Camping Les Cinq Châteaux

When you’re ready to step abroad, the châteaux of Castelnaud-la-Chapelle and Beynac make a good first foray, since they’re both 10 minutes’ drive away and facing each other from their high points across the valley. Beynac is the better preserved of the pair, while the former Cathar stronghold of Castlenaud is home to a collection of arms, armour and recreated siege machinery. If you fancy a castle of a milder disposition, make for Château des Millandes, also 10 minutes away: this cute and compact 15th-century pile houses a museum devoted to onetime resident Josephine Baker, and has an aviary of exotic birds and raptors to go and greet too. Heading further back in time, it’s half an hour to the National Museum of Prehistory just outside Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil; between here and the riverside town of La Bugue (also half an hour) lies a network of prehistoric sites including the famed engravings of Font-de-Gaume and the human-animal-shaman figure after whom the Sorceror’s Cave is named. For the full Palaeolithic painting experience, Lascaux is 40 minutes’ drive away. If it’s wildlife you’re after, there’s plenty to savour as you walk, bike or canoe your way down the Dordogne, or there’s a more captive kind on display in the aquarium and crocodile park at La Bugue. Further afield, within the Causses du Quercy Regional Natural Park, you can hang with the monkeys at Forêt des Singes or see the birds of prey displays at Rocher des Aigles (both an hour and 15 minutes away).