We stayed at Frederique's lovely stone house for 5 nights in July 2018. During that time, we felt like we had moved back in time, living similarly to the way folks might have lived many decades ago. We walked down the hill to the brasserie every morning for baguettes and pastries (the women there are very nice); crepes for lunch at the cafe (the cafe owner is a bit grumpy but makes very good crepes); and then 6 very good restaurants to choose between for dinner. From the house, it is only several minutes walking to Castlenaud, a 13th century castle that was our favorite on the trip. The house itself was built who-knows-how-many hundreds of years ago, but has all the modern conveniences for a nice stay, including solid WiFi, dishwasher, gas stove with cookware, and a washing machine (like many in France, you use a drying rack to dry). Now let's get to the Pros and Cons.
Pros: house has the best view of just about anywhere I have _ever_ stayed in my life; Frederique (owner) and Martine (caretaker) are both very friendly and easygoing, and will make sure you have everything you need; Beynac is awesome, a way better place to stay these days than Roque Gageac, Sarlat, Les Eyzies de Tayac as it still feels authentic; very close to Castlenaud; weekly parking easily arranged at city hall; right on the Dordogne, we canoed 14km practically right to our front door; last but not least, orange cat who we named Pierre Buffiere likes to come by and will be your outdoor cat for the week if you give him some table scraps.
Cons: booking and logistics will be easier to arrange if you know some French--Frederique and I communicated in French, and Martine only speaks French--however the home documentation is in English and Martine understands gestures well, so it is certainly doable and worth the effort if you don't have any French at your disposal; it was not possible to pay through HomeAway so I had to arrange a wire transfer and then do the deposit through PayPal, all of which required quite a few e-mails and a fair amount of time; the beds, like most in France, are not as large as I'd like (I'm 6'2"), however they were comfortable; the two bedrooms are upstairs and the only bathroom is downstairs, which makes for a little extra work in the middle of the night if you're over 40 ;)
Overall, we had an excellent time there, we are very happy we stayed, and we would certainly like to stay there again on our next visit to Dordogne!
