| Clearly visible on an impregnable cliff edge on the north bank of the river, the eye-catching village and castle of BEYNAC-ET-CAZENAC (generally shortened to just Beynac) was built in the days when the river was the only route open to traders and invaders. By road, it's 3km to the Château (daily: March–Sept 10am–6pm, Oct–Nov 10am–dusk, Dec–Feb noon–dusk; €6.55) but a steep lane leads up through the village and takes only fifteen minutes by foot. It's protected on the landward side by a double wall; elsewhere the sheer drop of almost 200m does the job. The flat terrace at the base of the keep, which was added by the English, conceals the remains of the houses where the beleaguered villagers lived; one of the houses has been partly excavated. Richard the Lionheart held the place for a time, until a gangrenous wound received while besieging the castle of Châlus, north of Périgueux, ended his term of blood-letting. Originally, to facilitate defence, the rooms inside the keep were only connected by a narrow spiral staircase – in stone, not wood as in the reconstruction, because of the danger of fire. The division of domestic space into dining rooms and so forth only came about when the advent of artillery made these old châteaux-forts militarily obsolete. From the roof there's a stupendous – and vertiginous – view upriver to the Château de Marqueyssac, whose beautiful seventeenth- and nineteenth-century gardens extend along the ridge (daily: mid-Feb to April & Oct to mid-Nov 10am–6pm; May, June & Sept 10am–7pm; July & Aug 9am–8pm; mid-Nov to mid-Feb 2–5pm; €5.20). In the main street below Beynac castle is the old-fashioned Hôtel Bonnet (tel 05.53.29.50.01, fax 05.53.29.83.7; €40–55; closed Nov–March), with a good restaurant serving menus from €15, though you'll find quieter rooms in Hôtel Pontet on the road up to the castle (tel 05.53.29.50.06, www.hostellerie-maleville.com; €40–55; closed Jan). There's also a riverside campsite, Le Capeyrou (tel 05.53.29.54.95, fax 05.53.28.36.27; closed mid-Sept to mid-May), immediately east of the town.
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