Chateau de Beynac – road trip roundup #6

What’s a road trip around a European country if it doesn’t involve a castle? Chateau de Beynac can now be added to the long list of castles I’ve visited. The castle overlooks the Dordogne river, and its prime position has made it a popular castle to attack. The British declared it as British territory at one point, and Richard the Lionheart was rumoured to have climbed through the toilet holes to take the castle by storm. Most recently, the castle, in ruins, was (from memory) bought in the Seventies by a French man for around €30,000 (again, from memory). He was told he was crazy for buying a ruined castle and that the land it sat on was more valuable. He started restoring it without commercialising it with tourist traps like gift shops, and even today, all entry fees still go towards the restoration of the castle.

Although the French man passed away in July 2008, the castle, now in great shape, is still being restored. Guided tours given by volunteers are free and an interesting way to see the castle. All the usual topics are covered: life in a castle, toilets in a castle, how to heat and light a castle, a kitchen in a castle, and defense mechanisms of a castle. One thing that I had not seen before was a table in the kitchen with a long hole at one end for the men to put their swords (see photo below). This was the only place where they could relax without fear of attack, and one of the few times they removed their swords from their bodies during the day.

If you visit this castle, remember these important bits of information:

  1. They do charge for public parking on Sundays, despite what your French travel partner might say.
  2. If you don’t want to do the fifteen-minute heart-starting (or stopping) walk to the castle from the road below, you can drive to the car park right outside it the castle entrance.

We discovered both these things the hard way.

Dordogne road trip links

Roadtrip Roundup 1: Dune du Pilat — largest sand dune in France

Roadtrip Roundup 2: Le Gouffre de Padirac — massive underground cave with a lake

Roadtrip Roundup 3: Le Viaduc de Millau — worlds tallest bridge in 2008

Roadtrip Roundup 4: Marqueyssac gardens — kilometres of natural wonder

Roadtrip Roundup 5: La Roque St Christophe — village carved in rockface

Roadtrip Roundup 7: Everything else — Lascaux, Gouffre de Proumeyssac, Les Eyzies de Tayac Sarlat-la-Canéda, Collonges les Rouge

About

I'm a technical author, journalist and writer from Australia who has been living in Europe since 2000 and exploring the world from there. My passions are writing, snow sports and travel.