Whenever I travel to the French south-west, I feel I'm going home. For someone born in Lancashire, this is unexpected. It perhaps dates back to the Hundred Years War and an unsavoury encounter between a warrior from Preston and a wench from Bergerac. Or maybe the region is simply any European's idealised homeland. Who wouldn't want to have roots in this mellow landscape of old-fashioned farming, long meaty meals and arcaded village squares where, if you leave your car unlocked, it will likely be untouched come morning?

So, yes, you should go. But where exactly? The region covers a substantial slab of France. Its essences are, though, perhaps best distilled in the Dordogne and, farther south,...