At home where my heart is

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March-post

"...Today, we're taking our readers to our hometown, whether it be where we live now and consider home or the place we grew up. Each of us will try to show you what we particularly love about our city and tell you things you may not know. The little-known cafe, shop, grocer and place which makes our town unique and special to those who know it well."  Marsha

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When I first visited the Périgord in 1984, already during driving

the last hour through the wide-open and soft rolling country side,

 sunflower fields... 

...I felt instantly like I was coming home again.

At that time I was living for a good number of years in Hamburg

and had been invited by old friends to come and visit them where they have a house in the Périgord.

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Although I grew up in the countryside of Southern  Germany,

near the Black Forest and the mountain chain of the Schwaebische Alb,

(and in our region here are certainly no mountains at all) I cannot

 really describe what it is here which gave me - and still does - such a familiar

feeling, a feeling as if I had been here before.

After my arrival at the Perigord, all these years ago, 

within a few minutes it was clear to me - one day I will definitely live here,

sometime......

And only three years later, after several returns to the Périgord,

I left Hamburg and found myself here!

and that's where I live.....

...in a tiny hamlet of four houses, between Ribérac and Verteillac.

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The Périgord

Roughly following the boundaries of the old Périgord,

the département was renamed the Dordogne after the Revolution.

It is divided into four colours.

Today's Dordogne is made up of the White, Black, Green and Purple Périgords.

Each area has its distinct personality, architecture and scenery.

Ideology was a dividing factor in the Wars of Religion, with Protestant Bergerac

in the Purple Périgord and Catholic Périgueux in the White.

The White Périgord covers the west and central part of the Dordogne,

following the course of the river Isle and the limestone screes,

rich in quarries which produced the white stones for the architecture.

To the west, bordering the Charente, is Ribérac, Verteillac, and its area,

typified by beautiful Romanesque churches, numerous manor houses and small Chateaux.

 That's were we live. 

Around Ribérac and Verteillac:

Saint Front was the first missionary to convert the local tribes of Petrcorii to Christianity.

From then on, religion flourished:

Benedictines, Dominicans, Cistercians, the Knights Templar and Augustine canons....

all built magnificent abbeys and priories.

In the relative peace between the 10th and 12th centuries, after the Viking invasions,

the decadent Carolingian dynasty and struggles between feudal barons,

white-stoned Romanesque churches sprang up all over the area,

particularly around Ribérac and along the Charente border.

Saint Front was the first missionary to convert the local tribes of Petrcorii to Christianity.

From then on, religion flourished:

Benedictines, Dominicans, Cistercians, the Knights Templar and Augustine canons....

all built magnificent abbeys and priories. 

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Ribérac - 7 km from La Pouyette:

The Collegiate Church of Notre Dame de Ribérac,

without doubt the oldest building in Ribérc,

witness to the finest hours in the Town's history.

11th Century

From its construction the church was used by the faithful clustered around the Chateau.

But at the beginning of the 16th Century Count Odet d'Aydie and his wife Anne of Pons

signed the founding charter for a Collegiate Church.

Victims of flooding in the low town, the Benedictines from the Priory of Chalard

took up residence there.  They were especially required to pray for the souls of the founders,

buried in the chapel in the south transept.

In 1568, during the Wars of Religion, Assiel's Huguenot troops set fire to the church.

The thickness of the walls of the apse and the base of the bell-tower resisted,

and were well-preserved, but a new construction completely changed the layout.

During the Revolution, for the purposes of ammunition manufacture,

the "Friends of Liberty and Euality" decided to exhume the lead coffins of the Aydie family.

The College Church of Notre Dame reverted to being a place of Catholic Worship

at the beginning of the 19th Century, following a major restoration.

Today, superbly restored, the Church plays host during the summer

to exhibitions of contemporary art, and to workshops set up by the Ribérac Cultural Centre -

a just reward for this former Chateau Chapel, which was built around 1000AD

and completely destroyed during the Revolution.

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Our weekly Friday-Farmer's Market in Ribérac

...and after all the shopping - time for a cafe or an early aperitif, an eau de vie, or....  

An "Institution" - The Cafe des Colonnes

just that place to 'see' and being 'seen' , somewhat overcrowded on Friday's

 

 L'avis du Petit futé sur Le Cafe des Colonnes:

"A Ribérac, c'est "the institution".

Tous les Anglais du coin - et il y en a un paquet - viennent y boire leur biere,

mais heuresement les Ribéracois conservent leur droit de préemption sur les tables,

notamment celles de la terrasse prises d'assaut des les premier baux jours.

Bref, depuis 1832, ce café est bien inscrit dans la place.

Et pour une petite ou une grosse faim, il ne fautoublier qu'il fait brasserie."

Original comment from a 'local' !

 We prefer the more quiet Cafe du Palais which is situated just around the corner

of our Tax office, very handy to 'digest' any surprises....eventually....

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Verteillac - 4 Km from our place

our local butcher

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Perigueux - 35 km from La Pouyette

There are really two towns to see at Périgueux,

the medieval town and the roman town, as well as an imposing cathedral.

Founded more than 2,000 years ago, 

Périgueux, préfecture or capital city of the Dordogne,

is a gracious blend of ancient and modern.

Originally two cities, one ecclesiastical, the other more mercantile,

the oldest remains in Périgueux today...

...are the Gallo-Roman tower,

the Tour de Vésone, and the excavations of a village of the same era,

beautifully presented in the museum called Vesunna.

Throughout the medieval centre there are various examples of houses

that were owned by wealthy merchants.

The main shopping precinct is a warren of cobbled alleys....

...lined with boutiques, summer buskers...

...and magnificent Renaissance houses,

perhaps the most spectacularly ornate being the

Maison du Patissier on the corner of the Place Saint-Louis. 

This pedestrian area, with its shady squares and cafe terraces,

is a marvellous venue for open air events like the regular summer night markets,

the international mime festival, Mimos, or the free evening jazz concerts,

Macadam Jazz, in July and August, as well as more traditional events

such as the marché au gras during the winter months.

 The market, on Wednesday and Saturday mornings,

spreads out around the central boulevard, into the squares in the pedestrian precinct, 

 ...and next to the cathedral.

 Here is the farmer's market with fresh fruit, plants and vegetables,

live chickens and rabbits, and several organic stalls selling home-baked bread,

eggs and home-grown fruit and vegetables.

 Le Vieux Moulin, near the Monastery garden

Périgueux's Romanesque Cathedral Saint-Front dominates the town centre.

The original church was built in about 1120 (around the same time as the church in Ribérac)

and changed in the 19th century by Paul Abadie

who used it as a model for the design of the Sacre Coeur in Montmartre, Paris.

The beautiful Cloister beside the Cathedral.

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There is so much more to say.....I could go on for ever...

******

Now.....

whether in Hamburg....

....or on the countryside in Southern Germany....

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or....

at my brothers place near the Black Forest....

or...

...here at La Pouyette....

...at the end I'm at home wherever my heart is.

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Please see also all our blogger friends home

here

By Invitation Only - Issue 7

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And should you like to read and see more about the beautiful Périgord,

just stroll through my blog archive of 2011

Credit for most of the Périgueux photos:

Nicolas Fediaevsky

and France-Voyage.com