it reaches the rich alluvial plains around Bergerac. It finally joins the waters of the Garonne to become the Gironde and flow into the Atlantic. During the Hundred Years’ War, the river formed an important frontier between the English and French, who built and then fought over the castles and towns along its banks, many of them in strategic positions on high rocky cliffs, with extended views over the surrounding countryside.
From earliest times the river was the only means of transport in the region, roads being almost non-existent. Even so, for part of the year the water level was not high enough for the boats to pass, so arrival and departure times had to be carefully calculated. Wood from the chestnut and oak forests of its upper reaches in the Massif Central were floated down the river or transported on small boats called gabarots as far as Souillac, where it was loaded onto larger flat-bottomed boats called gabarres. These gabarres were 20 metres long and capable of carrying 30 tons; between 1850 and 1860, as many as 300 were built each year. Some of the wood was unloaded at Bergerac, to be used for making wine-barrels and boats, and barrels of wine were loaded for their final destination of the port of Libourne near Bordeaux, to be exported to England, Holland and the colonies. The gabarres made the return journey laden mainly with salt, but also coffee and sugar. Although the journey between Souillac and Libourne was more straightforward than that on the upper reaches before Souillac, it was still hazardous, with sections of tricky shallows and fast flowing rapids, so the boatmen had to be skilled navigators to negotiate their clumsy boats through these. In the mid-1880s a canal was built to circumvent the trickiest and most dangerous stretch of rapids near Lalinde, the Saut de la Gratusse, where special pilots were needed to guide the boats through the treacherous waters. During this period Souillac and Bergerac became important ports, and the banks of the river were studded with villages whose inhabitants gained their livelihood as boat builders, boatmen and merchants.
The coming of the railway in the 1870s brought this trade to a halt, as it was far easier and quicker to transport heavy goods by rail. The rivermen vainly fought this modern means of transport, even blowing up the railway bridges built across the river. But now, in the 21st century, it is the railways that are in decline, and gabarres are still being made to take tourists on river cruises from the small towns of la Roque-Gageac and Beynac.
Tourist gabarre at la Roque-Gageac (Walk 27)
A short history of the Dordogne
The Dordogne well merits its name as ‘the capital of pre-history’ for it was here, some 30,000 years ago, that our direct ancestors arrived. Known as Cro-Magnon man after the rock shelter near les Eyzies where their bones and stone tools were found, they made their home in caves and overhangs along the Vézère river. As time passed, they began to decorate the cave walls with realistic drawings, paintings and engravings depicting the bison, reindeer and other animals they hunted. Over the next thousands of years, as the climate got warmer and the herds moved north, these nomadic hunters became settled communities tending the soil and planting crops. They gradually learned the skill of metal-working, and their stone tools were succeeded by ones made of bronze and then iron. By 700BC Celtic tribes from the north had spread into the area, building towns and hilltop fortresses, and continually fighting among themselves. One of the most powerful of these tribes was the Petrocorii, who gave the name of Périgord to this region and built a town at the site of the modern Périgueux.
When the Romans arrived and conquered the whole of Gaul, they brought with them law and order, building new towns and roads, and planting the first vineyards. In AD16 Emperor Augustus established the province of Aquitania which extended over most of south-western France, from Poitiers to the Pyrenees. Under the ‘Pax Romana’ there was peace for three centuries and the region flourished, but it was not to last.
Romanesque church at St-Geniès (Walk 22)
Roman dominance crumbled in the fifth century as Germanic tribes pushed into Gaul, first the Visigoths and then the Franks, who gave their name to modern France. Christianity now began to spread throughout the region, and many abbeys and churches were founded. Aquitaine became increasingly powerful, first a duchy and then, for a short time under Charlemagne, an independent kingdom. Territory within the kingdom was awarded to loyal followers, and Périgord became a province, ruled by a count. When the Vikings began to raid ever further inland in the ninth century, provincial governors were given increasing power and Périgord was divided into four baronies, ruled by powerful families with fortified castles, who gave only nominal allegiance to the king of France.
By the 12th century the Duchy of Aquitaine owned a vast territory stretching from the Loire to the Pyrenees, with a court at Poitiers that was renowned for sophistication and the code of courtly love. This is where the beautiful Eleanor of Aquitaine grew up, surrounded by troubadours and poets, and as her father’s only child, she inherited the Duchy on his death in 1137. After divorcing her first husband, King Louis of France, she married Henry Plantagenet, Count of Anjou and Duke of Normandy, so that when he became King Henry II of England in 1154, the whole of Aquitaine was brought under English rule. Now the English king held sway over as much of France as the French king himself, which caused frequent discontent between the two countries. The Dordogne river formed the frontier between the French and English lands, and hundreds of castles were built in the run-up to the Hundred Years’ War, many on rocky heights commanding strategic positions on the river.
As the Bordeaux wine trade flourished, towns such as Périgueux, Bergerac and Sarlat grew in importance. In addition, between 1250 and 1350 dozens of new towns were built, in order to further promote trade and commerce. These were known as bastides, from the Occitan word bastida, meaning a group of buildings. Some were founded by the French, others by the English, who thus ensured control over their inhabitants, two of the most prolific bastide founders being Alphonse de Poitiers for the French crown, and King Edward I of England. Anyone from the surrounding countryside who was prepared to build and defend the town was allocated two plots of land inside the walls, one for a house and the other for cultivation, and in addition was given exemption from certain taxes. The bastides were all laid out on the same plan, in a square or rectangle, with four main streets running at right angles between the gates, crossed and paralleled by smaller ones in a grid pattern. The streets converged in the centre on an arcaded main square with a covered market hall, the centre of commerce and activity, with a church often off to the side.
Covered market hall at Montclard (Walk 9)
The bastide towns were not originally fortified, and it was only when the conflict between the French and English intensified that they became a means of securing the land along the frontier. In 1337, when the French king confiscated all land held by the English crown, the Hundred Years’ War began, and Périgord was fought over bitterly in a series of battles. Towns and castles continually changed hands as first one side then the other gained the upper hand until finally, in 1451, Bordeaux fell into French hands and the English were decisively beaten two years later at the Battle of Castillon on the Dordogne river. Périgord became a possession of the French crown, and England lost all its lands in France, except for Calais and the Channel Isles.
The region was left impoverished and depopulated, plague and famine causing as many deaths as the war. Further disruption broke out in the Wars of Religion in the 1500s as the new Protestant thinking attracted many in the area, especially in Bergerac. Catholics rose up in protest, and bitter battles ensued between the different towns for religious dominance, Périgueux and Sarlat remaining staunchly Catholic. This discord continued for almost 30 years until the Edict of Nantes in 1598 gave Protestants the same freedom to worship and hold office as Catholics. However, this was revoked in 1685, causing many Protestant Huguenots to flee the country.
Despite major reforms
