A Week at Beaux Souvenirs: Our Favourite Dordogne Itinerary
A Week at Beaux Souvenirs: Our Favourite Dordogne Itinerary
Guests often ask us how they should spend their week at Beaux Souvenirs, our adults-only pool gîte in the village of Mialet, North Dordogne. It's a question we enjoy, because the Périgord Vert gives you space to explore or slow down as the mood takes you, and often both in the same day.
We sit within the Périgord-Limousin Regional Nature Park, which protects over 1,800 square kilometres of rolling countryside, and the pace of life here reflects that. No tour coaches blocking village streets. No queuing for car parks. Just quiet roads, good food, and a region that rewards the unhurried traveller.
What follows is our suggestion for a seven-day Dordogne itinerary, the places we'd visit if we were guests ourselves. Treat it as a starting point, not a schedule. Some guests follow it closely. Others spend three days at the pool, fit in two or three sightseeing trips, and tell us it was exactly what they needed. Either way works well at Beaux Souvenirs.
Saturday: Arrival Day, Welcome to the Périgord Vert
We welcome guests from 5 pm on Saturdays and are always here to show you around, answer questions, and help you settle in. After the drive from Calais or the flight into Limoges and the hire car, most people want to breathe out rather than go anywhere.
The pool is ready, the terrace holds the last of the evening sun, and Casa O, our village brasserie just six minutes on foot, handles dinner beautifully if you'd rather not cook on night one. Pour a drink, take in the quiet of the Périgord Vert, and give yourself permission to do very little. The week ahead has plenty in store.
Sunday: Hunt for Treasure at a Vide-Grenier (French Flea Market)
Sundays in the Dordogne often mean vide-greniers, and they make an ideal, unhurried start to the week. A vide-grenier, literally "empty the attic" and France's answer to a car boot sale, runs from around 8 am to 5 pm, so there's no frantic early-morning dash. Stalls fill village squares, church grounds, and recreation areas across the region, and the atmosphere tends toward the sociable rather than the competitive.
You'll find old Limoges porcelain, vintage linen, enamelware, records, jewellery, collectable toys, and plenty of things you had absolutely no intention of buying. That's rather the point. Unlike the tourist-facing brocante markets in the south around Sarlat, these are local affairs: neighbours selling to neighbours, with the odd sharp-eyed collector thrown in.
Almost every village holds at least one per year, usually on a Sunday or a bank holiday. Check brocabrac.fr or vide-greniers.org before you travel. Both list events across Dordogne (24), the neighbouring Haute-Vienne (87), and Charente (16), all within easy reach of Mialet. Take cash, arrive early, and always open with a "Bonjour."
For a full guide to antique hunting and brocante markets in the North Dordogne, including the difference between a vide-grenier, a brocante, a troc, and a vide-maison, visit our Antiques, Brocantes and Vintage page.
Prefer a slower Sunday morning closer to home? The Barrage de Mialet sits 1.4km from the village: an easy 9km circular walk through water, woodland, and open meadow, with lake views throughout. We keep a cool box in the gite, handy for packing a picnic if you're travelling light or simply want lunch sorted before you set off. Save the afternoon for the pool.
Monday: A Slow Morning, then Oradour-sur-Glane
After arrival day, Monday suits a gentle start. Breakfast in the sun, a swim before the heat builds, then set off after lunch for one of the most important visits you will make anywhere in France.
Oradour-sur-Glane sits around 52 minutes north of Mialet, just across the border into the Haute-Vienne. On 10th June 1944, four days after D-Day, an SS Panzer division massacred 643 of the village's inhabitants, men, women and children, and burned it to the ground. General de Gaulle ordered that it remain exactly as it was, as a permanent memorial. It has stood that way ever since.
Walking through the ruins carries a weight that no photograph prepares you for. Rusted car shells sit in the road. Sewing machines stand in roofless homes. The church where 247 women and children were killed remains intact. The Centre de la Mémoire tells the story with exceptional care.
This is not a cheerful afternoon out, and it isn't meant to be. It stays with you and puts everyday concerns firmly in their place. We have never met a guest who regretted going.
Allow two to three hours, and plan a quiet evening back at Beaux Souvenirs afterwards. A simple supper, a glass of wine on the terrace as the light fades. Some days end best that way.
Tuesday: Lunch by the River at Saint-Jean-de-Côle
Saint-Jean-de-Côle catches you off guard. A medieval humpback bridge arches over the River Côle. Stone houses with terracotta roofs cluster around an 11th-century Romanesque church, and the Château de la Marthonie, partly ruined and utterly romantic, rises behind the square. France has officially listed it as one of its Most Beautiful Villages (Les Plus Beaux Villages de France), and on a Tuesday in season, there's often a small market with local producers and a handful of brocante stalls.
Arrive mid-morning, wander at your own pace, and settle in for a long lunch before heading back. The drive through the Périgord Vert countryside is worth taking slowly: oak forests, rolling meadows, and stone barns that look untouched by the last three centuries.
Wednesday: Market Day at Piégut-Pluviers
Wednesday mornings belong to the market at Piegut-Pluviers, the biggest weekly market in the North Dordogne. This is a proper, working French market: locals doing their weekly shop, producers selling directly from the farm, and a lively atmosphere from early morning. Nothing here caters to coach parties. The stalls serve the community, and you can feel it.
Expect excellent charcuterie, local cheeses, fresh bread, seasonal vegetables, honey, duck confit, foie gras, Charentaise Mélons, plants, crafts, and household goods. Prices are fair, and everything tastes better when you've watched someone slice it in front of you. There are a few cafes where you can sit outside with a coffee and people-watch!
Piégut-Pluviers is around 26km from Mialet, along quiet country roads. Arrive before 10 am and allow a couple of hours. Shop like a local, stock up for the kitchen, and use the cool box we keep in the gite to keep everything fresh on the drive back. Or build a picnic and head to the Barrage that afternoon. Then the pool. You've earned it.
The Museum Tour and Apéro: a Highlight of the Week
Later in the week, we'll arrange a private guided tour of the on-site vintage fashion museum, with a selection of local apéritifs. Guests often tell us it becomes one of their favourite memories of the stay, and nothing quite like it exists in any other French gîte.
The tour runs from 5 pm to 7 pm. The museum covers the social history of 20th-century women's fashion through a collection built over more than forty years, and tends to spark conversations that outlast the apéritifs.
The Vintage Collection at Your French Stay, our on-site boutique entirely separate from the museum, is worth your time too. Over 600 pieces, including designer labels, and the kind of find you won't come across on a market stall.
Thursday: The Château and Gardens at Jumilhac-le-Grand
Jumilhac-le-Grand sits around 22 minutes from Mialet, and its château ranks among the most striking in the Périgord Vert. The roofline alone, steep slate turrets, dormer windows, and lead figurines against the sky, looks lifted from a medieval illuminated manuscript. Inside, guided tours take you through painted ceilings, period furnishings, and the legend of the Spinner: a noblewoman said to have been locked in a tower by her jealous husband, who spent her years weaving and gazing at the river below.
The terraced gardens drop toward the River Isle, and the views from the upper terraces across the valley are worth the climb. The village has a café for a light lunch, and occasional vide-greniers and brocantes take place in the château grounds during the season, with a fairytale backdrop for browsing.
On selected evenings in summer, the château opens for candlelit nocturnal visits. A guide in period costume leads you through rooms and gardens by lantern light, accompanied by grand siècle music. Worth timing your Thursday around if it's running during your stay. Check the château website for dates and to book.
Friday: Brantôme, the Venice of the Périgord Vert
Save Brantôme for Friday. Around 37 minutes from Mialet, it ranks among the most beautiful small towns in France. We've written a full guide if you'd like the details: read our Brantôme guide before you go.
Built on an island in the River Dronne, Brantôme earns its Venice comparison without much argument. The medieval abbey, founded by Charlemagne in 769AD, dominates the town from its cliff setting. Ancient bridges cross the Dronne at several points, and the river, wide, green, and mirror-still in the morning, reflects the whole scene back at you.
Plan a slow morning on foot: the abbey cloisters, the cave dwellings carved into the cliff behind it, and the independent shops. Then a long riverside lunch. If you want to mark the end of the week with something special, Le Moulin de l'Abbaye, a Michelin-starred restaurant set in an ivy-clad mill right on the water, comes highly recommended by our guests. Book ahead.
Friday evening back at Beaux Souvenirs, after a day in Brantôme, suits a glass of something good on the terrace. And if the thought of cooking feels like one step too far, the pizza van that parks on the village square on Friday evenings is a very good reason not to bother.
Saturday: Time to Leave (But You'll Be Back)
Check-out is at 10 am, and it always arrives sooner than expected. One last coffee in the garden, a final look at the pool, then the car gets loaded, and the journey home begins.
Nearly every guest tells us they ran out of time. That's just how the Périgord Vert works. There's always another vide-grenier on the calendar, a back road that looked interesting, a restaurant a neighbour mentioned on the last day. We hope it means you'll come back.
Plan Your Week at Beaux Souvenirs
After nearly ten years in the Dordogne, local knowledge comes with the stay at Beaux Souvenirs. If you'd like to know what's on during your particular week, where to eat, or whether a specific attraction is worth the detour, just ask. We're always happy to help shape the week around you.
"The area is truly interesting, with abundant châteaux, lovely towns such as Brantôme, and abundant walks. Our hosts Vanessa & William are a font of knowledge and a wonderful & warm couple."
Gladys & John, Wales
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