The ancient and mystical town of Brantôme has fascinated visitors for centuries. Nestled in a cluster of limestone caves high on the Aquitaine plateau, Brantôme’s natural beauty, bubbling spring, and well-stocked river attracted its earliest inhabitants over forty thousand years ago.
The Celts, and their mystic Druid priests, gave Brantôme its name, a combination of the Celtic words for water and rocks. After the Celts, the town was inhabited by Romans, then early Christians, and a community of monks whose early monastery was to evolve into the splendid abbey we visited today.
After surviving the Black Death and 100 Years War, Brantôme saw a new era flower in the Renaissance, when magnificent structures like the new abbey and the Jardin des Moines (Monk’s garden) were built.
Brantôme withstood many invasions from the Visigoths and other ‘barbarians’, until the Franks, and notably Charlemagne, established the town as a leading religious destination. From the Middle Ages, Brantôme was a key stop on the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela, one of the three most important pilgrimages of the period. 

Sue, Keith and I walked around the town enjoying the summer warmth, a coffee at the mill, an art exhibition by Veronique Pascale Proust and lunch by the river. 

Caught the end of the “Tour de Dordogne” bicycle race…..

Bourdeilles is a lovely village which sits on the edge of the river Dronne and boasts a chateau, a moulin (mill), a medieval centre and an attractive stone bridge which was originally built in the 14th century but had to be rebuilt in the 18th century following severe floods.