France's secret nook: stunning clifftops, medieval towns and crowd-free charm

Mais oui (but yes), this isn't an ugly part of the world," muses guide Bruno Eluere, as he watches us hungrily snapping photographs of Sarlat-la-Caneda, a honey-hued town in the Dordogne, a scrumptiously scenic portion of south-western France also known as Perigord. With his white handlebar moustache and whip-smart English - spoken with a French accent as thick as creme fraiche - Bruno is compelling company and a fountain of knowledge on the history, culture and cuisine of this beguiling region, where we're spending three nights on our cross-country La Grande France tour with Albatross.

Sarlat is a delightful base for the Dordogne. We hear tales of the town - and the Benedictine monks who founded it - from Bruno as we follow him through the handsomely restored medieval core, whose tangle of narrow cobblestone lanes spiral off from Place de la Liberte, the pedestrianised central square. Tables and chairs spill out from cafes and bars here, and market stalls pitch up a few days per week, flaunting regional produce like wines and cheeses, truffles and chestnuts, and various duck and geese-based delicacies.

Nose-tickling aromas also circulate at the daily covered market inside Eglise Sainte-Marie, a deconsecrated 14th-century Gothic church given a contemporary makeover by star French architect Jean Nouvel (he installed a glass lift in the bell tower for panoramas over Sarlat and its undulating green surrounds).

We're tempted, too, by the town's myriad gourmet boutiques and family-run restaurants - many offering good-value three-course set menus showcasing regional specialities. My favourite meal is an al fresco one at Auberge Le Mirandol, a rustic charmer on a picture-perfect alley behind Place de la Liberte. With a glass of plummy red wine from the nearby vineyards of Bergerac, and a basket generously stacked with chunks of baguette, I tuck into a foie gras terrine, then magret de canard (duck breast) with truffle sauce and sarladaise potatoes (sliced spuds cooked in duck fat and garlic). Dessert is walnut cake with creme anglaise. The bill comes to about $60.

Not just a pleasing town for food, drink and strolls, Sarlat is a springboard for the other treasures of the Dordogne, including the eponymous river that wends through the region (it courses almost 500 kilometres from the Massif Central highlands towards Bordeaux and the Atlantic Ocean). An especially picturesque stretch of this river snakes past La Roque-Gageac, a cute village backing on to a dramatic limestone cliff, a 20-minute drive from Sarlat. Here we take a sightseeing cruise aboard a modern version of a gabarre - a traditional flat-bottomed barge that, in centuries past, would have transported wine, oak and other goods along the river.

Birdsong almost drowns out the barge's engine as we drone along, spying grey herons poised on the forested banks, exchanging waves with passing kayakers, canoeists and paddle-boarders, and spotting clifftop castles from the Middle Ages and later. Bruno points out the Chateau de Beynac, an old lair of Richard the Lionheart - "an invincible warrior but not such a nice guy," according to our guide, who reveals this region witnessed several flashpoints during the Hundred Years' War, a medieval conflict between the French and English (or the "Frogs and Roast Beefs", as a smiling Bruno describes them).

In that turbulent era, many Dordogne residents were fortunate to be living in a bastide - a type of fortified town that sprouted across southern France in the 13th and 14th centuries. We visit Domme, dubbed "the Acropolis of the Dordogne" and perched on a lofty outcrop upstream from La Roque-Gageac. Many of this bastide's original ramparts are still intact and we wander along, pausing to admire the Dordogne Valley, with the river wriggling through a bucolic patchwork of farmers' fields and woodland.

Whether you fancy a coffee or an ice cream, an aperitif or a hearty stew, Domme has ample options for refreshments. You'll also see artisan craft stores and galleries, while tidy stone cottages with colourful doors, window shutters and gardens may have you dreaming about a French holiday home. The Dordogne would be a fine choice for purchasing such a property. As would Lot, the department next door that's also blessed with swoon-worthy towns, villages and countryside.

Another day we call in at two of its tourist big-hitters: Rocamadour, a pilgrimage site where holy buildings cling to the side of a lushly-vegetated canyon, and Le Gouffre de Padirac, a chasm leading to a surreal network of limestone caverns and a river trickling 100 metres underground.

The writer was a guest of Albatross Tours