Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Great family day out |
| Disadvantages: |
None |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
Even for a patriotic Englishman like myself I have to admit that the French do some things far better than we do. It is an indisputable fact that they produce the best football managers at club level, our Lord Arsene Wenger is living proof of that and they also produce family days out where the quality of the catering puts our own firmly in the shade. Imagine if you will paying an extortionate sum of money to gain entry into Alton Towers to be faced with a wide choice of over priced fried variations of heart attack in a bun food whilst at Le Village Du Bournat you could for the same price be tucking in to a duck and foie gras baguette with a raspberry preserve surrounded by the aroma of the bread being baked on site in an replica of a centaury old oven. Alternatively you can sit down in a waiter serviced restaurant to sample some local cuisine and enjoy a glass of red; at Alton Towers they have Ye Olde Fish and Chip Shop with plastic forks.
Le Bournat is a village that shows how life was in 1900 in the Dordogne, it is a lovely day out and suitable for families with young children, my oldest is fourteen and he really enjoyed it, there is plenty to see and even though we visited in August it was not over crowded however this may have been due to the fact that it was cloudy and raining during the day which may have put some people off as it is naturally an open air attraction although you can find plenty of places to shelter from the rain if needed. The nearest comparison I have visited in this country is the Black Country Museum in Dudley which is also an excellent place to visit.
Located in Le Bugue-sur-Vezere it was a thirty minute drive from our base in Sarlat and was well sign posted as you enter the town. There was plentiful parking however there is an Aquarium and other attractions next to it and this meant that by the time we left in mid afternoon the car park was full with cars waiting for spaces to appear so it is worth getting their early. The village is open from mid February until the middle of November and the opening times do vary dependant upon time of year, during the peak periods from May to September it is open from 10.00 until 19.00. Entry is 12,90 euro for adults and 9 euro for 4 to 16 year olds, under 4 years go free and there is a family ticket available for 38 euro. During the months of July and August there is a guided tour starting at 13.00 but we avoided this preferring to explore on our own.
Once inside having navigated the gift shop you are free to wander around as you see fit. The map you are given is well set out and easy to red and it is easy to navigate the site, in fact walking briskly and not stopping to look at anything you could probably cover the site in 30 minutes however rest assured that there is a full days entertainment if you want it as there is lots to see and take part in.
This is very much a living village so in many of the buildings there are craftsmen at working doing demonstrations; perhaps the most interesting for me was the working windmill which was busy making flour from the grain produced in the local fields. This was the first time I had been inside a mill so it was interesting to see the machinery in operation and you were able to purchase a bag of flour if you wanted or as I preferred go to the bakery and sample the bread. The windmill was set upon a mound at the rear of the attraction and next door was a most picturesque chapel which was a great photo opportunity.
There ere a number of agricultural buildings and also a large collection of farm machinery, these were housed in two large barns and were interspersed with a range of hand operated farming tools as well.
In the main part of the village there was a forge, bakery and a blacksmith. There were also examples of homes which you could walk through. Another interesting demonstration was the barrel making which made use of some interesting machinery that I had never seen before and the small school is worth checking out with the sounds of a French lesson piped through the room.
Whilst it is built around the style of a turn of the century village there is interspersed within it some recognition of the fact that this is a family day out so there are a number of free fairground rides for the children however these are all in keeping with the era as well. The Chenille 1900 is the most fascinating, a strange carousel in which you sit in a carriage and half way through the ride a curtain descends to form a canopy over your carriage obscuring the riders from view only to unfurl as the ride comes to an end. There are a number of such rides which on the day of our visit seemed to open for an hour at a time whenever an operator showed up, there seemed little rhyme of reason to the system in place which is rather typical of French attractions but the kids enjoyed racing around looking for the next ride to be open. There was also a selection of skill games such as knocking down the cans and these were not staffed so you set them up yourself and these were very simple yet popular, it always amazes me that despite the sophistication of computer games throwing balls at cans can entertain kids for ages.
As I have mentioned the catering on the site is excellent, there is a restaurant, a great sandwich bar with everything made fresh using bread baked on site and there was also a fast food style stand as well. Alternatively there were plenty of picnic locations as well if you choose to bring your own food. The sandwiches were reasonably priced and there was an excellent cake selection to enjoy as well. A set meal of sandwich, cake and drink was 7 euro for the foie gras and 5,50 euro for other fillings.
It is not a suitable location for those who are not good on their feet as there are some uneven walkways, steps and a couple of steep rises. The toilet facilities were clean however there was only the one toilet block near the entrance which made for a long walk if you were caught short during the day.
My youngest really enjoyed the stone carving where one of the staff gave a short demonstration and then set up the children with a stone block to do their on carving, there was a small charge for this (everything else was free that we did) and despite the language barrier he was really good at helping all of the children to carve something.
This was a great day out, there was some educational value to the visit as it gives an insight into village life in the Dordogne of 100 years ago, it is well set out and the buildings look authentic, the staff was very helpful and pleasant and seemed to be really into their roles. Certainly if you have young children it is a fun place to visit as the rides will keep them entertained.
For more information check out
http://www.lebournat.fr/gb/index.htm
Thanks for reading and rating my review.
