Local people making their corner of rural Britain unique
This week
Saturday31st May
Repeated Thursday5th June
Elinor Goodman takes a trip to the Dordogne region in France
Elinor Goodman visits Eymet in the Dordogne to find out why so many British people have decided to make this part of rural France, their home.
The layout of Eymet is typical of bastide towns in the South-west region. These towns were the “new towns” of the Middle Ages and were constructed during the second half of the 13th century. Generally the ramparts of a bastide town were built more to discourage bandits than to resist the assaults of organised armies.
For the last 25 years though, Eymet has been under an invasion of sorts –from British ex-pats. Of its 2,600 residents about a third were born in the UK and on the face of it, the Brits have been welcomed with open arms. Local shops stock Marmite, baked beans and cheddar cheese, and here it seems, non-french speaking residents can live without learning or uttering a word of the language.
Often compared with Devon and the Cotswolds, Elinor asks whether Eymet and ‘Dordogneshire’ is a half-way house for Brits wanting to experience life-abroad.
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