Bergerac

The Old Town....

About Villa Acacias and the surrounding area City Overview © Bergerac Tourisme

Bergerac is located in the heart of the Dordogne, a long-time favourite of wine aficionados and British buyers of French property.

This is a beautiful little city where swans swim in the Dordogne River and a clutch of medieval, half-timbered houses cluster around the old river port. In the 13th century it was a major crossroads because of its bridge – at that time the only one on the river – as a result, it evolved naturally into a thriving commercial city and trading port.

Its fortunes took a dip in the 16th century when many Bergeracois became Protestants and left the town, by the end of the 17th century around 40,000 of its inhabitants had emigrated to England or Holland. But the city revived at the end of the 19th century thanks to its flourishing wine industry, the national gunpowder works and tobacco.

Bergerac is still the major market place for the surrounding maize, vine and tobacco farms making it full of bustling local life and thoroughly enjoyable to visit. It’s the largest town in the Périgord Pourpre region, an area that gets its name form the purple grapes growing in its acres of surrounding vineyards, producing grapes for some of France’s best-loved red wines. However the most famous are the sweet whites produced around Monbazillac.

It’s now essentially a modern town with plenty of attractive reminders of its past and a number of interesting museums, ample opportunity for al fresco dining and street markets galore.

Narrow alleys with leaning wood-frame and terracotta houses evocative of the 15th and 16th centuries dominate the carefully restored vieille ville, a calm and pleasant area to amble through with drinking fountains on street corners and stunning 17th century houses in the rue de l’Ancien-Pont.