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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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