Périgord

Périgord is a historical region in southwestern France, on the western fringe of the Massif Central, which corresponds broadly to the present-day département of Dordogne, with an area of 9,060 sq. km/3,500 sq. mi and a population of around 390,000. Its chief town is Périgueux. Périgord has a varied landscape with many forests and a generally mild climate. Numerous caves with prehistoric rock paintings bear witness to long-vanished cultures; fortified castles and towns are reminders of a warlike past, and picturesque country houses, churches and abbeys attract many visitors. To the east is the old historical region of Quercy, a less fertile limestone plateau with the extraordinary karstic terrain of the Causse de Gramat in the north. Geographically there are four different Périgords - Périgord Blanc (White Périgord), the central plateau region through which the rivers Auvézère and Isle flow; Périgord Noir (Black Périgord) dominated by the valleys of the Vézère and Dordogne; Périgord Pourpre (Purple Périgord) the area around Bergerac to the southeast; and Périgord Vert (Green Périgord) the rolling hills to the north. Roughly a quarter of Périgord is covered with coniferous and deciduous woodland, the chestnut forests having a particular charm of their own.

Périgord is mainly an agricultural region. It is noted particularly for its truffles, which are found and dug out of the ground with the help of specially trained pigs. The truffle is an edible fungus of tuberous appearance, either light or dark in color, which grows about 10cm/4in. under the ground in a kind of symbiotic relationship with the roots of oak-trees.

Few areas in France have such early traces of human occupation as Périgord. The Vézère valley in particular is rich in Palaeolithic sites. Much evidence of prehistoric settlement has been found, in the form of the ashes of fires, art objects, stone axes, human remains and realistic and symbolic cave paintings and engravings, dating from the time of Cro-Magnon Man, who lived in this area.

In historical times Périgord was occupied by a Celtic tribe, the Petrocorii, and the adjoining region of Quercy by the Cadurci; in the reign of Augustus both areas were part of the province of Aquitania. The Romans introduced walnut and chestnut trees and vines. For centuries this was a frontier territory fiercely contested between England and France, until it was finally united with France in 1607. The French Revolution left Périgord with its old boundaries almost intact in the new département of Dordogne.