The sheep roam freely on limestone plateaux, grazing on wild herbs that impart a unique flavour.īeyond all this, the true gourmand will search high and low for la perle noire du Périgord, a legendary black truffle most commonly used to infuse a simple omelette or shaved sparingly over salads. Meat eaters are in for a treat, from succulent beef steaks to the distinctive Quercy lamb. Black chicken and quality charcuterie are also plentiful, along with river fish plucked from the region’s abundant waterways. The area around Bordeaux is claret country, where people dedicate lifetimes to the pursuit of the perfect vintage – and where names you’ll recognise on the bottles in fancy restaurants adorn the gates of real-life châteaux.ĭrink in the prestige, unwavering tradition and the show, and when it comes to a glass of the real thing, order with confidence because here, like nowhere else, bad wine simply doesn’t exist.įoodie traditions in the south-west are deeply rooted, with local duck appearing on many a menu and seemingly every village offering its own take on cassoulet.
In the South West, you’ve found a holiday in the world’s largest fine wine vineyard. Even further south, Tarn-et-Garonne offers a rich and varied landscape studded with its own bastide towns and with easy access to Toulouse.ĭownstream, where the Garonne River's waters swirl together with those of the Dordogne, elegant Bordeaux awaits true culture seekers: those with a thirst for historical drama, a vibrant art scene and, of course, award-winning wines. The département of Lot-et-Garonne offers an orchard-covered landscape peppered with bastide towns – and pretty Agen, famous for its prunes. The bounty beyondĪs if the Dordogne Valley didn’t offer culture and beauty enough, there’s even more to be discovered south of its slopes.
And between them all, countless towns and villages provide their accent of honey-coloured stone. North of them all, you’ll find le Périgord Vert with the greenest meadows, kept lush by cool freshwater streams. The colour white describes the area to the east – le Périgord Blanc – named for the area’s bleached limestone formations. Le Périgord Noir (meaning the Black Périgord) gained its name from the dark oak forests of the Vézère Valley, whilst it’s the purple hue of the Cabernet Sauvignon grapevines surrounding the town of Bergerac that inspired le Périgord Pourpre’s moniker. Together, forming Europe’s oldest and most precious museum of art, these are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an unmissable glimpse into the life of Europe’s earliest settlers. On the banks of the Vézère River, a Dordogne tributary, cave paintings have been discovered, some 12,000 years old. However, below them is the chance to be transported even further back in time. Here, limestone cliffs have been holding fortified villages (known as bastides) high in the sky for 800 years. If the ‘Dordogneshire’ of British imagination exists, it’s found in le Périgord Noir – a postcard-perfect region that encircles the medieval town of Sarlat.
Here, the historical province of le Périgord is the preferred address a nod to the area’s past when it took centre stage during the Hundred Years War. The river has come to lend its name to the entire département of the Dordogne, but that’s rarely what the locals call it. Quintessentially French, the Dordogne is a chance to soak up the rural splendour of a lush, rugged landscape of meadows and vineyards wrapping themselves around castle-topped villages and of a famous river effortlessly carving its way through it all.