Saint-Geniès travel guide

Visit Saint-Geniès (Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France)

The village of Saint-Geniès is in the west of the Dordogne department, to the north of Sarlat

Explore Saint-Geniès

France This Way review: the village of Sant-Genies is very pretty - among our favourites in this part of the Dordogne - and has a charming historic centre to explore

The village does not take long to explore - it is quite small - but the church, castle and traditional stone houses together create a very attractive ensemble. Start your visit from the car park below the centre of the village. There is a lovely view up the hill to the village from here.

The centre of Saint-Genies is dominated by a castle, quite modest in size but very attractive. Built in the 13th century to replace the earlier castle that had been almost destroyed (you can see the ruins of the original castle on the edge of the village), this was originally an important townhouse, then in the 16th century it was attached to an additional house and the round tower and square tower were built.

Next to the castle you can see the church of Saint-Geniés. Although small parts of wall remain from the original 12th century church, most of what we see today is from the 16th century, when the church was rebuilt and the tower and porch were added.

On the same small square as the church and castle there is also a very pretty group of cottages and an iron cross, placed here to replace a stone cross that was destroyed during the Revolution.

You can walk further up the hill along a row of stone houses from here: from the top of the street you have more pretty views of the castle, church and village.

One interesting feature in Saint-Geniès is the number of houses that have roofs of lauze - roofs made of sheets of stone instead of tiles. This is a traditional method of roof construction that use a type of limestone that breaks easily into slices and is found in the region, but requires very strong carpentry for the roof because the thick layer of stone is extremely heavy.

In the centre of the village you can see the 'tree of liberty', a tree planted in the Place de la Liberation on 8 May 1945 to celebrate the end of the Second World War.

On a small hill on the edge of the village there is a chapel that also has views across the houses and gardens of Saint-Geniés. There are some interesting medieval frescoes inside the chapel, although this was closed when we visited, and I don't know how often it is open. From the chapel you can also see the ruins of the castle that was built in the village in the 12th century.

There are not a lot of shops and cafes in Saint-Geniès, but you will find basic commerces and somewhere for your coffee break.

Attractions nearby

The principal attraction close to Saint-Geniès is the gardens of the manoir d'Eyrignac, a few kilometres south of the village and one of the most beautiful gardens in France. At Salignac-Eyvigues you can follow a route around the small town that passes a castle and several historic houses.

You can find more travel ideas in the Dordogne guide and the Aquitaine guide.