Bergerac sits on the banks of the Dordogne river and is the second largest town in the département, though it feels far smaller than that suggests. Its name is forever linked with Cyrano de Bergerac — who was in fact a Parisian, not a Gascon — but the town has its own real charms.
The old quarter is compact and handsome, with half-timbered houses leaning over narrow lanes. The Musée du Tabac, housed in the Maison Peyrarède (a fine Renaissance building associated with Henri IV), traces the cultural history of tobacco from pre-Columbian America to the present — an oddly compelling collection. The Musée du Vin, de la Batellerie et de la Tonnellerie, nearby, covers the river transport that once made Bergerac a major port on the trade route between the Auvergne and Bordeaux.
The surrounding wine country produces Bergerac and Monbazillac appellations, which are excellent and significantly cheaper than their Bordeaux neighbours across the river. The Wednesday and Saturday markets on the Place de la Myrpe are lively and well stocked, and the Maison des Vins in the old Récollets cloister is the best single place in town to taste your way around the local appellations.