We’d done a lot of driving and a lot of sitting about and it felt like time to get off our behinds and do something physical. Canoeing down the Dordogne sounded fun, so we booked a trip with Canoe Vacances (www.canoevacances.com) at 20 euros each and drove down to La Roque Gageac to the river. This was to be our final destination for a 14 km trip, and so we and a handful of other grockles*  climbed into a minibus and were driven to Carsac.

We were given a two seater canoe, with me at the front and David at the back, each of us with a paddle. Fortunately I’m left handed and he’s right so we could both stick to our good side. It was lovely to get on the river, and despite my misgivings, the distance wasn’t a problem, as we were going downstream: even if we hadn’t paddled at all we still would have got there.  There was no danger of capsizing, which was good as I had forgotten to bring a costume. We were given a waterproof container to put everything in, but we didn’t really need much apart from sunglasses, suntan lotion and plenty of drinking water.

We were first off in the group and eager to put a bit of distance from a rotund french girl in our party who seemed to enjoy screaming. I’m aware I’m sounding old but we wanted to enjoy the peace and quiet and were hopeful that we might see some wild life. As it turned out, we saw remarkably little, except for a heron and lots of dragonflies. This might have been because it wasn’t a particularly quiet stretch of river: there were quite a few ‘Norberts’ around (‘Norbert’ was the favoured name for the tourist boats – Norbert 1, Norbert 2 and so on) and a good many groups of kayaks and canoes.

The banks of the river were particularly scenic with picturesque ancient villages and bridges and what seemed to be a chateau around every corner. I’m not even going to try to record all their names here. By the end of the trip I’d been happy if I never saw a chateau again. It’s something to watch out for if you come to this region of France. Don’t make yourself sick by consuming too much chateaux!

*A grockle is a West Country word for a pasty skinned person dressed in shorts and a kagool, otherwise known as a tourist.