Nouvelle-Aquitaine: Bordeaux, Dordogne & the Basque Coast

The Vézère valley, a tributary of the Dordogne, holds one of the densest groups of prehistoric sites in Europe: the rock shelter at Les Eyzies gave its name to Cro-Magnon people, and the painted cave of Lascaux, found by teenagers in 1940, dates back around 17,000 years. Rome made the south-west the province of Aquitania, with Burdigala (Bordeaux) and Saintes as major towns, and Saintes still has its Roman arch and amphitheatre.

In 1152 Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine, married Henry Plantagenet, who became Henry II of England, and for three centuries Bordeaux was English. Its red wine, known as claret, was shipped north, and the connection ended only when the French won the Battle of Castillon in 1453, closing the Hundred Years' War. La Rochelle became a Protestant stronghold and fell to Richelieu in 1628 after a long siege, while Henri IV, the first Bourbon king, was born in Pau in 1553.

In the 18th century Bordeaux grew rich on the colonial trade, including the Atlantic slave trade, and rebuilt itself in classical stone. Limoges became famous for porcelain after kaolin was found nearby. In June 1944 the SS massacred the people of Oradour-sur-Glane, and the ruined village has been kept as a memorial. The region was formed in 2016 from Aquitaine, Poitou-Charentes and the Limousin, with Bordeaux as capital.

Nouvelle-Aquitaine covers several distinct cultures. The French Basque Country, in the far south-west, has its own language, Basque, unrelated to any other, and a strong identity expressed in the red-and-white flag, the game of pelota played against a wall in every village, Basque choirs and the huge summer fêtes of Bayonne, where the crowds dress in white with red scarves. Béarn, around Pau, and Gascony had their own Occitan dialects, and Occitan is still heard among older people in the Limousin and Périgord.

Bordeaux has a reputation for being more reserved and bourgeois, shaped by the wine trade and the old merchant families along the quays. The Périgord, where the Dordogne flows, is a land of markets, farmhouses and castles, with a culture of food that runs through walnut groves, duck farms and truffle markets in winter. Rugby is the leading sport across much of the south-west, and village clubs remain important.

Craft traditions include Limoges porcelain, the tapestries of Aubusson, recognised as UNESCO intangible heritage, and the Cognac distilleries of the Charente. Angoulême hosts France's main comics festival each January, and surfing has become part of coastal culture since it arrived in Biarritz in the 1950s.

About six million people live in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Bordeaux has around 260,000 residents and a metropolitan area of about 1.4 million, and it has grown quickly since the high-speed line arrived in 2017, attracting Parisians and pushing up rents. Limoges, Poitiers, Pau, La Rochelle, Bayonne and Angoulême are the other main cities, while the Creuse, Corrèze and inland Landes are thinly populated.

The economy relies on wine, agriculture and forestry: the Landes pine forest supplies timber and paper, and the region is a big producer of maize, ducks and oysters. Aerospace and defence employ many in the Bordeaux area, Cognac is a major export, and tourism is concentrated on the coast and in the Dordogne. The Futuroscope theme park draws visitors to Poitiers.

The coastal towns shift with the seasons: busy in summer, quiet in winter. In the Basque Country, housing costs driven by second homes are a major political issue, while in the Limousin the concern is an ageing population and closing services.

The south-west is the heartland of duck and goose. Foie gras, confit de canard, duck breast known as magret, and potatoes fried in duck fat called pommes sarladaises are staples of the Périgord, together with walnuts, black Périgord truffles in winter and cèpe mushrooms in autumn. Bordeaux has entrecôte à la bordelaise, steak with a red-wine and shallot sauce, and canelés, small caramelised cakes flavoured with rum and vanilla.

The coast provides oysters from Arcachon and Marennes-Oléron, and mussels from the Charente. The Basque Country uses the mild red Espelette pepper in axoa, a veal stew, and piperade, a dish of peppers, tomatoes and eggs, and cures Bayonne ham. Gâteau basque is a cake filled with cream or black cherry jam, and Ossau-Iraty is a sheep's-milk cheese from the Pyrenees. Béarn has garbure, a thick cabbage and bean soup. The Limousin is known for its beef and for clafoutis, a baked batter pudding with cherries, and Agen for its prunes.

The Bordeaux vineyards include the Médoc, Margaux, Pauillac, Graves, sweet Sauternes, Saint-Émilion and Pomerol, and there are also Bergerac, Jurançon and the Basque Irouléguy. The Charente makes Cognac and Pineau des Charentes, a blend of grape juice and Cognac.

Bordeaux's centre follows the Garonne, with the Place de la Bourse and its Miroir d'eau, the Grand Théâtre, the cathedral of Saint-André and the Cité du Vin, a museum about wine. To the east, Saint-Émilion has its underground monolithic church and steep lanes, and the Médoc's wine châteaux lie to the north.

The Dordogne combines rivers and history. Sarlat has a well-preserved medieval centre and a busy market, and castles such as Beynac and Castelnaud overlook the river near the cliff village of La Roque-Gageac and the bastide of Domme. In the Vézère valley, Lascaux IV at Montignac reproduces the Lascaux cave, and the Font-de-Gaume cave near Les Eyzies still shows original prehistoric paintings. Brantôme and the château of Hautefort lie further north.

On the coast, La Rochelle has its harbour towers and aquarium, with the Île de Ré and Île d'Oléron offshore and the naval dockyard town of Rochefort to the south. The Dune du Pilat rises above the Arcachon basin, near Cap Ferret, and a long straight line of surf beaches stretches through the Landes to Hossegor. Biarritz has the Grande Plage and the Rocher de la Vierge, and nearby Bayonne and Saint-Jean-de-Luz are Basque towns, with Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port on the pilgrim route to Santiago. Inland are the Pyrenean Ossau valley, the Marais Poitevin wetlands near Niort, Oradour-sur-Glane and the Millevaches plateau.