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Périgord (Peiregòrd in local patois) is the name of the county covering the current department of Dordogne (encroaching a bit on Saintonge, Quercy, and Limousin areas).

• The Green Périgord to the north, around Nontron and south-west of Châlus in Limousin. “Green” because of its green oak forests and grasslands,

• The Black Périgord, the south-east part of it, around Sarlat. It is named after the "green" oak forests - but in fact very dark - but also the colour of the truffle, one of the gastronomic specialties of the region, with foie gras and confit.

• The purple Périgord in the southwest, around Bergerac. Of course purple recalls the colour of the wine of Bergerac vineyards.

Bergerac is a pretty city of 30,000 people. It is a place worth discovering, and its story follows some of the major episodes in the history of France.

The Hundred Years War ranged approximately from 1337 to 1453, 116 years during which the kingdoms of France and England were fighting in many conflicts, interspersed with pauses of varying length.

The war began when Edward III Plantagenet, King of England sent a declaration of war against the King of France Philip VI of Valois.

At that time, France and England were legally and culturally intertwined and fighting for control of the Duchy of Guyenne, which covers all the South West of France. In holding these French lands, the King of England (as Duke of Aquitaine) theoretically was a vassal of the king of France.

The Hundred Years War had two main movements that follow the same structure: a first period, from 1337 to 1380, which saw the collapse of the power of the French monarchy, then a period of crisis followed by a recovery; and a second period from 1415 to 1453, reproducing the same cycle: collapse, crisis, recovery. These two periods are separated by a long break caused by conflicts within both camps.

From 1337 to 1364, the tactical genius of king Edward III of England led to a succession of English victories over French knights. The French nobility was completely discredited, and the country slid into civil war. As a result of the Treaty of Brétigny, a large part of France came under English control.

From 1364 to 1380, Charles V began a slow but steady reconquest of territory. The king understood that the final victory would be the feeling of national belonging. He let the English ravage the countryside while he sent the “Grandes companies” to fight in Castille (in Spain). Avoiding battles that had been disastrous during the first phase of the conflict, he gradually recovered several strongholds from the English. By 1375, Edward III had nearly lost control on the continent apart from some major cities such as Calais, Cherbourg, Brest, Bordeaux and Bayonne, and a few strongholds in the Massif Central mountains.

From 1380 to 1429, the most important noblemen of the French kingdom took control of the kingdom, taking advantage of the minority and then the madness of king Charles VI. The result was a rivalry between the Dukes of Burgundy and Orleans, which degenerated into civil war. Henry V of England took advantage of this division and resumed gaining ground on the continent. This led to the French disaster of the Battle of Agincourt. Under the Treaty of Troyes in 1420, Henry V married the daughter of King Charles VI, becoming the heir of the latter and cumulating the titles of King of England and Regent of France. The dauphin Charles was disinherited. However, Henry V died prematurely, and so his infant son Henry VI assumed the title of king of France and England.

From 1429 to 1453, the English were gradually driven out of France, under the leadership of Joan of Arc. Her intervention crystallized the national sentiment and settled King Charles VII on the throne despite the Treaty of Troyes, which had disinherited him.

The decisive battle that ended the Hundred Years War was the Battle of Castillon (near Saint-Emilion and Bordeaux) on the 17th of July 1453. The Englishman who were attacking the entrenched French soldiers were cut to shreds with 300 pieces of artillery firing at the same time, loaded with grapeshot and placed in order to take the assailants in a row. There was complete carnage: the attackers were pressed against each other, being able neither to escape nor to hide. Breton cavalry completed the French victory by loading the survivors. Four thousand Englishmen lost their lives.

The Wars of Religion were a series of eight conflicts between Catholics and Protestants – then called “Huguenots” - that ravaged the kingdom of France in the second half of the sixteenth century.

The early struggles beginning in the 1520s, but the divide between the two religions escalated at the end of the reign of King Henry II in 1547, and the conflict had become a political matter.

In 1565, Charles IX came to Bergerac during his royal tour of France (1564-1566), accompanied by the Court and noblemen of the kingdom. One can still see the home where he stayed.

On 17 September 1577, a truce was signed in Bergerac, the "Peace of Bergerac," which foreshadowed the Edict of Nantes in 1598.

Bergerac became a "place of safety" for Protestants, one of the cities that they administered and whose emblem was the city of La Rochelle. A “state within the state,” Protestants were progressively submitted by King Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu. On 16 July 1621, the king entered in Bergerac, and he had the fortifications demolished.

“Jacqueries des croquants” is the name that is given to various popular rebellions in south west France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The term "croquant” (“crunchy") was used by the people to designate the nobility, who chewed on them continuously. The nobility in turn applied this sobriquet to the rebellious people.

Supervised by the prominent royalist families, catholic or protestant, jacqueries were still driven by excessive taxes; the influence of the religious issue is low, although these revolts occurred in the context of religious wars.

In 1636, uprisings began against the tax called "Taille" in Angoumois, and the Périgord rapidly came under the leadership of a gentleman called La Mothe de la Forêt. This was the beginning of one of the largest tax and peasant revolts in French histgory. Sent by the king, the Duke of La Valette from the Basque country (extreme south west of France) came with three thousand men and put an end to the rebellion on 1 June 1637 at the Battle of ehe Sauvetat-du-Dropt. A thousand “croquants” were killed. The revolt finally end in 1642, with the amnesty granted by Cardinal Richelieu: he was more concerned with the conflict with the Kingdom of Spain.

These historical events inspired Eugène Le Roy's novel "Jacquou le Croquant”.

It would be rude not to mention the most famous child of Bergerac: Cyrano de Bergerac.

Popularized in the writingsof Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac existed but never set foot in Bergerac. The real "Cyrano de Bergerac" was born in 1620 and was called Savinien Cyrano. He was a member of the Nobles Gascons Mousquetaires Company of Captain Cardon de Casteljaloux. He attached "Bergerac" to his name to justify his membership in the cadet de Gascogne, using the name of an ancestral estate in the valley of Chevreuse (near Paris). A grandfather had called this property"Bergerac" after it was awarded to him in recognition of his valiant conduct in the blockade of... Bergerac against the English during the Hundred Years War.

In the novel, Cyrano is supposed to have an extra long nose. (Translated excerpt – someone has been laughing in public about his nose:)

Ah no! young blade! That was a trifle short!

You might have said at least a hundred things By varying the tone. . .

like this, suppose,. . .

Aggressive: 'Sir, if I had such a nose I'd amputate it!'

Friendly: 'When you sup It must annoy you, dipping in your cup; You need a drinking-bowl of special shape!'

Descriptive: ''Tis a rock!. . .a peak!. . .a cape! --A cape, forsooth! 'Tis a peninsular!'

Curious: 'How serves that oblong capsular? For scissor-sheath? Or pot to hold your ink?'

Gracious: 'You love the little birds, I think? I see you've managed with a fond research To find their tiny claws a roomy perch!'

Truculent: 'When you smoke your pipe. . .suppose That the tobacco-smoke spouts from your nose-- Do not the neighbors, as the fumes rise higher, Cry terror-struck: "The chimney is afire"?'

Considerate: 'Take care,. . .your head bowed low By such a weight. . .lest head o'er heels you go!'

Tender: 'Pray get a small umbrella made, Lest its bright color in the sun should fade!'

Pedantic: 'That beast Aristophanes Names Hippocamelelephantoles Must have possessed just such a solid lump Of flesh and bone, beneath his forehead's bump!'

Cavalier: 'The last fashion, friend, that hook? To hang your hat on? 'Tis a useful crook!'

Emphatic: 'No wind, O majestic nose, Can give THEE cold!--save when the mistral blows!'

Dramatic: 'When it bleeds, what a Red Sea!'

Admiring: 'Sign for a perfumery!'

Lyric: 'Is this a conch?. . .a Triton you?'

Simple: 'When is the monument on view?'

Rustic: 'That thing a nose? Marry-come-up! 'Tis a dwarf pumpkin, or a prize turnip!'

Military: 'Point against cavalry!'

Practical: 'Put it in a lottery! Assuredly 'twould be the biggest prize!'

Or. . .parodying Pyramus' sighs. . . 'Behold the nose that mars the harmony Of its master's phiz! blushing its treachery!'

Such, my dear sir, is what you might have said, Had you of wit or letters the least jot:

But, O most lamentable man!--of wit You never had an atom, and of letters You have three letters only!--they spell Ass!

"A wine named Monbazillac"

The Monbazillac are the flagship wines of the Bergerac vineyards. It is spread over 12,600 hectares and thirteen appellations for an annual volume of about 650,000 hectolitres produced by around 1240 winemakers. Bergerac wines are “assembled wines", obtained by the production of several varietals of vine.

Bergerac vineyard has its own wine guild, the “Consulat de la Vinée” (the Consulate of the Vine), chaired by a Great Master, assisted by 24 Consuls-Masters.

Monbazillac is a sweet white wine produced on the steep slopes on the left bank of the Dordogne river, in the villages of Monbazillac, Colombier, Pomport Rouffignac-de-Sigoulès and Saint-Laurent-des-Vignes

They have a straw colour which darkens over the years. Pleasant drunk young, they improve with time, gaining in intensity and sharpness with age. They develop aromas of honey, acacia flowers and peaches, enhanced by hints of plums and citrus. Depending on the vintage, the Monbazillac can be stored a long time and be drunk after 30 years or more.

The key to the development of these exceptional wines is the same as for the Sauternes vineyards of Bordeaux: Botrytis cinerea, a fungus also known as "noble rot" because of the disgusting appearance it gives to berries but also because of the unique alchemy it allows. This fungus grows when exposed to alternating periods of cool, wet, and warm and sunny periods. Thus this sector of Périgord, the left bank of the Dordogne river enjoy the climate more conducive to its development: through the morning moisture and the long sunshine in the evening in the valley.

Only a few varieties of vines are allowed to enter the composition of Monbazillac: Semillon, Sauvignon and Muscadelle. The maximum productivity is very low: 27 hl / ha (against double for a classical wine). The harvest is carried out by successive manual sorting of grains affected by noble rot.