Scenic views of rural heartland rich in history, food and wine

Martin Hesp samples culture and produce in the hills and valleys of south-central France

- Martin Hesp

down the Dordogne

Imagine a vast area that boasts all the best bits of the Westcountry and very few of our less scenic zones. A place of forested hills and deep river valleys which combine to provide a rural heartland that seems to stretch on-and-on. A region so rich in history, there seems to be a castle on every knoll and evidence of prehistoric humankind somewhere near every cliff and cave.

Okay, so the Dordogne, which lies hundreds of miles south of the English Channel, does not have our dramatic coastlines but it does have some of the best food in the world as well as a warmer, drier, climate.

What's not to like? Thousands of Brits have asked exactly that question and have moved down to this part of south-central France. I know several people and not one of them has regretted the move. The latest figures show that somewhere around 40,000 Brits live in the larger Nouvelle-Aquitaine area, which includes the Dordogne.

I'm not suggesting anyone packs their bags forever, despite the cheap properties, the good wine, the amazing food and so on. But, having enjoyed a recent tour around the Dordogne, I am more than happy to recommend it as a perfect venue for a holiday. I say that even though it was the end of October and the weather wasn't exactly clement all the time. The lunches and dinners alone were worth the trip.

But if you asked me to name what I loved most about this extraordinary part of France, I'd say it was the magic and excitement of being in such a vast and unspoilt rural paradise. That sense of a forested, undulating, landscape stretching on-and-on - somehow reminds me of a world I never knew, but wanted to know very much. By which I mean a more ancient England. An agrarian land, interlaced by thousands of tiny byways that seem to weave and wind their way into leafy infinity.