La Citadelle

Ste Foy-La-Grande

This busy market town on the Dordogne is actually in the Gironde departement, so you won't find it in guidebooks on the Dordogne. However, it straddles the river, the Dordogne half being called "Port-Ste-Foye", and it has our biggest local shops and nearest main-line railway station.

	Despite being missed by most guidebooks, Ste Foy is a lovely small town, nestling on the banks of the Dordogne, below the wooded hills to the north of the plains which produce the Bergerac wines.
	Ste Foy was built as a "bastide", a fortified town, by the English in the 11th Century, and its notable architecture spans the ages from that time right through to the early 20th Century dignity of its railway station, with trains to Bordeaux and Paris, set among pollarded lime trees (don't park under them - your car will get sticky).
	Ste Foy is also a useful town. Porte-Ste_Foy has several hypermarkets and supermarkets, while the old town with its relaxing walks on the banks of the river has several excellent and inexpensive restaurants; most of these are clustered around the colonnaded central square which is a feature of bastide towns and villages.
	As well as a good selection of shops and banks, it also has a number of real estate agents, some of which are British-run.
	Apart from its appearance and utility, one of the outstanding things about Ste Foy is its important Saturday market. This fills all the streets of the town centre, with stalls selling everything from fruit and flowers, antiques, through to mobile phones! French country markets are a very important part of the local economy, and are mostly not intended mainly for tourists.

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