Part 6— Find Your France

Nouvelle-Aquitaine

Discover the highlands of the Limousin, the riches of Dordogne and Bordeaux, world capital of wine and gastronomy.

Continued from Part 5 — Borgogne-Franche-Comte — gastronomic heartland of France and previously the territory of the Dukes of Burgundy .

In Find Your France I share my experience of 22 years renovating a Renaissance castle south of Carcassonne, south-west France, and discovering the regions of fellow chateaunauts from the British television programme Escape to the Château DIY.

My hindsight will inform and entertain those who have done it, are thinking about doing it and the simply curious, as we continue our romp through 17 châteaux in rural France and their regions. Read on…

Nouvelle-Aquitaine

Nouvelle-Aquitaine is the largest region in France, with 13 departments. It begins just south of the Loire Valley with the Limousin which was, until the most recent region reshuffle in 2016, a region of its own. The Limousin climbs into the north-west of the Massif Central, an inland highland area of over 111,800 square miles (289,560 square km). In the Limousin, we find Fiona at Château du Masgelier in the Creuse, while in the Haute-Vienne, we find Patrick and Colette’s Château de Ribagnac.

The coastline of Nouvelle-Aquitaine is famous for its oysters, surfing and wildlife. The richly irrigated north-west of this region, the Charente, has a wine tradition that was…