Guide Perigord_version anglaise

©Titia Carrizey-Jasick ©Titia Carrizey-Jasick

“I was born here in 1922, in this very street which has changed names many times over the years, today rue Jacques-Manchotte. My mother owned the village jewellery shop and though my profession took me to Bordeaux and Bergerac, I came back to Belvès regularly. I retired here permanently to create this little museum H  , dedicated to Hurdy-Gurdy replicas that I build.The most ancient model is a reproduction based on medieval engravings. Back in the eighties, tourists would tell me that they had found the village ‘by chance’, so in 1990, I wrote a history of Belvès called The Pope’s Town, a second and third edition of the guide have since been published.” “My mother owned a jewellery shop” Georges Rebière, creator of the “Black Périgord Organistrumand Hurdy-GurdyMuseum’’

©Titia Carrizey-Jasick

A LITTLE BACKGROUND

Underground caves right beneath the village center? This is the only such example in the Périgord region. A guided tour of Belvès’s troglodytic dwellings F  , gives an insight of the villagers’ living conditions from the XIIIth to the XVIIIth centuries. A tour of the eight chambers takes 45 minutes. The Hôtel de Commarque G  , is also worth a visit. The owners of this XVIth century castle have recently uncovered and restored a significant series of mural paintings including a scene depicting the history of Belvès in 1470 and the “Nine Worthies” in the attic. Treasure at the Heart of the Village

A herdsman in search of a missing cow once came upon a stone statue of the Virgin Mary in the bushes, near a stream.The clergy of Belvès brought the statue back in procession, to the priory's church of Notre-Dame.The next day, the statue had disappeared from the altar… It was later found back in the very same bush where it had been originally found.A chapel was then built on the site and given the Occitan name“Capelou”. Every year since, for over 800 years, a huge pilgrimage draws thousands of pilgrims to Our Lady of Capelou I  . TheMystery of the Statue

© Jean-Marc Barrère

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24+1 VILLAGES OF PÉRIGORD