Bulle d'R

It's not just a sandy beach at your leisurely disposal 10 kilometres away at Espace Hermeline: this watery body is surrounded by hiking and mountain bike trails, has ziplining for the headily adventurous and paintballing for the competitive, and is also home to the Bussière-Galant velorail along an abandoned railway track. Your local castle is Château de Montbrun, five minutes' drive from Bulle d'R (or bikeable via Rue des Châtaigniers) and built in the 12th century by England's Henry 2. It's well worth the 35-minute drive too to famed Château de Puyguilhem just outside Villars, hailed as the best preserved Renaissance-style castle in the Périgord; carve out some time for a ramble in the surrounding oak forest after your visit. Limoges, famed for its porcelain (and the setting of France's National Porcelain Museum) is also well worth a day trip (or two); slightly further afield at an hour's drive is Périgueux and its UNESCO-listed Byzantine cathedral.