Village de Gîtes Lapeyre

For days out in a triumvirate of historic cities, visit Limoges (55 minutes' drive) for its ornate half-timbered houses along Rue de Temple and fine ceramics in the Musée National Adrien Dubouché, or spend time admiring the stone carvings on the cathedral facade and walking the ramparts in Angoulême (an hour). Périgueux (an hour) has Roman remains at the Vesunna Gallo-Roman Museum, an unusual cathedral with a spiky Romanesque-Byzantine design and an exceptional collection of medieval art in the Musée d’Art et d’Archéologie du Périgord. Culture taken care of, you can tour the slowly decaying ghost village of Oradour-sur-Glane (50 minutes), frozen in time following a massacre in World War II, and afterwards let loose on the rope courses and high wires in the Aventure Parc Lacs de Haute Charente (25 minutes). Go deep underground to see the stalactites and stalagmites in the Grottes du Quéroy (40 minutes), or take the looped nature walk through woodland to another wonder of nature – the massive granite boulder at Le Roc Branlant (15 minutes).