Le Chai Villa

18/05/2026

Sure to be a great night 💜💙❤️🧡

26/04/2026

Highly recommend this gorgeous restaurant in a very beautiful setting, absolutely amazing 💙💜🧡

La terrasse du restaurant Maison Wessman par Thierry Marx est désormais ouverte midi et soir :

profitez de la douceur printanière et pensez à réserver votre table !

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The terrace at Maison Wessman by Thierry Marx is now open for lunch and dinner—

enjoy the mild spring weather and be sure to reserve your table!

🌞

11/04/2026

What a transformation Le Chai Villa when we bought the property to now 🧡
We are currently repointing the stonework before our first lovely guests arrive....soon ❤️

30/03/2026

🚨 News alert for Dordogne lovers! ✈️

Flights from London Stansted to the Dordogne Valley on Ryanair are officially back from today until October 😎

Here’s the good news:
✈️ Daily flights to Bergerac
✈️ Flights to Brive on Mondays and Fridays

Which means that in under 2 hours you could swap city lights for golden stone villages, rolling countryside… and a refreshing drink in gorgeous Monpazier🍷☀️

Breakfast in London, dinner in the Dordogne Valley! 🥖 Not a bad plan, right? 😉

📸 .photographie (Instagram)
Pays de Bergerac Tourisme

27/03/2026

Visited last week, absolutely stunning village 😍 ❤️

Sarlat is not just a pretty medieval town, it is one of the strongest food destinations in southwest France. With around 10,000 residents, it manages to pack dozens of restaurants into a compact historic center. Many of them focus on traditional Périgord dishes like duck confit, foie gras, and seasonal truffles.

What makes it stand out is how local the food still feels. You will see menus built around what is in season, especially in winter when black truffles from the region take over. The Saturday market is one of the best places to understand what people actually eat here, from walnut oils to cured meats and fresh cheeses.

If you visit, go early in the day and walk the market before lunch. By midday, the streets fill up quickly, especially in peak season. Booking a table is not optional if you have a specific place in mind, even outside summer.

Sarlat works best when you slow down and plan your time around meals instead of sights. You can cover the old town in a few hours, but the food is what makes people stay longer or come back.

📍 Sarlat-la-Canéda, Dordogne, Nouvelle-Aquitaine

Would you plan a trip here just for the food or would you treat it as a stop along a bigger Dordogne itinerary?

07/03/2026

And it's on our doorstep, an amazing market in a gorgeous place 😍

07/03/2026

Perfect day trip from us at Le Chai Villa 😍

01/02/2026

This is one of our absolute favourites from us at Le Chai Villa 🧡😍

La Roque-Gageac clings to a limestone cliff along the Dordogne River, and that position was a practical choice. The rock face offered protection, warmth, and space for troglodyte dwellings carved directly into the stone. Long before tourism, people lived here because the cliff shielded them from floods and cold winds.

The village layout still shows that logic. Houses stack tightly along the river, with almost no room to expand outward. Above them, the cliff rises straight up, holding traces of former fortifications and shelters. Even the palm trees you see today grow here because the rock traps heat and creates a mild microclimate.

It can feel crowded in peak season, especially midday when buses arrive. Early morning or late afternoon is different. The river quiets down, the streets empty, and the scale of the cliff becomes more noticeable. This place works best when you take it slowly and remember it was built to endure, not to impress.

📍 La Roque-Gageac, Dordogne

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01/12/2025

One of the most beautiful French villages we've visited from Le Chai Villa 😍

Saint Cirq Lapopie has a way of stopping you in your tracks, mostly because the setting feels almost unchanged from its medieval past. The village sits high above a bend in the Lot River, and the narrow lanes follow the same paths used by merchants and craftsmen who lived here centuries ago. Many of the stone houses still have their original wooden frameworks, which gives the center a very authentic feel.

Artists discovered the village in the early twentieth century. André Breton, one of the founders of Surrealism, spent time here and famously said he never wanted to leave. You can still understand that feeling when you look out over the terraces. The views from the church and the old fortifications show you the full sweep of the valley, with cliffs, forests, and the river winding far below.

Walking through the village is best done slowly. Small signs point out the workshops of old trades, from leather workers to metal smiths, and local shops highlight produce from the region. If you follow the path down toward the river, you get a sense of how isolated the area once felt before modern roads connected it to the rest of France.

📍 Saint Cirq Lapopie, Occitanie

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26/11/2025

Fabulous 💜🧡❤️💚💛