Goods in the old town area were gorgeous: craft cheese, sausage, produce, bread, and preserves. Bought some provisions and headed out of town on foot toward Beynac-et-Cazenac...
This bakery had an old mixer out front...
This area of France has a lot of stone buildings, especially round ones...
This one had a brick oven in an outdoor cooking area...
After about two hours, we crested a hill, and there was Castle Beynac, our goal. Since it's still surrounded by pasture, orchards, and vineyards, we imagined the approach was much the same for travelers 500 years ago...
Castle Beynac was built on a cliff top overlooking the Dordogne River. Parts of it date from the 12th Century...
The floor in this room is called pisé. It's made using long, thin stones set lengthwise into sand/mortar, so that you see just one flat end. Several rooms have this type of floor...
A nicely vaulted latrine...
Some door construction...
We visited late in the day, just before the rooms were systematically locked down for the night. The woman with the key ring had large keys with heart-shaped handles. To match this heart-shaped keyhole plate, as in Sarlat...
The great hall...
...and its small oratory with 15th-century frescoes...
This room was Richard I's while he occupied the castle (the final decade of his life, 1189-99)...
Finally, the kitchen. The ramp allowed easy delivery of goods, but also the quick passage of horses and other animals and goods into an inner courtyard, in the case of siege...
The table (probably a reconstruction) has slots at the end to allow handy storage of swords...
The hearth with its natural stone floor...
A couple details from the hearth area: water basin and butcher block...
When we left the castle, we discovered there was no (remaining) train or bus from Beynac to Sarlat, as we'd counted on. So we walked back to Sarlat, arriving well after dark. Our B&B hosts were dismayed: we were the first guests they'd ever had who walked to Beynac. It was about a 15-mile round trip on the route we chose. Beautiful and well worth the walk.
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