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RIGHT: Sarlat-la-Caneda’squaint main street charmsvisitors with a profusionof flowers.OPPOSITE PAGE: Oneof the many cafés waitingto be discovered whilstwandering in Sarlat’scharming medieval streets.PRECEDING PAGE: Amodest fieldstone house inthe pretty medieval villageof Beaumont.An extended holiday in rural France is a romantic andrecurring dream for many travellers. While the LoireValley’s splendid chateaux and fine wines are alluringand Provence’s impossibly pretty stone villas andMediterranean views captivating, Robert and I decidedon the Perigord Noir region in southwest France, a regionfamous for its cavemen, kings and castles.Black-green oak forests, from which Perigord Noirtakes its name, covered limestone escarpments as wepassed through Dordogne Valley’s dramatically curvedroads. Low fieldstone walls guided us past neatly packedwheels of hay bathed in a halo of golden light. As I tracedthe Dordogne River’s meanderings on our circuit map, itpointed out to a number of medieval bastides or fortresscastles that wore their battle-scarred passage of timewith stoicism. They remain as silent testament to theHundred Years War when loyalties, land and the right torule swung violently between French and English kings.SOLID AS A ROCKAs if extruded from the rock face itself, Castle Beynacand the Chateau de Castelnaud perched dramaticallyon rocky promontories above the Dordogne River wherethey have been defending and defying each other forcenturies. Constructed in the 12th century, Castelnaudwas originally English and claimed to be the strongestrampart in Perigord. Its medieval war museum is abrutal treasure trove of armour, maces, shields andchain mail. I could only imagine the clang of steel asmen forged their swords on the armory’s stone fl oor. Onthe opposing bank, the French held Castle Beynac’sfaded tapestries and knights’ banners hung mournfullyin empty halls, where shafts of light illuminated a dustyheritage and turbulent past.During those tumultuous times, people soughtrefuge in medieval villages clustered at the feet of manybastides such as the charming Domme, a BastideRoyale built by the King of France in 1280. From theramparts where 70 Templar Knights imprisoned in88 TRAVEL 3SIXTY˚