The castle tour

On the last day of our Dordogne stay, we finally made it to the two major castles in the area.  The first was Castelnaud, which I really wanted to visit because I'm reading a book about an American couple who bought a little house in the shadow of the castle back in 1985.  "A Castle in the Backyard" has been great so far.  And I was determined to find their house from the descriptions in the book!

The town of Castelnaud is pretty tiny but the castle is impressive.  It's on the other side of the Dordogne River from Beynac and the two castles have been rivals throughout history.  They can see each other very clearly and were on opposite sides of the One Hundred Years War.  Here's the view of Beynac from Castelnaud.

To add to an already excellent day, I found the artisanal ice cream I liked so much and had a scoop of chocolate and a scoop of salted caramel.  Yum.

Finally, we visited our castle next door, Chateau Beynac.  It took us quite a few days to get here, considering we are staying in its shadow!  It's a bigger castle than Castelnaud, and is apparently still occupied (a few rooms) by its owner, who bought it in 1961.  There was a magnificent view from the top of the ramparts, and we stood there surveying our little town with a touch of sadness in anticipation of our departure.