Highlights February 2014
Welcome to High Point Holidays latest edition of Highlights. We focus on the delights of the Lot and Dordogne Valleys with their historic and pre-historic treasures including the cave paintings at Peche Merle. We also have a new competition for another great book for anyone who loves walking or has a love of France and some tips to start exploring your own back yard in our latest blog.
Best Wishes
Mark Armstrong |
|
|
Walking in the Historic and Spectacular French Valleys
The Dordogne is dominated by the magnificent Dordogne river and its stunning valley lined with historic delights. Our easy self guided walking holiday Delights of Historic Dordogne passes through one picturesque village after another, including La Roque Gageac, built into sandstone cliffs along with a troglodyte fort and Sarlat which is famous for its medieval architecture and lively street market. In addition, a large number of superb chateaux line the Dordogne valley along which you'll be walking.
Self Guided 7 Nights, 6 Days Walking - £785
The Lot and the Célé valleys, though less well known than the Dordogne, will leave you captivated by their beauty. Our linear self-guided walking holiday Serene Lot Valley Trail begins in Figeac, a beautiful town with an unsoilt medieval centre and then travels downstream ending in Cahors, home of the Malbec vineyards. You’ll follow quiet walking trails through unspoilt countryside in the protected regional park Causses du Quercy, with rocky cliffs, home to some wonderful views and mighty chateaux overhanging majestic valleys. You’ll pass through a number of historic villages such as St-Cirq-Lapopie perched precariously above the river Lot.
Self Guided 7 Nights, 6 Days Walking - £765
These Self Guided Walking Holidays start 15th April and run through to 15th October
"Loved the variety in places to stay and eat. Enjoy having some meals booked and others free. The area around Domme is so beautiful and walking into La Roque was special." K, Fingas, Canada (Delights of Historic Dordogne)
We also offer a self guided Cycling Holiday in the Dordogne
Other Self Guided Walking Holidays
|
|
 Walking Holiday Updates
Confirmed Guided Walking Holidays:
Secret Provence: Les Baronnies
21st-28th June - Spaces Available
Queyras: Best Kept Secret in the Alps
6th-13th July - Fully Booked
High Point Holidays' 2014 Walking & Cycling Holidays Brochures
If you would like one please e-mail us and let us know.
Please note the brochure is also available online on our website.
New Independent/Self Guided Walking Holidays for 2014:
Beaujolais Wine Trail: Chateaux & Medieval Villages
This walking holiday follows on from our Grand Crus wine trail & traverses a number of pretty valleys harbouring pretty chateaux and quaint villages.
Les Ecrins: Panoramic Alpine Trail
This spectacular trail takes you past high alpine lakes, through stunning valleys and along beautiful balcony paths following one of the best sections of the Tour of the Ecrins.
Tour of Ardeche: Rustic Trails
This walking tour is located in the heart of the Ardeche Regional Park & includes wonderful heather-clad moutains with great panoramic views; pretty chestnut forests; beautiful rivers and sun parched, vine covered slopes.
Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any queries on any of our holidays.
Ever disappointed that we do not do walking holidays in a particular country or region, then why not send us your suggestions to contact@highpointholidays.co.uk
|
|
|
Competitions
Competition:
We have 3 copies to give away of Terry Cudbird's Walking the Hexagon - an Escape around France on Foot courtesy of signal books.
In this fascinating book Terry Cudbird reveals the obsession which is long distance walking. In a year's walking he passed through the Pyrenees, the Languedoc, Provence, the Alps, the Jura, Alsace, Lorraine, Picardy, Normandy, Brittany and Aquitaine.
This book will be of interest to walkers, lovers of France and anyone who has ever dreamt of encountering real adventures not far from home. Competition closes 31st March. Click Here to enter.
You also have until the end of March 2014 to enter our competition to win a copy of Cicerone's Outdoor Photography by Jon Sparks & Chiz Dakin . Visit our competition page for further details.
You can read our review of the book on our blog. |
|
Spotted Horses of Peche Merle
On our independent walking holiday in France, the Serene Lot Valley Trail, you will have time to visit the amazing prehistoric cave paintings at Peche Merle
The caves at Peche Merle extend for more than a mile and the walls are covered with dramatic murals and engravings dating from 16,000 to 25,000 BC. The walls of seven of the chambers at Pech Merle have lifelike images of a woolly mammoth, spotted horses, bovids, reindeer, handprints, and some human figures. The horses in the Pech Merle cave in southern France, painted during the Earth's last Ice Age, have long had a special fascination for anthropologists, mainly because of their mysterious spots. Recent DNA evidence, however, has found that spotted horses did indeed exist in Europe in what is known as the Upper Paleolithic period.
Archeologists believe that horses were only domesticated about 6,000 years ago, meaning that the horses depicted in Pech Merle were most probably hunted, not bred.
|
|
Discover your Local Footpaths
I recently finished reading Mike Parker's "The Wild Rover - a Blistering Journey along Britain's Footpaths", an enjoyable exploration of the history of land access and ownership through his own travels along Britain's footpaths
Parker tells us of a time when he decided to do an audit of the state of the rights of way by walking the paths covered by a circle of 3 miles radius from where he lived. Within 3 miles of his back door he had walked nearly 70 miles of rights of way: "I found lakes, woods, views and neighbours that I never knew existed." "Have a look at the map of your own back yard and, unless you live in the middle of a big city, there will be dozens of rights of way too within your own 3 mile radius."
Another great idea that comes from his year of travelling the UK is being dropped off 3 days away from home, and then just walking back. "See your own back yard in a completely new context. It's the ultimate staycation."
Read more on our blog
|
|
|
