This gives its name to our neighbouring département, La Dordogne, but before entering it, flows across the north of the Lot, separating a small section of the limestone causse, known as the Causse de Martel, from the rest. The Dordogne rises in central France, in the high hills of the Auvergne, on the Puy de Sancy. It flows westwards until it joins the Garonne, the mightiest river in the South-West of France, and together they form the Gironde estuary, on which stands the city of Bordeaux.

 

 

There are dams on the higher reaches, but it is a "natural" river in that there are no locks or canalised stretches along its course. In the past, it was the great "highway" along which goods of all kinds were transported: before the coming of the railways in the 19th C., at a time when roads were frequently impassable, rivers were an essential lifeline for trade. Chestnuts, cheeses, wood for the making of barrels to contain Bordeaux wine… all these and more came down the river on "gabarres", traditional flat-bottomed wooden boats. The Dordogne winds its way across the Lot, creating impressive limestone cliffs, as at the Cirque de Montvalent, and a rich alluvial flood plain which is divided into fertile fields, pastures and orchards (there are many walnut groves to be seen in this area). It receives various tributaries, including the underground river which runs through Padirac Chasm.