Camping Bellevue

Pretty towns to explore include Loubressac, where red-roofed cottages sit on a rocky ledge, and Sarlat (both 45 minutes’ drive) with its cobbled streets lined by mellow-stones houses and Renaissance mansions. However, medieval Rocamadour (25 minutes) is one of the biggest-hitting visitor attractions in the Dordogne – an area with many fantastic sights to see. Built into steep cliffs overlooking the Alzou Valley, this ancient village is generously littered with 12th-century chapels and enticing souvenir shops stuffed full of local wines, cheeses and soaps, all alongside the Romanesque-Gothic Basilica of St-Sauveur and millennia-old limestone formations in the Grotte des Merveilles. More spectacular subterranean caves include the Gouffre de Padirac (45 minutes), where you can take a boat cruise on the underground river network; another surefire hit with all the family will be Lascaux II (an hour), with its carefully reproduced replicas of Paleolithic cave paintings originally discovered nearby in 1940. Castles loom large in importance too: you can nose around the opulent decorative-arts collections at hilltop Château de Castelnau-Bretenoux (50 minutes), and the Château de Montal (45 minutes) is open for guided tours of monumental apartments and a formal knot garden.