Walking in the Dordogne. Janette Norton

big, bustling towns and motorways clogged with traffic. And perhaps the English have a particular affinity for this area because for several centuries it belonged to England, who fought bitterly to retain it in the Hundred Years’ War.

      The Dordogne lies in south-west France, in the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, between the wild uplands of the Massif Central in the east and the flat fertile countryside of the Gironde and the Atlantic Ocean in the west. Corresponding to the former province of Périgord, the department was created in 1790 and named after its dominant geographical feature, the river. However, the French frequently use the old name of Périgord, especially in tourist literature where it is subdivided into four sections: Périgord Vert (green) in the north, Périgord Blanc (white) in the centre, Périgord Pourpre (purple) in the south-west and Périgord Noir (black) in the south-east.

      Périgord Vert is, as its name implies, a green landscape of fields and woods, which lies to the south of the large towns of Angoulême and Limousin. It is traversed by countless small rivers tumbling down from the nearby Massif Central to converge on the Dronne, which winds its way southwards to join the Dordogne at the town of Libourne near the large Atlantic port of Bordeaux. Less well known than its southern counterparts, Périgord Vert forms part of the Périgord-Limousin Regional Nature Park.

      Périgord Blanc, so called because of the whiteness of its chalky limestone, is also north of the Dordogne river and is home to the department’s capital, Périgueux. Founded by the Gauls in a fertile valley on the River Isle, it became a prosperous town under the Romans, who called it Vesunna after its sacred spring. It continued to grow in importance over the centuries, and the historic centre boasts a five-domed cathedral and some fine Renaissance-style buildings, as well as traces of its Roman past. Its weekly market is renowned for its truffles, foie gras and strawberries.

      Périgord Pourpre lies to the south-west, and is named after the purple grapes of its famous vineyards. This is an area of rich alluvial soil, with fields of maize and cereal crops, walnut plantations and chestnut groves, with the river flowing through its heart, winding gently round the dramatic meander of the Cingle de Trémolat and passing through Lalinde to reach the town of Bergerac. A port grew up here when the only means of transporting goods to Bordeaux was by boat, and it is now a prosperous town with an attractive old quarter.

      The Dordogne river at Bergerac (Walk 1)

      Périgord Noir in the south-east is named after the dark colour of its evergreen oak forests, and is perhaps the best known of the four sections. The Dordogne flows more rapidly here, cutting through high cliffs, and many medieval villages and castles are to be found on its rocky banks. The Vézère river comes from the north-east to join the Dordogne at Limeuil, and it was in the overhanging rock shelters and caves below the limestone cliffs of the Vézère that early man first made his home here. The main town of Périgord Noir is Sarlat, to the north of the river. It is a joy to explore, with winding streets and honey-coloured Renaissance-style buildings.

      East of Périgord Noir is the department of Lot and the upper reaches of the Dordogne river, now narrow and winding, joined at Castelnau by the smaller Bave and Cère rivers. South of the river is a limestone area of subterranean chasms known as gouffres, and arid plateaus known as causses, broken by deep gorges. The Regional Nature Park of Causses du Quercy was created in 1999, a large area used mainly for sheep farming. The gateway to the Lot is the busy little town of Souillac, which has a remarkable Romanesque abbey church. However, most visitors do not linger here, and continue to Rocamadour and the more scenic sites beyond.

      All the walks in this guide are located in Périgord Pourpre, around Bergerac and Lalinde; in Périgord Noir around Sarlat; and in the Lot around Souillac. This is a richly historical area, and many of the walks start from a medieval town, or pass by a château, a Romanesque church, a large abbey, an elaborate dovecote, an old mill, a cave of prehistoric wall paintings or a Celtic hill-fort – the list is endless, and you will continually come across something of interest to make you want to stop and explore. Since the majority of walks are fairly short there is plenty of time for this, and additional background information is given in each walk description.

      Walking here is a delight, and at the end of the day there is always a small café in a village square for a glass of sweet Monbazillac wine under a sun which lacks the intensity of that in southern France, followed by a dinner of regional specialities made of duck or goose in a local restaurant.

The Dordogne river

      The Dordogne river west of Lalinde

      The Dordogne is one of the longest rivers in France, flowing nearly 500km westwards from its source in the Massif Central to join the Garonne at Bordeaux and end in the Atlantic Ocean. There are two theories as to the origin of its name, which may come from the Celtic Durunna, meaning rapid waters, or from the two tiny streams, the Dore and the Dogne, which join high on the slopes of the Puy de Sancy to become the Dordogne.

      The river flows swiftly through the mountainous area of the Auvergne to reach the lake of Bort, where it is tamed by a succession of five gigantic dams built between 1935 and 1957, together producing over 1600 million kilowatts of electricity a year. It then rushes through the Corrèze gorges to pierce the upland plateaus of the Causses du Quercy in the Lot, and by the time it reaches the department named after it, the waters are wider and calmer, although still flowing between steep cliffs. Joined at Castelnau by the Cère and the Bave, and at Limeuil by the Vézère, it continues on its journey through the countryside in a series of dramatic horseshoe meanders, the larger ones named cingles, and only straightens out when it reaches the rich alluvial plains around Bergerac. It finally joins the waters of the Garonne to become the Gironde and flow into the Atlantic. During the Hundred Years’ War, the river formed an important frontier between the English and French, who built and then fought over the castles and towns along its banks, many of them in strategic positions on high rocky cliffs, with extended views over the surrounding countryside.

      From earliest times the river was the only means of transport in the region, roads being almost non-existent. Even so, for part of the year the water level was not high enough for the boats to pass, so arrival and departure times had to be carefully calculated. Wood from the chestnut and oak forests of its upper reaches in the Massif Central were floated down the river or transported on small boats called gabarots as far as Souillac, where it was loaded onto larger flat-bottomed boats called gabarres. These gabarres were 20 metres long and capable of carrying 30 tons; between 1850 and 1860, as many as 300 were built each year. Some of the wood was unloaded at Bergerac, to be used for making wine-barrels and boats, and barrels of wine were loaded for their final destination of the port of Libourne near Bordeaux, to be exported to England, Holland and the colonies. The gabarres made the return journey laden mainly with salt, but also coffee and sugar. Although the journey between Souillac and Libourne was more straightforward than that on the upper reaches before Souillac, it was still hazardous, with sections of tricky shallows and fast flowing rapids, so the boatmen had to be skilled navigators to negotiate their clumsy boats through these. In the mid-1880s a canal was built to circumvent the trickiest and most dangerous stretch of rapids near Lalinde, the Saut de la Gratusse, where special pilots were needed to guide the boats through the treacherous waters. During this period Souillac and Bergerac became important ports, and the banks of the river were studded with villages whose inhabitants gained their livelihood as boat builders, boatmen and merchants.

      The coming of the railway in the 1870s brought this trade to a halt, as it was far easier and quicker to transport heavy goods by rail. The rivermen vainly fought this modern means of transport, even blowing up the railway bridges built across the river. But now, in the 21st century, it is the railways that are in decline, and gabarres are still being made to take tourists on river cruises from the small towns of la Roque-Gageac and Beynac.

      Tourist gabarre at la Roque-Gageac (Walk 27)

A short history of