Issigeac, Aquitaine 24560

In the Purple Périgord, 20 minutes from Bergerac, in a medieval village, a 14th-century fortress house and its garden. At a bend in a cobbled alley that winds through the medieval heart of Issigeac, the residence rises behind high stone walls where time has laid its ochre and gray patina. The main façade, built with the blonde limestone typical of Périgord, rises three stories under a flat-tiled roof. The original medieval walls, of imposing thickness, display an irregular masonry characteristic of 14th-century constructions. The bays, sparingly distributed according to the defensive practices of the era, pierce the facade with deep embrasures. On the ground floor, a wooden door painted in a washed-out celadon green, framed by carefully ashlar-ed stonework, marks the main entrance. Above, small-paned windows, set in their old frames, rhythm the façade. A dormer with a ridge roof emerges from the attic. A wrought-iron streetlamp stands just in front of the house.