France
Beynac-et-Cazenac
A fortress village gripping a cliff high above the Dordogne's green coil.
The fortress sits on a sheer cliff above the Dordogne, the village stacking beneath it in a vertical line of golden stone and stone-slab roofs. Beynac-et-Cazenac, in France's Dordogne, is one of those places where the approach from the river reveals the whole settlement at once — cliff, castle, church, river — in a single frame that has scarcely changed in centuries.
The Château de Beynac, keep and curtain wall, was built across the twelfth and the thirteenth centuries and given by Richard the Lionheart, then overlord of south-west France, to his captain Mercadier; through the Hundred Years' War it held for the French crown while Castelnaud, glaring back from the far bank, held for the Plantagenets. From the ramparts the view takes in Castelnaud, Fayrac and Marqueyssac in one sweep, and the sunset from the village terraces is the classic of the valley. The lanes below climb between lauze-roofed houses, fortified gates and a cliff pierced with caves to the seigneurial chapel, and the village is listed among the Plus Beaux Villages de France. Traditional gabarres, the flat-bottomed river barges, and hired canoes put you on the water beneath the cliff, which is where its impregnable position makes sense.
Couple
Drift the Dordogne beneath the cliff on a gabarre or a canoe and watch the fortress shrink above you, then climb to the ramparts for the view that accounts for eight centuries of military logic.
Family
The castle is tangible history — a keep, arrow slits, rampart walks — and the river below turns the return journey into an adventure by canoe or barge.
- The castle sits on a sheer cliff above the Dordogne — from the ramparts, Castelnaud, Fayrac and Marqueyssac come into one sweep.
- Gabarres and canoes take you under the fortress at river level, the village shrinking to a vertical stripe of golden stone.
- Narrow lanes climb through lauze-roofed medieval houses and fortified gates to the keep — every turn reveals the valley from a new angle.
- Richard the Lionheart gave the castle to his captain, and through the Hundred Years' War it faced Plantagenet Castelnaud across the river.
Foie gras from the Périgord farms, on toast with a glass of the valley's sweet white, at a riverside table below the castle.
Périgord walnuts every way the valley can think of — walnut cake, walnut oil, walnut wine — from the summer Monday market.
Wat Pha Sorn Kaew
Thailand
Five white Buddhas staring down a valley from a cliff covered in mosaic shards.
Purmamarca
Argentina
A seven-colour hill burns amber over adobe lanes where llamas carry the morning market.
Hakone
Japan
Hot-spring inns above a volcanic lake with Fuji framed in the window on a clear day.
Irazú Volcano
Costa Rica
From Irazú's 3,432-metre rim, two oceans glint on opposite horizons at once.
Colmar
France
Candy-coloured half-timbered façades reflected in canals so still they look like poured paint.
Chenonceau
France
A château arched across a river, built by a king's mistress and finished by his widow.
Dinan
France
Timber-framed houses leaning over cobbles that tumble from the ramparts to a medieval river port.
Espelette
France
Red peppers drying on every white façade — a Basque village wearing its spice outside.