Day 5: Périgueux

Today was our first full day in Périgueux, Wary took us for a tour of the town. It is very beautiful here, there are lots of narrow streets, and beautiful old buildlings.

This round-roofed building is a post office in Périgueux. We find it very impressive here that such beautiful buildings are regular places like post offices, libraries, and schools.

Post office

This style of house was common in the Middle Ages.

We went into the large cathedral in Périgueux, Cathédrale Saint-Front. It has a very impressive wooden carving at the front of the church, and beautiful stained glass windows along the walls.

There are also several ruins that we visited in the city. This is l'Église Saint-Étienne-de-la-Cité, the first catholic cathedral in Périgueux. The construction for it finished in the 12th century.

These ruins are from the château Barrière, a "small" property built on top of Roman Gaul ruins in the 13th century.

Near the center of the city is a park called Jardin des Arènes, which is in the middle of what used to be the roman amphitheater in the 1st century. The amphitheater was destroyed in the Middle Ages but all around the outside of the park you can see these archways, which used to be the entrances. Unfortunately the park is closed temporarily so we didn't get to go in.

In the 1853 century, neighbourhoods in Paris underwent a big redesign and renovation led by Georges-Eugène Haussmann which gave it the distinctive look it's known for today. As a result, lots of other towns and cities in France copied this look to some extent and many (including Périgueux) have Haussmann-style streets like the one below.

We finished the day with another delicious meal with our friends :)