| BERGERAC, capital of Périgord Pourpre, lies on the riverbank in the wide plain of the Dordogne. Once a flourishing port for the wine trade, it is still the main market centre for the surrounding maize, vine and tobacco farms. If you look for a Bergerac hotel, look at this website. Devastated in the Wars of Religion, when most of its Protestant population fled overseas, Bergerac is now essentially a modern town with some interesting and attractive reminders of the past. The vieille ville is a calm and pleasant area to wander through, with drinking fountains on the street corners and numerous late medieval houses. In rue de l'Ancien-Pont, the splendid seventeenth-century Maison Peyrarède houses an informative Musée du Tabac (Tues–Sat 10am–noon & 2–6pm, Sun 2.30–6pm; €3), detailing the history of the weed, with collections of pipes and tools of the trade. Bergerac has a couple of other museums, the best of which is the small Musée Régional de la Batellerie in rue des Conférences in the heart of the old town (Tues–Sat 10am–noon & 2–5.30pm; €1), with displays on viticulture, barrel-making and the town's once-bustling river-trading past. Outside on the square is a statue in honour of Cyrano de Bergerac, the town's most famous association, on whom a 1990 film starring Gérard Dépardieu was based. The big-nosed lead character in Edmond Rostand's play, though fictional, was inspired by the seventeenth-century philosopher of the same name, who, sadly, had nothing to do with the town.
Pages in section ‘Bergerac’: Practicalities, Château de Monbazillac.
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