The Dordogne

When it comes to beautiful countryside, France has a lot to offer. If you drive to the Cote d’Azur following the excellent French Auto route you will get there more quickly, (and expensively!) but you will miss out on France’s many delights – not least French cooking. Drive more slowly; follow the Route Nationale instead; tarry along the way to sample the French way of life. Spend a few nights at small 2 star French hotels which often have a superb family-run restaurant worthy of 5 stars. Spend the money you would have spent on the road tolls on finding the real French experience. If you intend to buy property in France you will need to know what makes the French tick. Do try to learn the language – so important, even though many French speak perfect English.

If you stop in the Dordogne area you may well not bother to go any further. Many English have bought properties there and it has everything to recommend it – scenery, chateaux, history, vineyards, the list is long.

The Dordogne is located in South-West France, most of it in the Aquitaine basin, with the north-east bordering the Massif Central. It is the third largest department in France. Main towns are Périgueux, Bergerac, Sarlat, Nontron, Terrason, Ribérac.

There are over 1000 chateaux and manor houses dispersed for the most part along the river valleys of the Dordogne, Vézère, Isle and Dronne, built between the 16th century and the French revolution. Bastides (fortified towns) on the other hand were built in the 13th and 14th centuries and are located in the south-west of the department bearing witness to the enmity between the King of England the the Comte de Toulouse. Bastides can easily be recognised by their geometrical street plan radiating from the market place. For example Monpazier, the oldest Bastide in Europe.

Perigord is the old name for the Dordogne. The area around Bergerac, the capital of the vine country, is often referred to as ‘purple Perigord’ because of the purple vines at the end of summer.

In the north of the department is ‘green Perigord’ where forest, meadows, streams and lakes make this a green and peaceful countryside. Main towns in this area are Nontron with its ramparts and old streets and Brantôme with a Benedictine abbey

Black Perigord is in the south-west of the department. This is Prehistory and Chateau country, set in sumptuous countryside and called black because of the chestnut coppices and everlasting leaves of the holm-oak forming a black cover in winter. Here you will find Sarlat, a town of history and art, Les Eyzies for Prehistory and Montignac for the famous caves of Lascaux.

In the centre of the department is ‘white Perigord’ where hills, plateaux and forests spread out around Perigueux and are irrigated by the Isle and the Auvézère rivers. White Perigord owes its name to the horizons of white rock. Ploughed soil is pale in colour, and areas of white chalk can be seen. Perigueux is the capital of the Dordogne. In the middle ages it was an important stage on the long road to St. James of Compostella. Pilgrims came to pray at Saint Front Cathedral, a magnificent example of Romanesque-Byzantine art.