A Taste of French Country Living

Disappear to a French village in the Dordogne and you might feel like you’ve slipped into an open-air scene painted by Renoir. Days are spent sipping wine in gardens, cycling along winding lanes past white horses and ancient stone walls bursting with wildflowers, and exploring the region’s vineyards and medieval towns with their colorful markets. There’s everything to do and there’s nothing to do — depending on your mood.The pace of local life appears to have remained unchanged in hundreds of years, and long summer days in the lush Dordogne (locally and historically known as Périgord) pass slowly. Many of the English upper class, who for years have summered inconspicuously in the Dordogne, often spend evenings not at the fine village and farm restaurants, but at their stone cottages, where wine from nearby Bordeaux, Bergerac, Monbazillac, and Cahors flows along with intimate conversation between friends. In many of Dordogne’s remote villages, even a car cannot be heard after 9 at night.Although this French département can be quite popular at the height of the summer season (travelers are drawn to beautifully preserved medieval towns such as Sarlat and the prehistoric attractions and castles nearby), the countryside seems to absorb everything once you leave town, and it’s very easy to find an isolated spot on the banks of the velvety Dordogne River to enjoy some of the treats purchased at the market.With regard to gastronomy, the region is widely considered France’s most celebrated region, and products you’d find only in expensive Parisian boutiques are often part of the Dordogne’s market landscape. The area is especially famous for Armagnac (southwest France’s answer to cognac), foie gras, truffles, walnuts, and, of course, wine. Even what would be considered an ordinary table wine in this part of France is often shockingly good.A visit to a local vineyard is a must. The area to the west of the Dordogne is, for wine connoisseurs, a locale of almost spiritual significance, and home to the famed Château Lâfite Rothschild, Château Beychevelle, and Château Margaux, among others. While many wineries claim to accept visitors without appointments, it’s worth calling at least seven days ahead before you plan to visit. It is always best to make an appointment. And for the more high-profile growers, it is mandatory. Admission is generally free for tours of the cellar or a degustation, but vineyards are often only open for a couple of hours a day so keeping your appointment is key, as you’ll be expected.There’s little doubt that truffles (the sort that grow on the roots of certain trees) are among the most expensive foodstuffs in the world. The late food critic Michael Kenyon described them as, “ugly, black, wrinkled things in closely-guarded baskets, not unlike prunes only bigger, hard, dry, and smelly.” The delicacies have been traditionally unearthed using female pigs, but are now rooted out with trained dogs, as pigs apparently rather like the taste too much. However, the Dordogne is not only known for food, but prehistoric cave art, and some of the drawings date back almost 20,000 years. The most famous cave paintings in the Dordogne are at Lascaux — discovered by four teenagers in 1940 — and it is closed to the public. But Lascaux II, a faithful reproduction of the paintings, accommodates thousands of visitors who flock to it during the summer months for a comparable experience. The area is also peppered with 700-year-old castles that date back to the bloody Hundred Years’ War between the French and the English. For the defensive advantage, these castles were often perched on the highest point of the landscape and when climbed, offer majestic views of the Dordogne River and valley.Although there is a plethora of hotels from the simple to the more opulent, one of the best ways to experience the area is to live there — if only for a week or two. A useful resource is the Web site Gite.com, which lists vacation properties across France. According to the executive director of Gite.comand a Toronto-based travel journalist, Frédéric Geisweiller, only “charming” properties that reflect the area or region, in terms of construction, materials, and restoration, are accepted for listing on the site. While the properties featured on Gite.commight be more expensive than on other sites specializing in vacation classifieds, they are, by New York standards, still very affordable.La Bouquerie, a renovated 300-year-old stone cottage in the heart of the medieval village of Sarlat, sleeps three, and the house features a living/dining room with exposed stone walls, beamed ceiling, tile floor, and traditional stone dry sink carved into the wall. Both bedroom and den have French doors that look out onto tiny balconies, and a small cobbled courtyard is perfect for intimate suppers. (Prices range from $972 a week in the low season to $1,091 a week in the high season; includes linens, towels, cleaning, heating, local taxes, and a parking space.)Larger properties listed at this boutique Web site include L’Auditoire, a restored three-story house constructed during the Middle Ages in the hilltop town of Turenne. The house comfortably sleeps six guests and features an open fireplace, and a stone staircase. The house was originally built as the town courthouse, and it affords dramatic views of the Dordogne valley. (Rates for L’Auditoire range from $1,356 a week in the low season to a high-season rate of $2,324.) For visitors who choose to rent a cottage, closing the shutters in the day, but keeping them open at night, will cool the house, and in the morning you may find yourself waking up to the aroma of baking bread or the scent of wildflowers.

A Taste of French Country Living

A Taste of French Country Living

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