Southwest France is a very broad term. “South” usually points to the Mediterranean coast and the Pyrenees mountain range, while “west” points to the Atlantic coast. I am not trying to stitch together one itinerary for this part of the world: whole books would not be enough to describe the hundreds (thousands?) of beautiful villages found there.
The term “southwest France” usually refers to the Dordogne region, and in a broader sense, to the whole of “Aquitaine”, or as it is known today (after the 2016 reorganization of French regions), “Nouvelle-Aquitaine”: mainly the départements of Dordogne, Corrèze, and Lot-et-Garonne, and, as an exception, also the département of Lot, which is officially part of a different region (Occitanie).
This article covers the history of these villages. In the second part, you can find a complete guide to the various villages of southwest France.
A Crash Course in European History
This is likely one of the earliest settled regions on the European continent. Neanderthals wandered across the Eurasian landmass (they most likely originated in central Asia) and reached western Europe around 100,000 to 50,000 BCE. Around 35,000 BCE, the first Homo Sapiens (“thinking man”) appeared in Europe, and traces of their lives and remains have been found in prehistoric caves in northern Spain (Altamira) and southern France, among them Les-Eyzies-de-Tayac, Lascaux, and many other sites.
During the first century BCE, Roman legions conquered the entire Mediterranean basin, pushed out the Celtic tribes who lived in the area, and established “Gaul” (Gallia), today’s France, stretching from the British Isles in the north to the Pyrenees in the south (today’s border between France and Spain). Around 60 BCE, the Romans planted vineyards in the Bergerac area, among the oldest vineyards in the world. In 16 BCE, the city of Vesunna was founded, the capital of today’s Périgueux region. This is also the name of the Gallo-Roman museum in the city.
On September 4, 476 CE, Romulus Augustulus (465-511), the last Roman emperor (he was 14 at the time), surrendered to Odoacer (433-493), the leader of the Germanic tribes who had repeatedly attacked the borders of the Roman Empire. These tribes, who came from northern Europe and whom the Romans grouped together under the name “barbarians” (meaning “lacking culture”), were divided into Goths, Celts, Slavs, Franks, Suebians, and others. They were “joined” by the Huns, led by their ruthless leader Attila, who wreaked havoc across Europe and fought one another.
In the 8th century, King Charles stood out among the Frankish rulers, and quickly became known as “Charlemagne” (748-814). He united all the tribal factions under a single rule, and through a series of wars took control of nearly all of Europe, from the Pyrenees (Spain was then under Moorish rule, Muslims from North Africa) to the English Channel, and to what is today’s border between Germany and Poland. At his death in 814, the empire was divided among his three sons, who never stopped fighting one another. Although Charlemagne is considered the founder of European rule, his legacy did not survive. Local rulers managed to impose themselves on neighboring lords and annexed their territories. Throughout the Middle Ages, countless principalities, duchies, counties, and other local forms of rule, large and small, were established, overthrown, merged, and broken apart.
The Gothic tribes, who had arrived in the region along with the other Germanic tribes that brought down the Roman Empire (5th century CE), later migrated further south into Spain, which allowed Christianity to spread into Aquitaine in the early 6th century. The Périgord region took shape around Duke Widbalde, who was appointed ruler of the region by Charlemagne himself, who would later become emperor of all of western Europe. In 1360, as part of an agreement between the warring states of the Hundred Years’ War (one of the religious wars that shook Europe, 1337-1453), the Aquitaine region passed under English rule. This was the era in which the building of châteaux and fortified villages flourished in the region.
Europe saw two all-out wars during the Middle Ages. The “Hundred Years’ War” broke out in 1337 between England and France, and ended in 1453. The war was fought over territorial claims and demands between the two kingdoms. It took place almost entirely on French soil, across different regions, with various truces and pauses along the way. After it came the “Thirty Years’ War”, a conflict between Protestants and Catholics that broke out in 1618 and lasted until 1648, drawing in the governments and armies of nearly every kingdom in Europe. It is not really related to the subject of this article.
As mentioned, the Hundred Years’ War was fought largely on French soil, and English troops were stationed in French regions for many years: Normandy and Brittany, northern France (Picardy), but mostly in the southwest of the country, in a region known today as Aquitaine.
This was also the period when the English “discovered” French wine, and enormous quantities of “Claret”, the English name for the wines of the Bordeaux region (there was not yet a strict separation between vineyards and wineries at the time), sailed by ship from the port of Bordeaux to the British Isles.
In October 1533, following the marriage of Catherine de’ Medici (1519-1589) to Henri II (r. 1547-1559), king of France, the Aquitaine region returned to French sovereignty, under which it has remained to this day.
The Dordogne region was redefined as an official département on March 4, 1790, following the French Revolution.
The England-France Rivalry
In January 1066, Edward the Confessor (1004-1066), king of England, died of old age, a childless king with no heir. A war of succession among English nobles unsettled confidence on the other side of the English Channel, and the Norman duke William II of Normandy (1028-1087), a distant descendant of the Viking king Rollo (known as Robert I, Rollo, 846-932), who would later be known as “William the Conqueror”, decided to intervene. At the Battle of Hastings in October 1066, he conquered the island across the channel and crowned himself king of England. This laid the foundation, even if not officially, for a long rivalry between England and France, a conflict that would continue for centuries to come.
Southwest France, Dordogne and Lot
During a visit to this part of southwest France, you are likely to come across two names: Dordogne (named after the river), and Périgord (the historical name of the great duchy of the region during the Middle Ages). In my general overview of France, in other articles, you will find a short rundown on how France’s historic region names came about and how they changed after the French Revolution (1789), as well as on the reorganization of France’s regions (January 2016) and the assignment of the geographic region of “Dordogne” to the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine (“New Aquitaine”), which covers nearly all of southwest France.
So which is correct, “Dordogne” or “Périgord”? Actually, both are. This is one of the few regions in France that has stayed loyal to its old name, perhaps mainly because there is an internal division into four sub-regions, and most residents, tourists, and guides have remained faithful to these names. You will not come across “the Green Dordogne” (in French, a river is a feminine noun) or “the Black Dordogne”, but almost always “the Green Périgord” or “the Black Périgord”.
As mentioned, there are four sub-regions. At first, only the southeastern part was called “the Black Périgord” (the area around the town of Sarlat-la-Canéda, which everyone just calls Sarlat). It earned its name because of the oak forests common in the area, whose dense foliage cast a dark gloom over the whole region. Given the tourism success of this distinction in the mid-20th century, the regional tourism board decided to characterize the other areas with additional colors: “the Purple Périgord”, west of “the Black Périgord”, running the length of the Dordogne river around the town of Bergerac, named for the deep purple color of the vineyards and the many wine grapes in the area; “the White Périgord”, north of it, around Périgueux, the regional capital, and along the Isle river, named for the white limestone deeply carved by the area’s many waterways; and “the Green Périgord”, the northern part of the region, around the small town of Nontron, named for the lush greenery in the area, both farmed and wild.
A Bit of Economics
This is the third largest département in France, and also the third in terms of forest cover, about 45 percent of its land. The region’s forests are an important part of the local economy, and the timber industry supplies raw materials for furniture manufacturing, construction, industrial wood (mainly for packaging and the paper industry), as well as firewood for heating. The wine industry, in all its branches, is another important part of the region’s economy. Large tobacco fields supply about 15 percent of all tobacco grown in France. Walnut and chestnut trees of various kinds have grown across almost the entire region for centuries, and residents have a very long tradition of making almost everything from walnuts and chestnuts: oil, candy, spreads, cakes, toys, furniture, and more.
Gastronomy: Dordogne is not considered a standout region in French cuisine. Even so, a number of local ingredients have made their way to the top of the world’s list of delicacies. Dordogne’s foie gras is considered one of the leading delicacies of French cuisine (despite the protests in recent years against force-feeding geese). Local duck, as well as wild mushrooms, led by black truffles and the rarer white truffles, also hold a place of honor in the region’s cuisine and in French cuisine as a whole. As mentioned, walnuts and chestnuts and their byproducts are also important. Dordogne’s wines (Bergerac, Monbazillac, Cahors, and others) have earned an important status of their own, even if they do not compete with the wines of Bordeaux or Burgundy. In recent years, sturgeon farming has grown in importance, producing caviar at a number of fish farms in the region.
A Word on the Language
Of course, French is spoken in the Dordogne region today. In the past, residents spoke the Aquitanian language, an offshoot of various Celtic languages. As it evolved into French over the centuries, a few traces remained embedded in the language, a feature typical of any language’s development in any region. The suffix “AC” in the Aquitanian language marked a place’s association with a particular person, a farm or an estate under his control, and so on. This is why so many village names in the region end with this syllable: Bazillac, Siorac, Gigouzac, and many others.
Bastide
We all know the fortified medieval town, surrounded by walls with a number of gates that were shut and locked in the evening as darkness fell. This was one of the most common forms of building and settlement in war-torn medieval Europe. But there were other forms of settlement as well. The château, especially in its fortified version, was very common in the Middle Ages, with its towers and walls, and with a “guards’ path” (“Chemin des Gardes”) running along the top of the wall and encircling it. A fortified château built on a lake, or surrounded by a water-filled moat, was another common form of defense. These were tall, large fortresses, costly and slow to build, and usually only within reach of strong and wealthy rulers. So what did ordinary people, farmers, and villagers of modest means, do?
In southwest France, during the wars with the English soldiers, a unique form of construction developed, one found only in this region. In many settlements across these regions, you can still make out this building pattern today, while in others, with modern additions, it has gradually faded and been absorbed into the growing, expanding village.
A bastide is a form of construction for a town or village in southwest France that developed during the Middle Ages, especially during the religious wars that swept across Europe. The name comes from the ancient Aquitanian word Bastida (meaning “fortress”). In the ancient Provençal language, the word’s meaning is slightly different, and signifies a stone house, meaning sturdier and stronger, at a time when most houses were built of wood or mud. In this building method, the village was laid out as a square with straight streets crossing one another at right angles, 90 degrees.
As in the ancient Roman towns, the town has two main streets, also crossing at right angles, ending at entrance gates to the settlement, which is surrounded by a defensive wall. The town’s central square, the market square (Halles), does sit at the crossing of the two main streets, but the public and administrative buildings, the town hall, the school, the church, and other institutions, are set a bit apart from the square. This building method allowed for better defense of the town against potential invaders, especially since the buildings of authority were not located at the main street crossing in the center of town. This type of construction is unique to southwest France, and there are no settlements like it anywhere else in Europe, or in the world.
The first town built in this style was Cordes-sur-Ciel (“Cordes in the Sky”), founded in 1222. Over the years, the walls of these towns fell, houses were expanded, and new streets were paved. The settlement’s original layout was not always preserved, and in many of them today it is hard to even make out the square grid and the crossing streets. In recent decades, with the growth of global tourism, the cultural and touristic value of these settlements has been recognized, and many of them have become appealing, historic places to visit.
More than 200 towns of this type are known today, even if the shape of their layout has changed over the years, though they did originate this way. Especially touristy and recommended examples include Domme (1281), Cordes-sur-Ciel (1222), Monpazier (1284), Villefranche-de-Rouergue (1252), Villeréal (1267), and many others.
See also these sites: https://about-france.com/tourism/bastide-towns.htm and also: https://www.francethisway.com/tourism/bastide-towns.php
Historians estimate that more than 600 bastide towns were built in southwest France during the Middle Ages. More than 200 of them have survived to this day, and during the growth of tourism in the 20th century, France recognized the potential of these towns, many of which have a beauty and charm all their own. Some have been restored magnificently, others have been preserved through the close cooperation of their residents. In most of them, the old alleyways have been restored and turned into small, colorful cafés, lively restaurants, or charming shops selling souvenirs or handmade goods from local artisans.
A trip to southwest France, especially through the Dordogne and Lot regions, is not complete without a visit, one, two, or even more, to these bastide towns. Many of them are also listed by the association of “France’s Most Beautiful Villages”.
France’s Most Beautiful Villages
It all began with the meeting of a man and a booklet. Charles Ceyrac, the mayor of Collonges-la-Rouge, received a booklet in 1981 called “Beautiful Villages of France”, published by Reader’s Digest, which presented photos of a number of beautiful villages in France, with no selection criteria or ranking. Charles reached out to other mayors in France with the question, “Why this village, and not another?” 66 other mayors responded to his call, and on March 6, 1982, the association officially known as “France’s Most Beautiful Villages” was founded.
The association’s bylaws set out a number of basic rules that qualify a village to “compete for the title”, such as population (no more than 2,000 residents), at least two heritage sites or historical sites within the village’s boundaries, and so on. Only candidate villages are then tested against 32 additional benchmarks covering culture, environmental preservation, upkeep, services, tourism, and more.
A village applying to the organization must undergo lengthy tests and inspections by the organization’s committees, including anonymous committees and inspectors. If accepted, the mayor signs a certificate of commitment upholding the principles of the organization as set out in its bylaws. A village accepted into the organization may display the organization’s emblem at the entrance to the village, and it is featured on all French tourism websites. Membership in the organization does not come with any real grants or financial support, but it contributes indirectly to the village’s development and promotion.
Over the years, this organization has earned a respected name, and member villages receive a great deal of preference in travel and tourism routes, both for domestic and international travelers. Today, 178 villages belong to this association, out of more than 35,000 villages across all of France.
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