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onjour! Within a territory smaller than
the state of Texas, France offers the visitor an amazing diversity
of regions, rich in culture and history. And so it is with
the region we will discover this month: The Perigord. Located
approximately 500 km southwest of Paris, and 120 km from Bordeaux,
the Perigord offers a virtual mosaic of landscapes, as well
as local customs and cuisines which are as colorful as surrounding
cliffs and valleys.
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| The Perigord Region |
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A Region Alive with Color
The Perigord region is less than ten thousand square kilometers in size, and is located within the larger territory of the
Dordogne. The landscapes of the region, however, are so rich and diverse that we often refer to them by their color:
The Green Perigord, in the northeast section, gets its name from the variety of greens offered by the dense forests of
oaks, beech and spruce trees. The White Perigord covers the northwest region, and is so named because of its vast
limestone plateaux spreading white over the horizon. The Scarlet Perigord in the southwest, is so named from the
influence of the large areas reserved for the vines, used to cultivate the individual local wines. And finally, in the Black
Perigord of the southeast region, the landscape is deeply covered with thick forests of chestnut, oak and pine trees,
which cast a darkening almost mystical shadow over the area. The Black Perigord is probably the best known and most
visited due to its rich historic heritage, which we will visit later in this newsletter, and most probably in newsletters to
come.
Sarlat-La-Caneda
Situated 25km, west of Souillac, Sarlat is without a doubt one of the most beautiful medieval cities of France.
Movie producers and directors have chosen this beautiful haven countless times to film their “knight in shining armor”
movies. It has kept its charm of the past, and to stroll through the labyrinth of alleys, bordered by original half-timbered
homes, built with the typical gold toned stones of the region, is a true voyage into the past. A magnificent cathedral from
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries dominates the main plaza. A neighboring Italian Renaissance home, built in 1525,
is the birth place of the famous poet and political writer Etienne de la Boetie. The “lantern of the dead”, which was built
at the end of the twelfth century, lingers nearby lending a mysterious quality. The upper end of the cylindrical tower
which houses the lantern, is so narrow that no human can access it. This has kept people wondering for centuries.
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| Recipe
for June 2003 |
Chocolate Walnut Cake |
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Cooking SOS !
If you run into trouble with one of our recipes, send an SOS e-mail to
911@FranceMonthly.com
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The “Bastides”: New Medieval Cities |
During the era of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the demographic and economic expansions were so great that the
rulers needed to reevaluate the politics of settlements and the organization of the land. Certain lords imagined
establishing a totally new style of village, and thus was born the Bastide. The principal idea was to create an
economic center far from the lords’ castles, and to build homes according to a precise plan, on land more or
less equal in size. All of the homes, built upon a network of streets which crisscrossed perpendicularly, surrounded
the central plaza which was reserved for the market. A great plan in theory, but, the implementation of these villages
was not without difficulty. Some even failed. Not only was it difficult for various of lords to watch their population
leave the estate, but also, the idea of rectilinear villages was a terrible shock to many people. In order to attract a reticent population to these villages, special incentives
were offered to the brave pioneers willing to embark on an adventure.
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A Constitution For Each Bastide |
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A type of constitution ruled life within the Bastide walls. Upon arrival, the settler received a plot of land composed
of an area to build on, a few acres of land for planting or livestock, and often the right to cut wood in a nearby forest.
A dweller was exempt from a series of taxes, and for his willingness to come live in a Bastide, he became a free man.
With these rights came the privilege of marrying off his daughter, or sending his son to a seminary, without the customary
fees normally paid to the lord. However, with these privileges also came sanctions, which were meant to maintain
order and decorum within the Bastide. If one was guilty of adultery for instance, the fine was for the adulterous couple
to run naked through the village, attached to one another! A registry of more than 350 Bastides has been established
for the southwest of France, and although many are worth a visit, perhaps two of the most interesting in the Perigord region
are the Bastide of Monpazier (45km east of Bergerac), probably the prettiest and best preserved, and the Bastide of
Domme (12km south of Sarlat), which is built on a cliff, offering breathtaking views of the Dordogne valley below.
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Four Adolescents Discover a miraculous
Treasure |
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In the beginning of September,
1940, despite German occupation, the small village
of Montignac sur Vezere, located in the free zone,
was calm and without incidents. Four adolescents:
Marcel and Jacques who lived in the village, Georges
who was vacationing at his grandmother’s for the
summer, and Simon, a Jewish refugee, had gone on
an expedition in a neighboring forest. There, they
discovered the entrance to a cave.
Driven by a centuries old legend of a treasure hidden
in an underground cave, the teens explored the surroundings
in secret. Accessing the cave was not easy, but
once they did manage to slip inside, they realized
the magnitude of their discovery. Not gold coins
or diamonds, but a succession of galleries covered
with beautiful rock paintings that date back to
15,000 BC! On September 21, 1940, the discovery
was authenticated by the abbot Henri Breuil, a noted
prehistorian. The Lascaux caves, an amazingly
important archaeological discovery, that had been
a secret from humanity for so many thousands of years,
had been revealed to the world through these four
young adventurous boys. |
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The Eighth Wonder of the World |
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Like all the many caves which abound in this region, Lascaux was not inhabited, but rather glorified as sacred ground.
Meticulously painted, using the rocky contours of the cave itself, tens of bears, bison, horses and bulls can be seen
frolicking in the fields. Rock galleries are covered with these beautiful paintings of animals, leading from one gallery
to another. Hundreds of men had come to work here daily. Some would paint while others hunted for their food or
maintained the light of the grease torches. The painters found their colors in the surrounding nature; magnesium oxide
or coal for black, ferrous oxide for red, and kaolin for white. The artists learned and practiced their skills in the most
remote areas. But the mystery still remains: Why? What drove these artists to make these paintings which were such a
commitment of time and energy? Due to their great success as a tourist destination, the actual Lascaux caves were
closed in 1963, to protect their treasures from deterioration. Thanks to a lot of rigorous work and exacting methods,
Lascaux II was born - an exact replica. Lascaux II, only a few meters from the original cave, offers the visitor the same
amazing experience of discovery as the original. Well worth a visit!
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The Black Diamond: The Truffle of Perigord |
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Legend has it that a poor lumberjack, hungry himself, offered his last potato to a starving old woman. Very thankful,
the beggar woman transformed herself into a fairy, and tapped her magic wand on the potato, changing it to a black
mushroom -- as black as ebony and as sweet smelling as a rose. Thus the truffle was born! The fairy told the lumberjack
that he would find a multitude of these in his garden, that it would make his fortune, and that no one would know from
where it came. Upon the death of the old man his children inherited his riches. However, when they met an old beggar
woman, they were not as generous as their father had been and they chased her away. The beggar woman was none
other than the fairy, who quickly made the precious mushrooms disappear from the garden, and scattered them
throughout the Perigord. Still today, we take pleasure in this legend to explain the mysterious discovery of the
truffles of the region, which no one can cultivate, and that only pigs or trained dogs can unearth. Sold at the price
of gold, truffles can accompany the most sophisticated dish, or even a simple omelet.
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The Perigord is the land of a thousand castles, with a past as rich as it is dramatic. It is the imperial region of the
“foie gras”, where pleasure and food are paired. It is the magical region, where it is good to live and to escape the
turbulence of life in the city. In this newsletter, we have only touched upon the riches of this region. All the more reason
for you to visit and explore the area yourself, and for us to revisit it in a future newsletter!
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