Loire south france 13 days - Dordogne Canoe trip

Tara, I see that this is a follow-on from your Saturday-plan question. This note comes from the department that organizes tour logistics:

We canoe down the Dordogne from Cenac to just before Beynac, shown on p. 464 of RS France book. Much depends on the guide, the weather, and the group! Also depends on where we've stopped for lunch between the cave visit and canoeing, which could be at La Roque-Gageac (on this stretch of river), or Les Eyzies, or… several other cities, but these are most common lunch stops.

We don’t stick closely together but we also don’t completely go off on our own while canoeing. If the weather were fantastic (normally in mid-summer) and if the time allowed, we could stop ½ way during canoeing to swim or stay on at the end at our gathering point to swim a bit, just depends.

Your guide may take the group up to Beynac for a viewpoint after, but due to timing you wouldn’t have much time to explore there; it really is a viewpoint stop.

Car rental for the next day (Saturday) can be arranged in advance (recommended for June/July) or often even on the spot from Europcar. That gives you flexibility to canoe other stretches of the river, visit particular towns, or visit other caves you've pre-reserved.

Here's our experience but keep in mind, as Laura says, it may be a different experience for you. We did have our lunch at La Roque-Gageac, a lovely picnic on the banks of the Dordogne before canoeing down the river as I recall. After beaching the canoes at the end of the trip, we had time to swim in the river. It was really fun and since I've never paddled a canoe, one of the best tour experiences I've had. I would take Laura's advice about re-visiting all those lovely castles you'll be seeing on the way down river.