The Other-Worldly Beauty of Beynac-et-Cazenac in the
Dordogne IMAGES © SHUTTERSTOCK

Chloe Govan reveals the Dordogne Valley’s showbiz aspect, as she explores what’s new for guests in 2021 in a location the place fashionable and medieval combine…

Dordogne is famend because the land of 1001 châteaux however for a second, due to an notorious duel, our eyes are fastened firmly on only one.

It’s a languid day in this rural riverside village, with barges gently gliding alongside the water beneath an impressive clifftop fort, when instantly two males leap out of the shadows, draw swords and problem one another to a lethal duel. The scene is the quintessential medieval throwback but that is no vieux France – that is Hollywood sur Dordogne!

Just a month earlier than lockdown was first introduced, again when coronavirus was little greater than a distant risk in a scarcely identified Chinese metropolis, stars Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, together with a Hollywood forged nearly as massive as your entire inhabitants of the village they have been filming in, descended on Beynac-et-Cazenac to begin reliving the derring-do of medieval historical past for Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel.

The unique battle of blows that the movie is predicated on befell in 1386, in the midst of the Hundred Years War. A outstanding French Knight, Jean de Carrouges, challenged former pal Jacques Le Gris to a duel to the loss of life for the honour of his spouse, Marguerite, who claimed that Le Gris had raped her. After courts dismissed the allegations, an more and more determined Carrouges headed straight to the king to demand a retrial.

Perhaps unsurprisingly for a teenage boy who’d been plunged prematurely onto the throne on the tender age of 11 and was battling the accountability, Charles VI constructed a fairly primitive various to a court docket attraction. His resolution? God would resolve. If Le Gris received the battle, leaving his opponent fatally savaged, then it will point out his innocence – and, as a false accuser, Marguerite would then be burnt on the stake. But if Carrouges received, then justice would have been pretty served on a rapist. This was a landmark battle as it will be the final judicial duel ever to be allowed by a French king. Thousands of onlookers attended, together with King Charles himself.

Dordogne villageCentre ville de Beaulieu sur Dordogne © Christophe Bouthee of Agence Vent d’Autan – Valle de la Dordogne

Fast ahead 600-odd years and this actual-life battle is now a movie, due for launch this October, with Matt Damon as Carrouges, Adam Driver as Le Gris and Jodie Comer as the unique damsel in misery, Marguerite.

Ben Affleck takes on the position of the psychotic Charles VI. If you may’t wait for the film, arm your self with a replica of the unique e book by Eric Jager, The Last Duel: A True Story of Trial by Combat in medieval France. The story transports the reader immediately to 14th-century France, and might simply be imagined by any customer to filming location Château de Beynac immediately.

Film Set in Château de Hauteford IMAGE © CHÂTEAU DE HAUTEFORTChateau Hautefort – recreating the scenes of King Louis’s loss of life in a film simulation. Credit Chateau Hauteford

Perched atop a limestone cliff, the fortress stands out compellingly in opposition to the skyline. One solely has to take a 5-minute drive to the Jardins de Marqueyssac or meander by the sunflower fields close by to have the ability to catch that postcard-good snapshot of the village and château. On approaching the château itself, its double moats and durable watchtowers provide a clue as to its turbulent historical past in the times when borderlines bridged the hole between warring French and British territories in the Hundred Years War.

Unsurprisingly, the aesthetically mesmerising Dordogne Valley was at all times a reason for rigidity, with everybody wishing to own it as their very own. Yet solely Richard the Lionheart and Simon de Montfort ever efficiently performed a siege in Beynac. While its château remained in French fingers, rival Château de Castelnaud, immediately throughout the riverbank, was British territory. Also price a go to, it immediately hosts a medieval warfare museum, with lifelike reconstructions of siege engines and catapults from the times earlier than gunpowder prevailed.

Yet it’s Beynac that may boast the film accolades: earlier than The Last Duel, it performed host to casts from La fille de d’Artagnan (Revenge of the Musketeers), Jeanne D’Arc (Joan of Arc), Les Visiteurs (The Visitors) and Chocolat, starring Juliette Binoche. Visitors this 12 months can take pleasure in a brand new perspective on this basic website, as one can comply with in the footsteps of The Last Duel actors in their latest bid to rediscover medieval France. For instance, Jodie Comer was noticed on the native market in close by Sarlat-la-Canéda. Among her high picks have been walnut muffins – a veritable delicacy in a city that after regarded walnuts as so worthwhile that they could possibly be used as half cost in property purchases. Not sufficient francs in the financial institution for that dream château? No downside – the remainder might typically be settled with nuts.

 Filming Location Château de Beynac Beynac IMAGES © SHUTTERSTOCK

Then there’s the foie gras and, in fact, cheese, from native favourites equivalent to Cabécou to the Rocamadour of the caves in the close by Lot. In the winter months, when Jodie attended, particular markets are dedicated to goose and duck merchandise – and we might count on nothing much less from a city with a Goose Square (the Place du Marché aux Oies) and its well-known sculpture of a trio of geese. For any GraspChef fanatic who’s self-catering and hoping to strive their hand at their very own confit de canard, a go to to this market is compulsory.

Otherwise, for those that won’t fancy their probabilities as the following Michel Roux Jr, a go to to hotel- restaurant La Couleuvrine could also be preferable. If so, don’t emulate Matt Damon on his go to right here by ordering a burger – as an alternative pattern some basic regional fare, from black truffle dishes to the guinea fowl full of snails. Dine al fresco beneath the leafy bushes in summer season, or retreat indoors in chilly climate to feast cosily beneath the classic picket beams.

It’s doable to relaxation your head in the identical constructing, or to decide for the extra fashionable Plaza Madeleine lodge, which was privatised for forged members throughout the filming of The Last Duel. Here outdated mixes with new, with company capable of take pleasure in a luxurious swimming pool and spa expertise inside, earlier than stepping out to discover the medieval city and all that lies past.

Ridley Scott was already conversant in Sarlat, having used it as the situation for his 1977 film The Duellists – and it is a superb stepping stone to the more moderen hotspots he used final 12 months.

Lights, Camera, Action

Beynac is true in the center of the Dordogne Valley’s vacationer belt, barely a 15-minute drive from Sarlat, seven minutes from the legendary panoramic views of La Roque-Gageac and a mere 5 minutes from the hanging gardens of Marqueyssac. The countryside feudal fortress of Château de Fénelon, half an hour from Sarlat by automobile, is extra modest than some in the area, however its interiors traverse a variety of eras, together with Renaissance furnishings and tapestries.

Other filming areas lie somewhat additional afield however are definitely worth the journey as they provide the possibility to discover away from the properly-trodden vacationer path. One such landmark location for fanatics of The Last Duel is the village of Monpazier. Not a well-known identify, regardless of its official label as one of many Plus Beaux Villages de France, this stronghold seems nearly completely unchanged because it was based in 1284 in the identify of British King Edward I. Every Thursday morning, the acquainted ritual of opening the market, which options in the movie, is performed, a convention that has continued right here for greater than 700 years. Strolling the streets, admiring the structure and visiting the Bastideum, a heritage museum devoted to French bastides, are glorious methods to benefit from the village’s environment.

For those that fancy having a go themselves, the Château de Hautefort, which has a brand new programme of actions lined up for 2021, invitations guests to strive their hand at filming their very own films. Whether your position of alternative is director, digital camera-man, sound engineer and even actor, company can stand in the very rooms the place movies such because the Cinderella remake Ever After and La Mort de Louis XIV, the 2016 film that captured the ultimate two torturous weeks of the king’s life, have been made. A particular exhibition celebrates the 50 years of cinema shot on the château.

Plus Beau Village MonpazierMonpazier IMAGES © SHUTTERSTOCK

There is even a replica movie set displaying the Sun King’s bed room from the Palace of Versailles, full with interval furnishings. Here, you may take pleasure in a behind-the-scenes expertise, full with a ghostly wax determine of Louis XIV languishing lifelessly in mattress.

The château additionally has a historical past of its personal worthy of the silver display. Built atop the ruins of a predecessor nearly 1,000 years outdated, solely small remnants of the unique stay immediately, such because the drawbridge and defence turrets that have been unsuccessfully used to repel invader Richard the Lionheart again in the 12th century. Amid one other siege throughout the French Revolution, villagers have been compelled to soften their copper cooking pots and switch them into arms to defeat the enemy. Eventually, in the 1960s, after a hearth ravaged the château, the de Bastard household – who, not like the identify would possibly suggest, descend from an extended line of the Aristocracy – helped it rise from the ashes, constructing it into the vacationer attraction that it’s immediately. It additionally boasts a few of the finest château gardens in all of south-west France.

Medieval Château de HautefortChâteau de Hautefort  IMAGES © SHUTTERSTOCK

Travel Through Time

Meanwhile, additional afield in Tursac is the newly opened Château de Marzac. Until lately inaccessible to the general public, it’s now been inaugurated with a theatrical expertise of a unique type – an escape sport. The state of affairs is that this: eager hunter Louis de Marzac has murdered a fawn and a curse of retribution has turned each him and everybody else in the château into animals. In simply 90 minutes, guests are challenged to search out the key antidote that returns everybody to human kind and administer it rapidly earlier than they inherit the curse themselves. Codes have to be cracked and puzzles solved however, whether or not company win or not, they may regardless be rewarded with a chance to discover the gorgeous property in the method of attempting.

A 10-minute drive from this location is the unmissable troglodyte village of La Madeleine, the place guests can rewind all the best way again to the prehistoric period. In the rock shelter Abri de la Madeleine a 20,000 12 months outdated inventive carving of a bison licking an insect chunk was amongst a number of found.

Many of the principle points of interest in this valley are châteaux – and there may be an all-new annual competition devoted to them, Châteaux en Fête. The first festivities have been scheduled to start final 12 months, till the pandemic arrived – however costume balls, fireworks, candle-lit occasions and musical extravaganzas are all deliberate for the longer term, with dozens of taking part châteaux opening their doorways particularly for the occasions. The social gathering begins this 12 months in June/July.

Francophiles might absolutely count on nothing much less from ‘the land of 1001 châteaux’. Newcomers to the Dordogne who’ve already been château-hopping in the Loire Valley could be tempted to suppose that after experiencing the latter, they’ve seen all of it – however they’d be mistaken. The choices of the Loire area are usually comparatively fashionable, usually with palatial interiors, however right here in the south-west the château expertise is vastly completely different in flavour. Boasting prehistoric carvings on the rocks under them, some are strikingly genuine home windows right into a bygone period.

Rocamadour Dordogne ValleyRocamadour  IMAGES © SHUTTERSTOCK

Walking Wonders

If you want to veer off the château route momentarily and switch to the good open air, a model new climbing route has been launched for 2021, following in the footsteps of legendary hermit Saint Amadour. Born in 388AD and famed for founding the shrine of Our Lady of Rocamadour, his historical past stretches again thus far that he’s even believed to have been a servant of the Virgin Mary. Historians are sceptical about whether or not the acclaimed hermit actually existed, however devotees level to an historic tomb discovered in the 1100s as proof. Whether a believer or not, this exploratory hike throughout the Dordogne Valley – and past too, if you want – is a good way to absorb the native countryside. Interested travellers can discover out extra info by way of the web site rando.dordogne.fr.

If days of lengthy walks work up an urge for food, Perigourmet might assist. Mirroring the classic environment of the world, native residents Michel and Danu will present gastronomic excursions in a quintessentially French basic automobile, the Citroën 2CV. New motion-packed itineraries cease off at truffle farms, vineyards, walnut orchards, distilleries and different gourmand areas to pattern the native produce. Even higher than a market expertise, the chauffeur can drive travellers direct to the supply of every mouth-watering delicacy.

As the unofficial European capital of caviar, it’s unsurprising that Perigourmet affords a tour taking in a caviar farm, though it’s equally doable to succeed in one your self, equivalent to Caviar de Neuvic. Farmers listed here are famend for their fashionable ‘no-kill’ technique, a cruelty- free approach of extracting eggs with out harming the sturgeon. It’s tipped to revolutionise the world of caviar – and guests may even get shut sufficient to a sturgeon themselves for a ‘cuddle’. As weird because it sounds, touting the fish as a vacationer attraction incentivises protecting them alive, and so performs a small half in the direction of stopping aquatic cruelty. In the reward store, there are even slabs of charcoal-colored caviar butter for sale or, for anybody formidable to create their very own dishes, caviar cooking lessons beckon too.

Alongside basic points of interest such because the Lascaux caves (usually dubbed the Sistine Chapel of Prehistory), there are clearly many new and upcoming choices for exploration too. For newcomers and repeat guests alike, there’s no scarcity of the way (greater than 1001,
for positive) to take pleasure in a visit to paradise…

From France Today journal