a few weeks of fairly rough-and-ready camping we really felt the need for a bit of luxury, starting with toilet roll in the loo block (something I think only considered a luxury in a few French sites, including the one we’d come from, or in all Italian sites).  The kids were also ready, in week 4, to meet some other English children.  So, where better to look for a clean, efficiently and generously run site with other English speaking children than trusty Eurocamp?  We contacted Eurocamp Independent and, according to our criteria (see above — clean, loo rolls, English kids .. small to medium sized) Moulin de Paulhiac would be perfect, and they had space. Hurrah!

The campsite cooking /waiting team

Restaurant doodles

🙂

So off we tootled.  Have to say, it was a great choice, and has now become our favourite campsite ever, because: it’s small enough to feel comfortable sending kids off on their own, it’s great for cycling around, it has a lovely river running through it, you can cycle off-road almost from the campsite, the nearest town, Daglan is lovely, it’s within reach of Castelnaud (which is on the Dordogne itself), the pools are fun, the staff friendly and the restaurant fine.

1. Daglan

Morning commute to Daglan market

Sweet shopping at the market

Daglan is dreamily beautiful

Honey coloured stone

A pretty back street in Raglan

2. Canoeing on the river Dordogne, sunbathing on its banks and taking the occasional dip

Sunbathing in Castelnaud

Blissful Castelnaud again

Half way down the river a brief island stop and dip

Canoe Losers

This is the beach at Calviac

Dordogne dude

3. Cycling around the campsite (of course!) and on the veloroutes

My kind of mountain biking! Just across the river from the campsite is the cycle path

And we’re ready for our bike ride

4. The campsite itself, including gorgeous river Ceou, the pools and playing a spot of badminton

7 campsites and 4 weeks in and finally we found somewhere to put the hammock

Our first evening at Moulin de Paulhiac

More messing about on the river

Lilo love

Camp site card sharps

And with shadows this time

5. The local area – Squirrel forest near Sarlat and Domme

Huge amount of high ropes fun to be had at Squirrel Forest

Trepidation … I’m to do the high high stuff with Annie. Gulp

An evening view from Domme

A Church in Domme

Domme again – the viewpoint – a bit hazy

Hopefully helpful info

We stayed at:  Lovely lovely Le Moulin de Paulhiac — we camped in the van/tent combo, but you could also rent a tent/mobile home through Eurocamp or directly through the site.

We ate at:  La Cantine, Daglan, the campsite restaurant, BBQ on the pitch 🙂

We canoed with:  Canoe Loisirs, Vitrac (we did the 19 kms Calviac – Vitrac bit this time as we’d done Vitrac to Beynac two years before).

We climbed at:  LA FORET DES ÉCUREUILS (Squirrel Forest).