Bergerac wines

The south-west of France is well known for its wines – perhaps above all for the red wines produced in the Bordeaux / Medoc / Saint-Emilion regions. A little to the east of these world-famous wine regions  in the Dordogne department around Bergerac there are also some well known wines produced which deserve your attention.

In total there are 13 wines listed as ‘appellations’ in Bergerac, from seven different regions. A brief guide to these is shown below:

Pécharmant wine

Red wines with a very distinctive flavour and strong aroma originating from the soil in which they are grown that incorporates clay, sand and gravel. The Pecharmant wines use a mix of grape varieties: Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Merlot Noir.

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Mussidan

Mussidan is a sizable town in the (less visited) north-west of the Dordogne region, north of Bergerac.

Escaping from the impact of tourism is perhaps a good thing for a town – but tourism also brings with it facilities, and money for maintenance. Perhaps the best way to describe Mussidan is that it has escaped both the benefits and the ‘perils’ of tourism.

Unfortunately these perils are what visitors are looking for, and it is true that you do need to search rather hard for the jewels in Mussidan. Keep looking though, for there are various sights and buildings to discover if you spend the time to explore a little.

The area around the church is attractive, and there are various bridges across the river where you catch glimpses of the history of the town – a pigeonnier here, a mill there…

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South of Sarlat

Sarlat, ‘unofficial’ capital of the Dordogne department and tourist magnet because of its extraordinary number of medieval buildings, is in the centre of a very attractive region. This is not news!

Most visitors to the region around Sarlat venture along the Dordogne River to see the villages and castles, and head up the Vezere Valley for the prehistoric sites. But to the south, towards Villefranche-du-Perigord, the region and places are much less well known.

This is a shame, because it is a lovely, often forested region which conceals some quiet unspoiled villages that are very much worth exploring.

Head into the countryside south-east of Domme (itself an unmissable highlight of a visit to the region), and discover the small villages at Saint-Pompon (officially Saint-Pompont), Daglan and Besse, along with several other small hamlets.

Highlights of your trip will include the lovely 12th century roman style church at Besse, and a wander around the small yet perfectly formed Saint-Pompon.

Villefranche-du-Perigord is perhaps the southern limit of your trip – stop to see the church, market hall and arcaded houses around the central square; while Belves is the eastern limit – be sure to allow time to explore Belves, because it is another very attractive small town, in the traditional Dordogne style.

Sardy gardens

For most people, when we think of gardens in the Dordogne we think of the formal gardens in the French style, with carefully trimmed box hedges and meticulously planned layouts. There are several of these to enjoy, including the very well known (and popular) gardens at Marqueyssac and Chateau Hautefort.

For something a little different, venture west of Bergerac in the region and visit the Jardins de Sardy near the border with the Gironde department and close to Sainte-Foy-la-Grande.

The garden is very attractive, and in an ‘Italian meets English’ style, much less formal than the gardens at the grand castles.

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Aubeterre-sur-Dronne

Aubeterre sur Dronne is a remarkable village about 20 km west of Riberac.

The most fascinating thing about it is its underground church, the Eglise souterraine Saint Jean. This has been hewn out of the rock and is 20 metres high at its highest point. It is the tallest of its kind in the world – entering the church really is an incredible experience.

As well as the main nave which has a full-immersion baptismal font and a reliquary which is said to have once contained a holy relic, there is a burial chamber containing over 80 sarcophagi. These burial holes have all been hewn out in such a way that the heads all point to Jerusalem.

As well as the church, the village itself is charming. It is listed as one of ‘the most beautiful villages of France’, and rightly so.

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Bergerac, gateway to the Perigord

Bergerac is found in the region of south-west france known as Purple Perigord – Perigord is the ‘ancient’ name for the region that now largely includes the Dordogne, and ‘purple’ for the wines grown in the region.

It is a lively active town that often gets overlooked as visitors head to the quaint villages and ancient castles of the Dordogne region to the east.

Bergerac itself is not the most exciting town in the world, but it is attractive, has a lovely medieval old town, and is well worth at least a half day explore – a whole day is even better, to allow time for lunch and a look in one or two of the museums and attractions of the town.

The Bergerac Old Town is the section that runs up from the river, and has numerous impressive medieval buildings to enjoy, along a cluster of streets and around a couple of open squares that form the centre of this part of the town.

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Dordogne village architecture

The Dordogne region has numerous buildings that are immediately recognisable, such as Chateau Beynac or Chateau des Milandes – great impressive medieval castles standing aloft on rocky clifftops that have come to represent the region, along with the picture-postcard-pretty villages that dot the region.

But these are perhaps not the memories that you will take away with you after a vacation in the region!

Despite the popularity of the region with visitors (during the summer months) there are still numerous hamlets and villages that are easy to find yet off the tourist circuit.

It is in these places, often little more than a few houses clustered around a church, that you will find the real Dordogne.

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Monpazier – bastide town

Monpazier is a small town (OK, village) to the south of the Dordogne region, and south of Domme.

A little removed from the main highlights that follow the Dordogne river, Monpazier is none the less firmly on the tourist circuit – and if you are visiting the Dordogne it should be on yours!

The region to the south of the Dordogne and into Lot-et-Garonne was once a wild, undeveloped region – and also the frontier between French and English territory during the Hundred Years War. To encourage settlement in the region, perhaps the first ‘new towns’ in Europe were designed and built here in the 13th century, and people were offered tax incentives to live in them.

The ground area was carefully allocated, with terraces of houses placed evenly along a square grid pattern of roads radiating out from a central square – which contained the weekly market and the church. The villages were often built on hilltops (as is Monpazier) for the defensive advantage that provided.

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Cingle de Tremolat

The Dordogne region is well known for its scenery, its castles and its beautiful medieval villages, and rightly so.

There are many places where you are close to the Dordogne river, and plenty of opportunities to canoe along with the flow, passed villages and castles. There are also a couple of places where you can admire the view from high above the river.

One such place is Tremolat – the Cingle de Tremolat is a large curve in the river where the river follows a giant meander, with the two sides of the loop almost close enough to join up.

You can’t see from this picture (which shows perhaps one third of the scene) because it can only show one part of the loop, but from a vantage point high above the river you can see the entire circle formed by the river.

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Issigeac

A few years ago, the village of issigeac was not very well known, and even now it lies some way off the ‘tourist trail’ in the Dordogne department.

Although it is in the Dordogne, Issigeac is about 25km south of the river, and the ‘big sites’ such as Sarlat and Domme, and a little further from the Vezere Valley.

Hence, the sheer weight of well known attractions – castles, villages and prehistoric sites – to the north means that people don’t often venture south to see Issigeac.

As a result Issigeac has no particular tourist shops, the streets aren’t lined with ice cream vendors and postcards for sale, and all is quiet. This changes on a Sunday morning in the summer when the Issigeac market springs into life and the town centre is buzzing, but for much of the time the town is very calm.

But it is perhaps surprising how little impact tourism has had on the town. Although small, it has an extremely well preserved medieval centre with streets lined with ancient half-timbered houses and numerous small decorative features. Dating from the 14th-16th centuries, some of the houses have been renovated in recent years – but not all, and Issigeac has not yet lost the authenticity that makes it so special…and so unusual!

It will only take you an hour or two to explore the narrow streets, and perhaps an other hour to pass in one of the bars in Issigeac. One of them is startlingly like a trendy recreation of an ancient bar – creaking floorboards, wine barrels all around, wooden furniture etc – except of course it isn’t a ‘period recreation’ it simply has not been modernised for many decades!

If you are coming to the Dordogne or Lot-et-Garonne regions a visit to Issigeac is highly recommended.