Castles in the sky in Dordogne!

We moved into our part-time home last month in France’s Dordogne Valley. Our village is called La Roque Gageac. We’re halfway up a steep hill above the glistening Dordogne River AKA the suburbs of this 13th-century town of 400 people. Downtown is nestled at the foot of a sheer cliff hundreds of feet straight up.

People like to be on top of things in Southwest France – or more precisely, on top of the world. At our house in California, heaven is a flat lot for the swimming pool. Here, only water sans gazeuse is flat. Everything else is built on perches.

Historians say hilltop towns reflect the Dordogne’s brutish history. Marauders and invading armies convinced villagers to build above the fray. Far enough up and the pillagers would look for alternatives the rationale went.

Fortunately for us, the strategy worked… sort of. Villagers were still terrorized through the Middle Ages. But their towns survived. What’s left are hamlets listed among the most beautiful in France. Breath-taking in every sense of the word.

Here’s a list of top (pun intended) towns at altitude in the Dordogne, each more beautiful than the last. Their names are followed by their rating on our highly scientific high-o-meter…