Arrived from Dubrovnik @ Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport and walked a couple of kms from terminal 2D to 2F. Bought Ladurée macarons on the way, as a pressie for mine hosts Sue and Keith, with whom I’m staying for a couple of days in Perigueux.

Caught an Air France domestic flight to Bordeaux (delayed on the tarmac for an hour due to some issue…..arrggh!), and made it to Hotel Regina Gare Saint-Jean by 23.30 – right opposite the train station I was departing from the following morning. A lovely sleep was had.

An hours journey on a TGV: train a grande vitesse, (these quick trains run at 300 kms per hour) and I was being greeted at Perigueux station by friend Sue. So great to be catching up in person, it’s been 7 years since the last time I visited. Sue and Keith’s country residence in Atur is looking lovely as ever and its beaut weather to sit outside in the garden shade and chat about our lives. Drony took a lovely pic of ‘the estate’. Dinner on the Isle river @ La Peniche.

As the capital of the Périgord, there are certain things you’d expect to find in Périgueux (Dordogne). It’s got high street shops, an impressive cathedral, students and some pretty municipal gardens… not to mention Roman ruins and an unusual statue of a peg-leg general.

Périgueux’s St-Front, a cathedral built in a similar style to St Mark’s Basilica in Venice, was restored in the second part of 19thC by Paul Abadie, the same architect who later designed the Sacré Coeur in Paris. 

On Wednesday and Saturday mornings, there is a food market held on Place de la Clautre in front of St-Front as well as on Place du Coderc and Place de l’Hôtel de Ville. I swear I could smell the peaches and strawberries 100m away! Yummy, yum, yum.

The old streets around this area – strung with old fashioned lamps that hang from chains – are home to an array of specialist boutiques with interesting window displays ranging from antiques to designer fashions.

Saint Silain bar is one of the oldest in the city, and you can really ‘chill’ in this tree-lined shaded square.

As you emerge from these alleys, there is a good opportunity to pass by Boulevard Michel-Montaigne with its statue of Baron Pierre Daumesnil (1777-1832) a soldier who risked his life for Napoleon on more than one occasion. He was badly injured at the Battle of Wagram and eventually lost his leg.

Sue and Keith took me to the bar, L’Oiseau Bleu, where they usually have brunch when they visit the market, being welcomed by the owner Fabrice and friends they have met over the years.

There’s a vintage festival on today, lots of old cars and locals dressed in vintage fashion….

And we had a fabulous lunch… the king garlic prawns were to die for!