Tourist information -
Periguex
Periguex, capital of the département of
the Dordogne and a central base for exploring the countryside of
Périgord Blanc, is a small, busy and not particularly attractive
market town for a province made rich by tourism and specialized
farming. Its name derives from the Petrocorii, the local Gallic
tribe, but it was the Romans who transformed it into an important
settlement. A few Roman remains, as well as a medieval vieille ville
, survive to this day.
The main hub of the city's contemporary life is
the tree-shaded boulevard Montaigne , which marks the western edge
of the vieille ville . At its southern end, a short walk along rue
Taillefer brings you to the domed and coned Cathédrale St-Front
(daily: July & Aug 8am-7.30pm; rest of year 8am-12.30pm &
2.30-6.30pm), its square, pineapple-capped belfry surging far above
the roofs of the surrounding medieval houses. Unfortunately, it's
no beauty, having suffered from the zealous attentions of the purist
nineteenth-century restorer Abadie, best known for the white elephant
of the Sacré-C?ur in Paris. The result is too white, too
new, too regular, and the roof is spiked all over with ill-proportioned
nipple-like projections serving no obvious purpose; "a supreme
example of how not to restore", Freda White tartly observed
in her classic travelogue, Three Rivers of France . It's a pity,
for when it was rebuilt in 1173 following a fire, it was one of
the most distinctive Byzantine churches undertaken in France, modelled
on St Mark's in Venice and the Holy Apostles in Constantinople.
Nevertheless, the Byzantine influence is still evident in the interior
in the Greek-cross plan - unusual in France - and in the massive
clean curves of the domes and their supporting arches. The big Baroque
altarpiece, carved in walnut wood, in the gloomy east bay, is worth
a look, too, depicting the Assumption of the Virgin, with a humorous
little detail in the illustrative scenes from her life of a puppy
tugging the infant Jesus' sheets from his bed with its teeth.
At the west end of the cathedral in place de la Clautre beneath
the blank facade of the original eleventh-century building, there
is a fresh produce market on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. From
the terrace below you look across to the wooded hills beyond the
River Isle, while crowded north and south of the square are the
renovated buildings of the medieval old town . The longest and finest
street is the narrow rue Limogeanne , lined with Renaissance mansions,
now turned into boutiques and patisseries. The surrounding streets
are also scattered with fine Renaissance houses: particularly handsome
are the Logis St Front , 7 rue de la Constitution, now the seat
of the Conservation des Monuments Historiques, and the more sedate
Hôtel de Crenoux next door. Another curious one is at 17 rue
de l'Éguillerie, on the corner of the attractive place St-Louis
, where a turreted watchtower leans out over the street. There are
other old houses down along the river by the Pont des Barris, notably
the fifteenth-century Maison des Consuls.
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