The morning centers on Sarlat-la-Canéda, one of the best-preserved medieval towns in France, with 66 listed monuments packed into a historic center of just 27 acres. On market days, the old town’s limestone streets fill with producers selling Périgord specialties including pastries, truffles, duck confit, and walnuts. A private guided food tour takes you through the market and the surrounding medieval quarter before lunch at a local restaurant in town.

In the afternoon, you’ll visit a local confectionery workshop specializing in walnut-based sweets and savory treats, with tastings and time to browse the shop. The day concludes at the Moulin du Trel in Vézac, a traditional walnut mill restored to working order by the Vidal family and powered by a water wheel fed by the mill’s own millrace. You’ll taste the estate’s extra virgin walnut oil before the transfer back to your hotel.

Your guide-driver will collect you in the morning for the transfer to La Roque Gageac, one of France’s officially designated most beautiful villages, where limestone houses are built directly into the cliff face above the Dordogne. The day begins with a six-mile loop hike through a forest of holm oaks above the village, following shaded paths with views over the river valley and the historic sites of the Périgord on the return leg. Lunch follows in the village or at a nearby restaurant.

The afternoon offers two options. The first is a one-hour gabare cruise from La Roque Gageac to the Castelnaud Bridge aboard a reproduction of the flat-bottomed wooden boats that once carried wine, salt, truffles, and timber along the Dordogne, passing a succession of castles along the way. The second is a four-hour kayak trip on the river, paddling past the châteaux and cliffs of the valley at your own pace — a more active way to take in the same landscape from the water.

The morning begins at Château de Castelnaud-la-Chapelle, one of the finest surviving examples of medieval military architecture in France. Perched on a rocky spur above the confluence of four rivers, the castle dates to the 11th century and took its current form during the 14th and 15th centuries, with later embellishments added by the Clermont-Lodève family in the mid-17th century. A visit gives a thorough grounding in the region’s medieval history and the strategic importance of the Dordogne Valley.

From there, you’ll continue to the Marqueyssac Gardens, listed among France’s most remarkable, where miles of sculpted boxwood hedgerows frame wide views over the valley below. For those wanting something more physical, the Marqueyssac Via Ferrata runs 650 feet along the cliff face roughly 330 feet above the river, an independently navigable course open to anyone over 8 years old. The day ends with a stroll through La Roque Gageac and a historical cruise on the Dordogne.

Spend today diving into Dordogne’s cuisine with a local cooking class. The Dordogne’s reputation as one of France’s great gastronomic regions is built on an exceptional larder — truffles, duck confit, walnuts, and fresh farm produce among them — and the class puts that produce to work. Your chef will guide you through a three-course meal using the freshest regional ingredients, with an emphasis on simple techniques you can reproduce at home. Transfer back to your hotel at the end of the afternoon.

The morning is spent exploring the vineyards of Domme, one of the smallest wine-producing areas in France at just 50 acres, a fraction of the 6,700 acres it once covered before the Hundred Years’ War, the Wars of Religion, and a devastating phylloxera outbreak in the 19th century reduced it to near nothing. It was only in 1993 that a group of enthusiasts revived the vineyard on the limestone hillsides above the Céou, a small tributary of the Dordogne, at around 1,000 feet of elevation. You’ll visit a small producer for a private tour and tasting before the transfer back to your hotel. The rest of the day is yours at leisure.

Today you will be driven east to Rocamadour, stopping first at a local cheese farm to learn about the production of Rocamadour AOP, one of France’s most celebrated goat cheeses. The farm tour covers the full process, and lunch follows at the farm or at a restaurant in the village.

Rocamadour itself is one of the most dramatically situated villages in France, built vertically into a cliff face above a deep river gorge on the eastern edge of the Dordogne. A UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the Way of St James pilgrimage route, the village climbs in tiers from the valley floor to a castle at the summit, with a series of sanctuaries and chapels along the way that have drawn pilgrims for centuries. Your guide will transfer you back to your hotel at the end of the afternoon.

Say goodbye to Dordogne and head to the airport to catch your departing flight.