Secret

Secret France:LimeuilLimeuil © D & D Colle, Dordogne-Perigord TourismMartin Walker, author of the brilliantBruno series of books set in Dordogne,chooses one place that for him, sumsup the Perigord.There is a magical place in the Perigordcalled Limeuil where the river Vézère flowsinto the much stronger river Dordogne andwhere thousands of years of history haveunfolded before you. The Gauls were hereand built a fort on the hilltop overlookingthe junction of the two rivers until JuliusCaesar’s legions stormed the place in 58 BC.The Romans then built their own oppidum, afortified village, on the same strategic peakand the place has been occupied ever since,and probably for far longer.Its ruins were still there when the Moors,newly converted to Islam, came up across thePyrenees from conquered Spain in 719, builta base at Narbonne and began raiding northacross the rivers of Aquitaine until defeatedand driven back by Charles Martel in 732 AD.His grandson, the great Charlemagne, rebuiltthe Limeuil hilltop fort in the 790s to stopViking longships raiding up-river.Limeuil is known as one of the loveliestvillages in France, its ancient houses of honeycolouredstone clambering up the hill, past thenew chateau, built in the 17th century. And itkeeps on climbing and winding, passing stonewall after wall, all the way to the hilltop andthe ruins of the medieval chateau that wasbuilt in the 12th century.Panoramic gardens © Au Fils du Temps, Dordogne-Perigord TourismAnd for the next five hundred years thefighting never stopped. First it was the English,fighting to win control of the region afterEleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine, married theyoung count of Anjou who would become KingHenry II of England in 1152. Those campaignslasted for the next three centuries, the Englishusually prevailing with their longbows until thebaffle of Castillon in 1453, when the Frenchcountered with gunpowder and cannon.The peace did not last long, to be followed bycivil wars as France’s Protestants fought forthe right to worship as they chose until the SunKing, Louis XIV, finally forced them into exilein 1685.At the bottom of the hill by the roadside is asimple plaque built into a stone wall. And in30 | The Good Life France The Good Life France | 31