Did you know ?

THE ENGLISH IN AQUITAINE
 
According to a study carried out by the French National Office of Statistics (INSEE) in 2006, the Dordogne was the department with the second highest number of British settlers (6,300), after Paris and just ahead of the Alpes-Maritimes. Since this census, others have certainly come to retire or to work, in search of a calmer life in the beautiful villages of the department.  1 in 2 Britons living in Aquitaine chooses the Dordogne.
But does everyone know that the links between Guyenne-Gascogny (corresponding approximately to today’s Aquitaine) and the kingdom of England in the Middle Ages were very close? As a result of the marriage, in 1152, of Eleanor of Aquitaine to Henry II (Plantagenet), Count of Maine and Anjou and Duke of Normandy, who became king of England in 1154, Périgord fell under English rule.  Guyenne was to remain English for 3 centuries.
 Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II
In the 13th century, vineyards developed in response to English demand.  Back then, the wine, obtained by fermenting a mixture of black and white grape juice, was light in colour (clair) from where we get the name claret in English (perpetuated today in the wine “Bordeaux-clairet”).  1241 was a significant date for Bordeaux wine, the first year in which it was accorded privileged status by the kings of England.  Under the terms of this privilege, wines from the “haut-pays” (further inland) could not be sold in Bordeaux town square before 25th December each year.  By this date, all English needs had been met by wines produced in Bordeaux. Moreover, the king of England exonerated the citizens of Bordeaux from the need to pay tax in its trade with England.  During these three centuries of English rule, Bordeaux thus established a monopoly on the production, sale, shipping and distribution of wine to England. In 1308, 102,724 barrels were exported to England, a record which would not be matched again until 1950.
It was at this time also, under the reigns of the English kings Henry III and his son Edward I, that beautiful new bastide (fortified) towns were built, such as Monpazier, Villefranche-du-Périgord, Beaumont-du-Périgord, Libourne and Sauveterre-de-Guyenne.
From 1337, with the start of the Hundred Years’ War, the castles and towns of Périgord switched back and forth between the French and the English.  The fortress of Beynac was one of the French strongholds, whilst Castelnaud, on the other side of the river, was often in the English camp.  During the war (which lasted 116 years!), three whole generations lived in a constant climate of unrest and fighting.  In 1345, for example, Bergerac was captured by the English count of Derby.  The fortified town of Domme was captured several times by the English between 1347 and 1437, the latter year being that when the French took permanent control. We don’t know the exact date of the end of English presence in Eymet, but 1451 has gone down in history as the year of the submission of Gilbert de Pellegrue to the king of France, Charles VII, two years before the battle of Castillon.  For 116 years, Guyenne formed the front in the Anglo-French war: between two truces and two epidemics, the armed troops of the English and the French laid waste, raped, pillaged and held to ransom. From 1362 to 1372, under the reign of the Black Prince, Bordeaux became the capital of a quasi-independent state, but in the end he was forced to give up his project for a sovereign state of Guyenne.
 In 1453 the siege and battle of Castillon, to the West of Bergerac, which was occupied by the English, marked the end of the Hundred Years’ War and the return of Aquitaine to the French crown. (In 1953, its name was changed to Castillon La Bataille, to mark the 500th anniversary of the battle). Following this battle, the pro-English Bordeaux returned to the French, but was not very happy to find itself under the rule of the king of France, Charles VII.  He decided to punish the town and on the 9th October 1453 he banned trade of its wine with England, which led to a downturn it the town’s prosperity. 
From the 15th century onwards, the direct political and economic links between Aquitaine and England gradually disappeared, but the English occupation left its traces, nonetheless.  For example, some say that the “quichenotte”, a Charentaise head covering, which was elongated at the front, comes from the English “Kiss Me Not”.  Under this hypothesis, the headwear served to protect peasants from the advances of the English in the Hundred Years’ War.
With the development of the airport in Bergerac in 2003, the town, once again, became the gateway to Gascogny and the Périgord, as the English King Edward III had called it all those centuries ago, and often for the British.  Even if not everyone regards the recent influx of immigrants as a good thing (people cite, for example, the big increase in house prices), the English (as they are known here, even when native to Scotland or Wales) have often had a positive impact on the regional economy.  They form the clientele of retailers, artisans, restaurant owners, hoteliers and estate agents.  The Mayor of Issigeac, in the Bergerac area, said, in an article that appeared in L’Express in 2005 that, thanks to the British, amongst others, some villages had come back to life, bringing new activities and jobs.  “They have saved our villages from being abandoned.  Without their passion for old houses, our commune would be in ruins today”
A small survey, by no means scientific, amongst some of the British inhabitants of Simeyrols, indicates that we have all chosen to live in the Dordogne for more or less the same reasons: the beautiful countryside, the architecture, the mild climate, the warm welcome from the people, its culture and gastronomy. 
But whilst we want to benefit from all that “La Belle France” has to offer, we also wish to bring something to the life of the community in the village of Simeyrols, where we really do live “the good life”.