A few days ago we visited one of the other castles right by our house.  This area (The Dordogne Valley, Perigord Noir to be exact) is an amazing place.  There are at least 5 castles/chateaus, the river, multiple ancient villages and hamlets and the best patisserie in the area all within 15 minutes or so of the house.  This is a great place for exploration.

This trip we took in Castelnaud.  Castelnaud was a British stronghold during the 100 years war.  That is just hard to imagine- a hundred years of war?  Anyway, it is across the valley from Marqueyssac and Castle Beynac and you can look across valley from one to the other.  It is very cool to say the least.  There is also another one called Fayrac that is privately owned by a Texas couple (kind of weird right?).

 

Here is the castle as you walk up the medieval village roads to the main entrance.

 

 

 

 

Right by where you walk in they have this, the kids thought it was hilarious.

 

 

 

 

 

Look at Finn, he looks so perfect in there!

 

 

 

 

Pops and Granny got in on the fun too.

 

 

 

 

The views from the castle windows were breathtaking.  You can see why someone picked this as the spot for the castle.

 

 

 

 

 

You can walk around the ramparts and see the entire valley.  Here's Steven, Sayer and Susan (Memah) stopping for a quick pic.

 

 

 

 

 

Marqueyssac is behind them on the hill and castle Beynac is in the left corner.  At the base of the castle, they had a trebuchet demonstration, which the kids loved too.  One of the other highlights for the kids was the toilet in one of the castle rooms.  It was just a stone ledge with a hole in it.  When you looked down the hole you saw a sheer drop straight down a cliff towards the river.  Sayer, completely excited, said "Can I use the potty?!".