Lalinde
Lalinde once bore the name La Lynde, a more British name, and that is correct because the bastide was founded in 1265 under royal English authority.
From Les Magnolias it is less than a 10-minute walk to the main square of Lalinde. In addition to the remains of the bastide (some defenses, a fortified city gate and some city walls), the area is well worth a visit and walk. From Lalinde you can take various walking tours through the area every day. Walking maps are available at the local tourist office.
Various “discovery tours” (400 kilometers of walking routes) have been set out in the surrounding area. You can also do a Grande Randonnée (23) from Lalinde to Louyre and/or cycle around with mountain bikes. For those who don’t really need to walk: you can also take a tourist train trip to Bergerac, Sarlat or Saint Emillion. Lalinde has its own train station on the main route between Bordeaux and Sarlat.
Also take a walk across the bridge to the Chapelle de St Front de Colubri. This twelfth century church is located on a hill and offers a beautiful view over Lalinde. In Lalinde you will also find some old houses, dovecotes (pigeonniers) and the “Maison du Gouverneur”. (1597)
For cycling enthusiasts, we can heartily recommend the green cycle route along the canal and the Dordogne river. From Les Magnolias you cycle to the town hall, cross the bridge and from there along the canal towards Bergerac. It is a flat route without car traffic. If you did not bring a bicycle, you can rent one in Lalinde at Cychope.
In the adjacent Mauzac you will find a nautical club: you can sail on the Dordogne. Walk by and ask how much it costs to rent a boat. You can also take a boat trip with a Gabarre from here. Lalinde itself has no beach, but you can swim in various places on the Dordogne.
In the immediate vicinity you can visit the Château de Lanquais, which offers a good glimpse of daily life in the Renaissance. You can also visit the Château de Baneuil from the 13th century.
The Lalinde Canal is a fifteen kilometer long diversion canal from the Dordogne, constructed to bypass a number of rapids dangerous to shipping.
From the meander at Trémolat to Bergerac, navigation on the Dordogne became difficult due to the infamous rapids of Grand Thoret (between La Guillou et Lalinde), Gratusse (downstream of Lalinde) and Gratussou. That is why it was decided in 1837 to build a diversion canal parallel to the river.
The works were started in 1838 and the canal was opened to shipping in 1843. The canal runs from Mauzac to Tuilières (municipality of Mouleydier) and has three single locks (Mauzac, Lalinde and Borie-Basse) and at the end two triple locks. Some of the most remarkable structures on the canal are included on the list of protected monuments.
The canal is fed with river water supplied via an aqueduct at the Mauzac weir. The locks and canal could accommodate ships of up to 29 by 6 meters and were used by commercial shipping until the start of the Second World War. Meanwhile, the Dordogne upstream of Saint-Pierre-d’Eyraud had already been deleted as a navigable waterway in 1926, which meant that the government no longer provided for the maintenance of the canal and its various installations. The canal was ceded by decree in 1992 by the Ministry of Transport to the Syndicat intercommunal du canal de Lalinde. After the construction of a number of pontoons and pedestrian bridges (financed by the five adjacent municipalities), a four-kilometer section was declared navigable again by the government. A beautiful cycle route was constructed along the towpath.