Situated in South Western France at the Northern tip of the
Aquitaine Region, the Dordogne Department is considered by many people to be one of the
most beautiful areas in France. There are four fairly distinct areas making up the
Department , all centered around Perigueux, all having quite different characteristics and
range from Nontron in the North, (Perigord Vert) to Sarlat in the South East,
(Perigord
Noir), Bergerac in the West (Perigord Pourpre), and Riberac in the North West (Perigord
Blanc).
The Dordogne area is predominantly rural, with little industry, the economy is
based mainly on various farming activities and forestry, with a lot of mainly
small enterprises growing walnuts, maize and tobacco, raising ducks and geese, and of course -
Wine! The Bergerac AOC is a highly respected label, and there are many fine
Chateaux in the area, the designation Perigord Pourpre for
that area comes from the deep purple colour of some of the
wine.
St Cyprien is situated just North of the River Dordogne, roughly equidistant
(i.e. about an hour or 30/40 miles) from Bergerac, to the West ; Perigueux, to
the North ; Cahors, to the South ; and Souillac, to the East on the Auto route
Le Rocher Rouge is two miles from St Cyprien and one mile from Meyrals (the nearest
boulangerie!), and about two and a half miles from the River Dordogne. The area around St
Cyprien is considered to be the heart of the Perigord Noir, so called because of the
abundance of oak trees in the area which give the woods a dark appearance, especially in
winter, and bounded by the medieval town of Sarlat la Caneda, the bastide village of
Domme, and the Cro-Magnon sites (prehistoric man) at Les Eyzies, each of which is
approximately twenty minutes drive away.
Less than ten minutes away are the picturesque Chateaux of Beynac, Castelnaud and Millande
(of Josephine Baker fame), and the spectacular village of La Roque-Gageac, built into
the cliffs alongside the Dordogne. The nearest large towns are Bergerac, Perigueux,
Brive and
Cahors at about an hour, with Bordeaux , Toulouse about two hours.
Those of you who have read Michael Crichton's book
"Timeline" will have realised that Le Rocher Rouge is located right in the area
where the action of the book takes place, and Bezenac where the fictional "Chateau de
la Roque" is situated is only some three/four miles along the valley from us.
(Michael Crichton is the author of "Jurassic Park").The
area is also featured in Jean Auel's block buster series" Earth's Children" on
life in pre-history, as the Ninth Cave, home of the Zelandonii is situated at
Les Eyzies.
As one of the principal centres for the study of pre-history there are numbers
of sites being researched, and new discoveries are still being made, a new
series of cave paintings was discovered in 2002 at Le Buisson, some 7/8 miles
down river from St Cyprien.
Climate
As we are situated to the west of the Massif Central we tend to
get weather which is more "Atlantic" rather than Mediterranean, this means that
the weather tends to be moister than say Nice or Cannes, but the countryside is
correspondingly much greener; as we are only about 60 miles north of Nice in latitude the
temperatures are broadly the same, i.e. July and August expect to be in the nineties
(30+C), but we are free from the Mistral, which as you may know can be very
uncomfortable..
The temperature seems to be on average about 10 degrees warmer than Britain,
and it gets warmer sooner and cooler later, so holidays both earlier and later in the year
are quite feasible, and the area is both quieter and cheaper than high season!
Spring comes 2-3 weeks earlier than in Britain, and is quite delightful, and
September is the
time for locally grown figs, walnuts, chestnuts, greengages and other harvest goodies.
This page was last updated on 16/06/09