Kayaks and castles

Travelling west to Bordeaux from Carcassone, we drove through Toulouse. We had hoped to find some markets to stop at but only found produce markets so we drove through, however the town itself looks quite pretty. Driving through this area is so picturesque and we found some classical music on the radio, which just made the whole experience majestic.
We're staying at another bed and breakfast in Bordeaux (I'm beginning to think that this will be my accommodation of choice in the future) and managed to offload our bags before heading into the town. The public transport has been pretty good in most places (apart from around Nice). In Bordeaux, they have trams which were very convenient. We saw things like fountains (one magnificent one without any water in it), cathedrals (they seem to be everywhere!) and a medieval archway. We walked up the bell tower of the cathedral (more spiral staircases!) and got an incredible view of Bordeaux.
They seem to be going through a garbage strike in Bordeaux at the moment. On our walk into town, we noticed piles of garbage (seems to be several weeks worth) piled up, and what a stink! It didn't dampen our spirits, however, and we had dinner at a place in town which was set up to watch a Euro cup game.  It was France vs Iceland - I was going for the underdogs, but no victory for them tonight (that means France won, if you don't follow the game!). Something I'm not enjoying about eating in France is the smoking. It would be nice to sit in the outside section of a restaurant and be able to eat your meal without inhaling second-hand smoke. Smoking seems to be an ingrained habit here, I even saw two pregnant women smoking and just wanted to slap them!
Anyway, I would love to stay another night here but the Dordogne region awaits.
On to another bed and breakfast,  this time for three nights. The Dordogne area is also magnificent. The Dordogne river flows through such green, luscious, rolling hills and the countryside is dotted with medieval farmhouses,  villages and castles. On the way, we stopped at a gorgeous town called St Emilion, which is well known for wines and is home to many vineyards.
We spent most of one day kayaking along the river, stopping in at one village along the way. Stopping off, however, was quite tricky. We saw the village approach and were awe-struck by the scenery. We then saw a landing spot on the village side too late. The next spot was on the opposite bank, no good for exploring the village. We finally saw a camping ground just beyond the village where we managed to pull in and drag our kayak up. Unfortunately the ground was very muddy, so our shoes needed a good wash afterwards! We had a short walk through the village then hopped back in to continue down the river. We decided against another stop before the end,  as it was too traumatic! We found the ending point where the kayak company would pick us up in their shuttle bus to take us back to the starting point (and our car). The journey itself was so peaceful and enjoyable and I managed to take photos by wrapping my camera in a plastic bag and shooting pretty blindly while not dropping the oar!
While we were here we also saw some prehistoric cave drawings, which the area is apparently famous for, as well as explored more scenic villages and castles.