Walking in the Dordogne. Janette Norton

Dordogne well merits its name as ‘the capital of pre-history’ for it was here, some 30,000 years ago, that our direct ancestors arrived. Known as Cro-Magnon man after the rock shelter near les Eyzies where their bones and stone tools were found, they made their home in caves and overhangs along the Vézère river. As time passed, they began to decorate the cave walls with realistic drawings, paintings and engravings depicting the bison, reindeer and other animals they hunted. Over the next thousands of years, as the climate got warmer and the herds moved north, these nomadic hunters became settled communities tending the soil and planting crops. They gradually learned the skill of metal-working, and their stone tools were succeeded by ones made of bronze and then iron. By 700BC Celtic tribes from the north had spread into the area, building towns and hilltop fortresses, and continually fighting among themselves. One of the most powerful of these tribes was the Petrocorii, who gave the name of Périgord to this region and built a town at the site of the modern Périgueux.

      When the Romans arrived and conquered the whole of Gaul, they brought with them law and order, building new towns and roads, and planting the first vineyards. In AD16 Emperor Augustus established the province of Aquitania which extended over most of south-western France, from Poitiers to the Pyrenees. Under the ‘Pax Romana’ there was peace for three centuries and the region flourished, but it was not to last.

      Romanesque church at St-Geniès (Walk 22)

      Roman dominance crumbled in the fifth century as Germanic tribes pushed into Gaul, first the Visigoths and then the Franks, who gave their name to modern France. Christianity now began to spread throughout the region, and many abbeys and churches were founded. Aquitaine became increasingly powerful, first a duchy and then, for a short time under Charlemagne, an independent kingdom. Territory within the kingdom was awarded to loyal followers, and Périgord became a province, ruled by a count. When the Vikings began to raid ever further inland in the ninth century, provincial governors were given increasing power and Périgord was divided into four baronies, ruled by powerful families with fortified castles, who gave only nominal allegiance to the king of France.

      By the 12th century the Duchy of Aquitaine owned a vast territory stretching from the Loire to the Pyrenees, with a court at Poitiers that was renowned for sophistication and the code of courtly love. This is where the beautiful Eleanor of Aquitaine grew up, surrounded by troubadours and poets, and as her father’s only child, she inherited the Duchy on his death in 1137. After divorcing her first husband, King Louis of France, she married Henry Plantagenet, Count of Anjou and Duke of Normandy, so that when he became King Henry II of England in 1154, the whole of Aquitaine was brought under English rule. Now the English king held sway over as much of France as the French king himself, which caused frequent discontent between the two countries. The Dordogne river formed the frontier between the French and English lands, and hundreds of castles were built in the run-up to the Hundred Years’ War, many on rocky heights commanding strategic positions on the river.

      As the Bordeaux wine trade flourished, towns such as Périgueux, Bergerac and Sarlat grew in importance. In addition, between 1250 and 1350 dozens of new towns were built, in order to further promote trade and commerce. These were known as bastides, from the Occitan word bastida, meaning a group of buildings. Some were founded by the French, others by the English, who thus ensured control over their inhabitants, two of the most prolific bastide founders being Alphonse de Poitiers for the French crown, and King Edward I of England. Anyone from the surrounding countryside who was prepared to build and defend the town was allocated two plots of land inside the walls, one for a house and the other for cultivation, and in addition was given exemption from certain taxes. The bastides were all laid out on the same plan, in a square or rectangle, with four main streets running at right angles between the gates, crossed and paralleled by smaller ones in a grid pattern. The streets converged in the centre on an arcaded main square with a covered market hall, the centre of commerce and activity, with a church often off to the side.

      Covered market hall at Montclard (Walk 9)

      The bastide towns were not originally fortified, and it was only when the conflict between the French and English intensified that they became a means of securing the land along the frontier. In 1337, when the French king confiscated all land held by the English crown, the Hundred Years’ War began, and Périgord was fought over bitterly in a series of battles. Towns and castles continually changed hands as first one side then the other gained the upper hand until finally, in 1451, Bordeaux fell into French hands and the English were decisively beaten two years later at the Battle of Castillon on the Dordogne river. Périgord became a possession of the French crown, and England lost all its lands in France, except for Calais and the Channel Isles.

      The region was left impoverished and depopulated, plague and famine causing as many deaths as the war. Further disruption broke out in the Wars of Religion in the 1500s as the new Protestant thinking attracted many in the area, especially in Bergerac. Catholics rose up in protest, and bitter battles ensued between the different towns for religious dominance, Périgueux and Sarlat remaining staunchly Catholic. This discord continued for almost 30 years until the Edict of Nantes in 1598 gave Protestants the same freedom to worship and hold office as Catholics. However, this was revoked in 1685, causing many Protestant Huguenots to flee the country.

      Despite major reforms instigated by Louis XIV, more outbreaks of plague and poor harvests resulted in unrest among the poorer inhabitants, while the merchant classes began to benefit from an increase in trade with the newly established colonies in North America and India. The aristocracy still controlled much of the land, and many now renovated their châteaux in the Italianate style of the Renaissance, for there was no longer a need for heavy fortifications. Despite this inequality, the French Revolution did not have such a dramatic effect in the south-west as it did on places closer to Paris. Although many châteaux and churches were plundered, the aristocracy were often able to flee or hide without being captured, some even returning years later to buy back their family homes. But with it the Revolution brought administrative changes throughout France, and in 1790 the old system of provinces was changed to that of départements (departments) with new names, the province of Périgord thus becoming the department of the Dordogne.

      Renaissance façade of the Maison de la Boétie, Sarlat

      While other parts of France experienced economic growth with the coming of the industrial revolution in the following century, the Dordogne remained a backwater, with no coal or mineral resources to exploit. Only Bordeaux and the towns along the river continued to prosper, the large gabarres transporting a variety of goods to the coast and onwards to Western Europe and the colonies. The opening of the Canal latéral linking the Garonne with the Canal du Midi in 1852 meant that boats could get from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, although the river was used less and less for transporting goods once the railways arrived.

      Rural areas became increasingly poor, and the farmers were badly hit in the 1870s when the deadly phylloxera beetle wiped out many of the extensive vineyards around Bergerac. Although some were gradually re-established, many farmers turned to tobacco-growing or sheep-rearing. But it was World War I that changed the rhythm of rural life irrevocably as thousands of young men left to perish in the north of France. This exodus continued during the Depression of the 1930s, and the population was further depleted by World War II. When the Germans occupied the whole of France and the Resistance Movement was formed, the isolated areas of the Dordogne afforded safe bases for its fighters, although there were savage reprisals, as everywhere in France, with many villages destroyed and their inhabitants killed.

      Although agricultural production, especially of wine, tobacco and walnuts, continued to be important in the years following the war, more and more small farmers left the area, and buildings fell into disrepair. But this was not to last, for in the 1960s André Malraux, minister of culture, introduced an act to preserve historic monuments. He knew the Dordogne well, and chose Sarlat as the first town to benefit from this. More than 50 of the town’s buildings