Car Hire in Periguex, France
Periguex, capital of the département of the Dordogne and a central base for exploring the countryside of Périgord Blanc, is a small, pre-occupied but not particularly pleasing market town for a province made rich by tourism and specialized farming. Its name comes from the Petrocorii, the local Gallic tribe; however, it was the Romans who changed it into an essential settlement. Just a few Roman remains, as well as a medieval vieille ville, pull through even today.
The main hub of the city's modern life is the tree-shaded boulevard Montaigne, which signifies 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 elegance, having suffered from the zealous attentions of the purist nineteenth-century restorer Abadie, well known for the white elephant of the Sacré-C?ur in Paris. The result is too white, too new, too regular, and thefrance roof is spiked around with ill-proportioned nipple-like projections serving no distinct purpose; "a great example of how not to restore", Freda White tartly featured in her classic travelogue, Three Rivers of France. It is a pity, for when it was refurbished in 1173 following a fire; it was one of the popular exceptional Byzantine churches set about in France, modelled on St Mark's in Venice and also the Holy Apostles in Constantinople. Nevertheless, the Byzantine influence continues to be evident in the interior in the Greek-cross plan - unusual in France - and in the massive clean curves of the domes together with their supporting arches. The massive Baroque altarpiece, carved in walnut wood, in the gloomy east bay, is worth a look, too, showing you the Assumption of the Virgin, including a humorous little detail in the illustrative scenarios from her lifetime 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 in the blank facade of the classic eleventh-century building, there exists a fresh producing market on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. On the terrace beneath you, look across to the wooded hills past the River Isle, while crowded north and south of the square are the refurbished structures of the medieval old town. The longest and finest street is the narrow rue Limogeanne, lined with Renaissance mansions, which right now became boutiques and patisseries. The nearby streets are also scattered with fine Renaissance houses: especially 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 nearby. Another inquisitive one is at the 17 rue de l'Éguillerie, around the corner of the eye-catching place St-Louis, the place where a turreted watchtower leans out over the street. There are other old houses down across the riverthroughriver through the Pont des Barris, famously the fifteenth-century Maison des Consuls.
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