Читать книгу Walking in the Dordogne. 35 walking routes in the Dordogne - Sarlat, Bergerac, Lalinde and Souillac онлайн

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Renaissance façade of the Maison de la Boétie, Sarlat

While other parts of France experienced economic growth with the coming of the industrial revolution in the following century, the Dordogne remained a backwater, with no coal or mineral resources to exploit. Only Bordeaux and the towns along the river continued to prosper, the large gabarres transporting a variety of goods to the coast and onwards to Western Europe and the colonies. The opening of the Canal latéral linking the Garonne with the Canal du Midi in 1852 meant that boats could get from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, although the river was used less and less for transporting goods once the railways arrived.

Rural areas became increasingly poor, and the farmers were badly hit in the 1870s when the deadly phylloxera beetle wiped out many of the extensive vineyards around Bergerac. Although some were gradually re-established, many farmers turned to tobacco-growing or sheep-rearing. But it was World War I that changed the rhythm of rural life irrevocably as thousands of young men left to perish in the north of France. This exodus continued during the Depression of the 1930s, and the population was further depleted by World War II. When the Germans occupied the whole of France and the Resistance Movement was formed, the isolated areas of the Dordogne afforded safe bases for its fighters, although there were savage reprisals, as everywhere in France, with many villages destroyed and their inhabitants killed.