France
Bourdeilles is a jewel of the Périgord Vert, the green and wooded northern portion of the Dordogne, where two castles occupy a single rocky spur above the River Dronne in a composition that seems arranged for the pleasure of painters. The older castle, a thirteenth-century fortress with a massive octagonal donjon, was built during the power struggles between the kings of England and France for control of Aquitaine. The newer castle, an elegant Renaissance château constructed in the sixteenth century by Jacquette de Montbron (who hoped to receive Catherine de Medici as a guest—an honor that never materialized, halting the building's completion), contains one of the finest collections of furniture and decorative arts in southwestern France.
The village below the castles is small enough to walk end to end in five minutes—a cluster of stone houses with steep rooftops and dormer windows, a medieval bridge spanning the Dronne, and a couple of restaurants whose terraces overlook the river and the castle above. The Dronne at this point is placid and tree-lined, its surface reflecting the golden limestone of the buildings and the green canopy of willows and alders that shade its banks. Canoes and kayaks drift past the castle walls in summer, and the splash of swimmers from the grassy banks below the bridge provides the soundtrack of a Périgord summer afternoon.
The cuisine of the Périgord is one of the great regional traditions of France, and Bourdeilles sits at the heart of it. Foie gras—duck and goose—is produced on farms throughout the surrounding countryside, served as terrines, as seared escalopes, or simply on toast with a drizzle of truffle honey. Confit de canard, duck legs preserved in their own fat and crisped in a hot oven, is the everyday luxury of the Périgord table. The black truffle of Périgord, harvested from November through March, commands the highest prices of any fungus in the world and transforms simple eggs, pasta, and potatoes into dishes of intense, earthy complexity. Walnuts, another Périgord specialty, appear in salads, cakes, and walnut oil—pressed in local mills—that adds a nutty richness to vinaigrettes and vegetable dishes. The wines of Bergerac, just south, provide excellent and affordable accompaniment.
The Périgord surrounding Bourdeilles offers a concentration of prehistoric, medieval, and natural wonders that is unique in Europe. Brantôme, the "Venice of the Périgord," is ten minutes north—a town built on an island in the Dronne, its Benedictine abbey backing directly onto a cliff face riddled with troglodytic caves. The painted caves of Lascaux (the replica Lascaux IV provides an extraordinary recreation of the original's 17,000-year-old paintings), Font-de-Gaume, and Les Eyzies—the "capital of prehistory"—are within an hour's drive. The bastide towns of the Dordogne Valley, with their fortified churches and market squares, provide medieval atmosphere. And the river itself, navigable by canoe from Bourdeilles downstream through a landscape of castles, cliffs, and woodlands, offers one of the finest river journeys in France.
Bourdeilles is accessible from Périgueux (twenty-five minutes) and Bordeaux (two hours), and is included in Dordogne touring and river cruise itineraries. The best time to visit is May through October, with June and September offering the most pleasant temperatures and the quietest atmosphere. July and August bring the warmest weather and the peak of the canoe and kayak season, along with the night markets (marchés nocturnes) that enliven Périgord villages on summer evenings with food, wine, and live music. The truffle season (November–March) provides a gastronomic reason to visit in the cooler months.