Bed and breakfast accommodation in Perigueux Monasteries

Périgueux is a gorgeous city with not one but two historic centres : The Cité district is a cultured quarter of 19th century boulevards and is strewn with little hints left behind by its ancient Roman residents.

At the heart of the city, this great institution dating from 1835, it is the oldest museum in Dordogne.

The Périgord Museum of Art and Archaeology has ancient artifacts, African sculptures and modern paintings. With an inventory of more than 45,000 items and a permanent exhibition space of 2000 square metres, it presents a selection of the most remarkable pieces.

Still in the city centre, the Arena gardens are perfect to stop by and relax visiting the city. It is right where Périgueux’s former Roman amphitheatre once stood. In amongst the spruces, chestnut trees, fountains and lawns are a few isolated pillars, walls and arches from the original structure, while the rest of the stone was plundered to build medieval Périgueux.

Just outside Perigueux, you can visit the Castle of the Bishop, once a fortress  as early as the 11th century, the present castle was built and then rebuilt in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. It is considered to be a jewel of Périgueux. Surrounded by a 17-acres park, it offers visitors a restful and romantic stopover with its English park, its Italian garden, its long bridle path, its woods and waterways.

How to get around ? 

Most sights are reachable by foot: main attractions like the Vesunna Museum, Renaissance area, Roman arena, art museum and the Odyssey Theatre are all within a five minute walk from each other.

There is a bus system that runs through the town and to the outlying areas as well, with stops scattered pretty evenly throughout the town.

Bicycles and motor scooters can be rented from several shops, including MBK near the Office of Tourism.

Perigueux is not large enough for an airport, but as with most cities in France, there is an SNCF station from which you can connect to and from the rest of Europe. However, there are no direct train connections with Paris. Therefore, a trip to or from the French capital requires a connection in Limoges.

Car travel is logical as well, especially if you want to tour the surrounding area at your leisure.

Périgueux is a town in the Dordogne region of southwestern France.

The town has been in existence since neolithic times, and later became an important Roman centre. The Vesunna Gallo-Roman Museum is covered by glass to protect historical ruins. The monument contains an excavated Roman house with the remains of baths and murals. In front is the Tour de Vesoné, part of a ruined Gallo-Roman temple. 

The city is known for the landmark Saint-Front Cathedral, with domes and turrets. A church was first built on the site in the 4th and 5th centuries. In 976 the Bishop Frotaire had the Abbey of Saint-Front constructed on the site of the church.. Its vaulted choir housed the tomb of Saint Front, which was sculpted, and this tomb was decorated with numerous precious stones and sculptures, notably an angel with a halo made of pieces of glass and is now kept in the Périgord Museum.

Another church very important for the religious community is the Saint Etienne-de-la-Cite church, it was the first Roman Catholic cathedral in Périgueux, in the Dordogne. Of Romanesque style, it is the subject of a classification as historic monuments by the list of 1840. Once a cathedral, you can still see parts of the earlier church on the same site.