When people visit the Dordogne, they usually head straight to the famous villages around Sarlat.
But the quiet villages in North Dordogne, in a region known as the Périgord Vert, offer a very different experience. This is a landscape of forests, river valleys, and small market towns where daily life still unfolds at a slower pace.
We live an hour north of Sarlat, in a part of the Dordogne that most visitors drive through on their way somewhere else.
The Périgord Vert, the green, forested, hilly north of the département, is where we chose to put down roots and open our home to guests.
Not because it was the most famous corner of the region, but because after looking at properties across the south-west, this is the place that felt like it could be a life rather than a postcard.
It’s also where many travellers discover some of the quietest villages in North Dordogne.
We’ve been here for four years now, hosting creative retreats and B&B guests at a 500-year-old château near Excideuil.
For travellers who want to experience everyday French life rather than simply passing through, the quiet villages of North Dordogne make an excellent base for longer stays.
Where Is North Dordogne?
North Dordogne lies in the Périgord Vert, the greener, more forested part of the Dordogne département in southwest France. East of Bordeaux and about 5 hours south of Paris.
Many of the quiet villages in North Dordogne, including Excideuil, Thiviers, and Ségur-le-Château, sit within easy driving distance of Périgueux but feel worlds away from the busier tourist routes of the Dordogne valley.
What Makes North Dordogne So Quiet and Different
The landscape sets the pace. The Périgord Vert gets its name honestly. This is deep-green country: chestnut and oak woodland, river valleys cut into limestone, meadows that stay lush well into autumn.
The terrain rolls rather than climbs, which makes it gentle walking and cycling territory.
In summer, the light filters through tree canopy along almost every road.It’s quieter than the south of the département, and that quietness is the point.
The villages here have a rhythm that hasn’t been reshaped around tourism.
Neighbours still stop to talk at the boulangerie.
The man selling walnuts at the market has been doing it for forty years.
You don’t feel like a visitor observing local life; you feel like you’ve been folded into it.
Life in the Quiet Villages of the Périgord Vert
The Périgord Vert is not a place with abundant nightlife, international restaurants, or large expat communities.
If you need those things, Périgueux (the departmental capital, about 40 minutes south) offers more.
The appeal here is a different kind of richness: the quality of the light on a September morning, the ridiculous abundance of a summer garden, the fact that you can walk for an hour along a river gorge and see no one.
It suits people who are comfortable with quiet.
It suits people who cook, who read, who paint, who walk.
It suits people who want to be in France, not in an English-speaking enclave that happens to be located in France.
You can find small “vernissages” (art show openings) by asking at the mayors’ offices, or local blogs like https://excit-oeil.over-blog.com/.
The winters are mild but grey. From November through March, many tourist-facing businesses close or reduce their hours. The markets still run, the boulangeries still open, but the social world contracts.
If you’re here for a winter month, you need to be content with your own company, or get to know your neighbours for conversation (go ahead, risk your imperfect French).
The summers, by contrast, are long and warm. The light lasts until nearly ten o’clock in June and July.
Festival programmes run from spring through early autumn across the towns and villages. There are plenty of things to do across the villages.
And because this is the Périgord Vert rather than the Périgord Noir, even at the height of August, you can still find a restaurant table without booking three days in advance.
Quiet Villages in North Dordogne Worth Visiting
Several quiet villages in North Dordogne give a true sense of life in the Périgord Vert.
Excideuil
Excideul is our nearest town and the one we know best. It’s small, built around a 12th-century château, and holds a weekly market that draws people from the surrounding farms and hamlets.
The market is modest compared to Sarlat’s, but that’s its strength: it exists to feed the people who live here, not to sell foie gras gift boxes to passing tourists.
You buy your vegetables, your cheese, your bread, and you go home and cook.
On a good morning, the stallholders remember what you bought last week. In the summer, we do get a vibrant influx of visitors and the market expands to cover the main street, in addition to the street and square that are normally full.
Thiviers
Thiviers, a short drive north, is known locally as the Gateway to the Périgord. Its Saturday market is larger, with regional cheeses, charcuterie, and, in the winter months, truffles sold with the kind of quiet seriousness that tells you exactly how much they’re worth. The Maison du Patrimoine is worth a visit for anyone interested in the history of the area.
Brantôme
Brantôme is the town that people who do know the Périgord Vert tend to mention first. It’s sometimes called the Venice of Périgord, which oversells the comparison but undersells the place itself.
The town wraps around an island in the River Dronne, with an ancient abbey (founded by Charlemagne himself) backed by limestone cliffs and cave dwellings carved into the rock, and the oldest freestanding bell tower in France.
It’s the obvious day trip, and for good reason, but it’s also the most visited town in this part of the Dordogne.
If you want to understand the Périgord Vert at its most characteristic, Excideuil and Thiviers give you a truer picture. Even better if you can hit it on quarterly brocante day, with open air market for antiques and all-sorts!
Ségur-le-Château
Ségur-le-Château is classified among the Plus Beaux Villages de France, and it earns the title without any of the self-consciousness that sometimes comes with the designation.
Medieval ruins sit above the Auvézère river, stone houses line the banks, and on a weekday afternoon you might have the whole village to yourself. It’s the kind of place that stops you mid-step.
Saint-Jean-de-Côle
Saint-Jean-de-Côle is another Plus Beaux Villages entry, though the feel is quite different: ochre-coloured houses, a Romanesque bridge, and the Château de la Marthonie overlooking a square that hasn’t changed its dimensions in centuries.
In May, the village hosts a flower festival that fills every corner. Florists compete to create glorious displays, rare orchids are on display under the old market cover by the church, and you can buy your “rosieres” (rose bushes) from trusted sellers.
©ManorandMaker
Market days as a way of life in quiet villages
If you spend any real time in the Périgord Vert, your week starts to organise itself around market days. Ours certainly does. Saturday is Thiviers. The Excideuil market runs Thursday. Périgueux, about 40 minutes south, has markets on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
This is a region where the food is intensely local and seasonal. Duck in all its forms (confit, magret, foie gras), walnuts, cèpes in autumn, truffles in winter, Cabécou goat’s cheese year-round.
The cooking traditions here are robust and unfussy. Meals are long, portions are honest, and the wine (from nearby Bergerac, usually) is meant to be drunk rather than discussed.
©elske deGroot
©elske deGroot
©elske deGroot
For anyone thinking about an extended stay, the markets become more than a place to shop. They’re where you start to recognise faces, pick up fragments of the local Occitan dialect, and develop opinions about whose strawberries are best.
That process takes a few weeks, not a few days, which is part of the argument for staying longer.
The châteaux on your doorstep
The Dordogne is famous for its châteaux, and the Périgord Vert has its share, though they attract a fraction of the visitors that the river valley fortresses do.
Château de Hautefort
Château de Hautefort has formal French gardens and a silhouette that looks more Loire Valley than Dordogne. It sits above the Auvézère valley with views in every direction.
Château de Jumilhac
Château de Jumilhac, further north, is wilder and stranger, with an elaborate fairy-tale roof-line and terraced gardens. Both are the kind of place where you can wander for an afternoon without feeling hurried along by a crowd.
Bourdeilles
Bourdeilles has both a medieval fortress and a Renaissance château above the River Dronne, and the combination of the two, one stern and one elegant, tells you a great deal about how this region changed between the 13th and 16th centuries.
And then there’s our own home, Château de Saint-Germain-des-Prés, which is roughly 500 years old and has been the centre of our life and work since we arrived. We run creative retreats and welcome B&B guests who want to use the Périgord Vert as a base for exploring the wider Dordogne. It’s not a museum or a monument; it’s a house that happens to have five centuries of stories in its walls
Getting here and getting around
The nearest airports with international connections are Bergerac (seasonal, mostly UK flights) and Bordeaux (year-round, wider European routes). Limoges, to the north-east, is another option with Ryanair services.
Trust the trains as well, the connection from Bordeaux to Perigueux (and Thiviers) is direct and runs through some gorgeous vineyards.
That said, a car is essential. Public transport in this part of the Dordogne is limited to infrequent bus services between the larger towns. The driving, at least, is a pleasure: quiet roads, no motorways, and a view around every bend that makes you glad you’re going slowly.
If you’re exploring where you might enjoy spending more time in France, the quiet villages of North Dordogne offer a gentle and authentic place to begin.
Got thoughts, questions, or just want to say hi? Leave a comment below and let’s chat!