Hoping for a beautiful summer in the medieval bastide town of Villefranche du Perigord, in the Dordogne region of south-west France, now my home town.

Villefranche du Périgord was founded by Alphonse de Poitiers, Count of Toulouse, in 1261 and is the oldest bastide town in the Dordogne. The town’s houses, some with stone towers, were built between the thirteenth and the sixteenth centuries. 

The town is a ‘ville fleuri‘, as well as being the first in the Dordogne to be designated a ‘site remarquable du goût’. It has an extremely impressive medieval market hall where the regular Saturday morning market still takes place. In the summer months it also holds the weekly ‘farmers’ market’, as well as selling the famous cèpe mushrooms which grow in the surrounding chestnut forests.

Marché aux cèpes sous la halle de Villefranche du Périgord