It’s not even 9am and there’s a balminess in the air announcing the start of another hot summer day. There’s plenty to make you pause and linger, whether it’s the ancient arches of a Roman amphitheatre, a charming boutique on a picturesque corner or a chalkboard menu tempting you with the region’s cuisine. To the west, impressive ruins attest to its Gallo-Roman origins, while to the east half-timbered houses and Renaissance mansions mingle with monuments in the vielle ville.
They mostly need to be restored.Périgueux, Dordogne’s attractive capital, has a history that goes back more than 2,000 years and can readily be experienced as you make your way across town.
These outbuildings include a barn, an open-sided shelter, a pig shed, a storeroom, two bakehouses and a former kitchen. The roofs of the outhouses reflect the architectural style of the main dwelling but they are more varied: the steepness and tile colour changes from annexe to annexe. This rammed-earth flooring probably extends over the room’s entire 100m² surface area and may feature a pattern yet to be discovered. In the adjoining grand reception room, examinations have revealed that the concrete floor also hides rammed earth.
In the tower’s ground floor, the main room features a French-style beamed ceiling, a fireplace ornamented with a coat of arms and piers sculpted as columns, and – above all – remarkable rammed earth patterned with five-petalled flowers inscribed in nine circles, like that in the Château de Jumilhac. The flooring alternates between very old limestone slabs, ladder-patterned and strip parquet, original square and hexagonal tomette tiles, and an earthen floor. The surface areas of the main rooms vary, but the two living rooms are roughly 95m² and 100m². Three of them have a French-style beamed ceiling. Four large rooms, each featuring a monumental fireplace, are filled with natural light from their dual-aspect position. The stairs carry on up to the first floor and the loft, thereby offering easy access to the latter. It forms a U-shape and has an intermediate landing that connects to the garden level. There is a single, central flight of stone stairs. Its hipped roof rises slightly above the rest of the dwelling. The square tower that marks the dwelling’s right end juts out a little on both sides. The one above the entrance door stands out for its scroll-ornamented frame and shell-shaped pediment. Ten gabled dormers fill the loft with natural light. It crowns walls of rubble masonry with rendering that leaves the stonework slightly exposed. The old, steep roof has three slopes, including a hipped end at one side of the dwelling. Its high collar beams create room for comfortably spacious developments, almost like a mansard roof would. The timber roof framework has not been changed since the chateau was built. This west face is half underground, so its door leading out to the garden is at the same level as the central staircase’s intermediate landing.
Perigueux dordogne france windows#
The same symmetrical layout of windows is found on the west face, except for the later addition of a smaller window. And there is an extra one above the main door, filling the first-floor landing with natural light. Dressed stone forms framing around each of them. Around it are eight wooden-framed windows made up of small single-glazed panes. The studded wooden entrance door in the middle of the main building’s facade is framed with a classical sculpted doorway of two pilasters rising up to volutes and a pediment. The French poet Lagrange-Chancel stayed there many times to draw inspiration. A noble home – known to have existed in the early sixteenth century – once stood on the site. The current chateau dates back to the seventeenth century.
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