Martin Walker, author of the brilliant Bruno series of books set in Dordogne, chooses one place that for him, sums up the Perigord.

There is a magical place in the Perigord called Limeuil where the river Vézère flows into the much stronger river Dordogne and where thousands of years of history have unfolded before you. The Gauls were here and built a fort on the hilltop overlooking the junction of the two rivers until Julius Caesar’s legions stormed the place in 58 BC. The Romans then built their own oppidum, a fortified village, on the same strategic peak and the place has been occupied ever since, and probably for far longer.

Its ruins were still there when the Moors, newly converted to Islam, came up across the Pyrenees from conquered Spain in 719, built a base at Narbonne and began raiding north across the rivers of Aquitaine until defeated and driven back by Charles Martel in 732 AD. His grandson, the great Charlemagne, rebuilt the Limeuil hilltop fort in the 790s to stop Viking longships raiding up-river.

Limeuil is known as one of the loveliest villages in France, its ancient houses of honey-coloured stone clambering up the hill, past the new chateau, built in the 17th century. And it keeps on climbing and winding, passing stone wall after wall, all the way to the hilltop and the ruins of the medieval chateau that was built in the 12th century.

And for the next five hundred years the fighting never stopped. First it was the English, fighting to win control of the region after Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine, married the young count of Anjou who would become King Henry II of England in 1152. Those campaigns lasted for the next three centuries, the English usually prevailing with their longbows until the baffle of Castillon in 1453, when the French countered with gunpowder and cannon.

The peace did not last long, to be followed by civil wars as France’s Protestants fought for the right to worship as they chose until the Sun King, Louis XIV, finally forced them into exile in 1685.

At the bottom of the hill by the roadside is a simple plaque built into a stone wall. And in June every year since 1944 there are flowers there in tribute to the Young Lieutenant Chatelreynaud who ‘fell under German bullets’ at this spot. He was trying to monitor the movements of a German battalion that was ordered to hunt down the local Resistance. The young Lieutenant got too close and was shot.

A young boy of 15 who was with him escaped by running across the fields to a small chateau called La Vitrolle where the secret HQ of the Resistance for the whole region was based under Colonel Berger, the wartime name of the famous writer André Malraux. Ordered to slow ‘at all costs’ the movement of a German SS Panzer division from southern France up to Normandy where it would attack the D-Day beaches, the Resistance delayed the Panzers for three crucial weeks.

That young boy ran past a small but historic church as he went to warn Malraux and the other Resistance leaders that it was time to flee for safety across the Vézère river. The Chapel of St Martin was built in the 12th century to commemorate a murder – the assassination of Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, by his erstwhile friend, Henry II, king of England (and thanks to his wife, Eleanor, also Duke of Aquitaine.

Supposed to bring the English church under royal control, Becket instead backed the authority of the Pope, and when a furious King Henry asked at a drunken dinner, ‘Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?’, four of his knights rode to Canterbury and slaughtered Becket in the altar of his own cathedral. The Pope ordered Henry to build two churches in England and one in France as penance.

And here it is, still standing, with some of the oldest frescoes in France inside, including one of two men with a bottle. Experts say they are Old Testament prophets. We locals believe they are Becket and his King, in happier times.

In this one village almost the whole history of France stands before you on this hill. And I have not forgotten the prehistory, that time when this Vézère valley was the heart of human civilisation with the glorious cave art of Lascaux and Font de Gaume, just up-river. Because a century ago archaeologists were called in when builders enlarging the basement of a local bakery in Limeuil found some two hundred flat stones, each about the size of a large dinner-plate, along with stone and bone tools.

Each stone portrayed almost identical animals, about half of them deer and reindeer, another third were horses, but there were also goats, bison, prehistoric cattle, two bears and a single fox. Nothing at all like has ever been found elsewhere, and the only explanation the experts have was that this was the world’s first art school – some 12,000 years ago.

MARTIN WALKER, after a long career of working in international journalism and for think tanks, now gardens, cooks, explores vineyards, writes, and travels. His series of novels featuring Bruno, Chief of Police, are best sellers in Europe and have been translated into more than fifteen languages. He divides his time between Washington, DC, and the Dordogne.

His latest book A GRAVE IN THE WOODS is the newest instalment in the Bruno, Chief of Police series. Featuring an archaeological dig in the French countryside and a cast of characters from all over the world, the book is full of culinary magic, mysterious characters, and buried secrets – perfect for armchair detectives and armchair travellers alike.

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