Bergerac Christmas Market

On the banks of the Dordogne, between the half-timbered houses of the old town and the statues of Cyrano standing on Place Pélissière, the Bergerac Christmas market gathers around thirty chalets on Place Gambetta and in the historic centre. The illumination of the Church of Saint-Jacques sets the tone from opening day, its lights dressing the bell tower and reflecting off the honey-coloured stone façades. Craftspeople, ice sculptors, horse-drawn carriages and fire shows fill these few weeks of December, in a town that lives on foie gras, truffles and Monbazillac wine. People come to hunt for a gift, taste a glass of sweet wine and leave with something for the festive table.

The chalets on Place Gambetta and in old Bergerac

The village is organised around Place Gambetta, the town's shopping hub, with extensions on Place Louis de la Bardonnie and at Dordonha. Around thirty wooden chalets house artisans, designers and Périgord producers, which makes for a market on the scale of a medium-sized town, pleasant to browse at your own pace. Father Christmas has his house on Place Gambetta for photos and gift lists, while on some December weekends ice sculptors carve their blocks with chainsaws in front of passers-by.

Bergerac's setting does a lot for the atmosphere. The medieval and Renaissance old town stretches its cobbled lanes, half-timbered houses and mansions down to the river, where the gabares (the traditional boats that once carried wine down to Bordeaux) recall the town's river-trade past. On Place Pélissière, the statue of Cyrano de Bergerac stands in the middle of the little square, a nod to Edmond Rostand's hero who made the town famous far beyond its borders. A second, larger statue of the character stands a little further on, near the Church of Notre-Dame. In the evening, the illumination of the Church of Saint-Jacques turns this central landmark into a festive picture, a moment families look forward to every year.

Treats at the Bergerac Christmas market: Périgord on your plate

It is hard to talk about Bergerac without mentioning Périgord cooking, which fills a good share of the food stalls. Foie gras, whole or mi-cuit, takes pride of place on producers' stands, often paired with a glass of Monbazillac, the golden sweet wine that is the pride of the local vineyards. Black Périgord truffle, when the season is good, flavours terrines and scrambled eggs, and Périgord walnuts come as oil, cake and sweets. On the savoury side, dried ceps and tinned duck easily fill a festive basket. Winegrowers from the Bergerac and Pécharmant appellations offer their age-worthy reds for festive meals, to taste by the glass as you make your way round the chalets. If you want to carry on once you are home, a good spiced mulled wine recipe keeps the house warm while the sweet wine waits for dessert.

• Périgord foie gras, whole or mi-cuit, served on toast with a drop of Monbazillac at the producers' stand.
• Monbazillac, the golden sweet wine that goes with foie gras as well as dessert, a bottle to bring home for the Christmas table.
• Black truffle and ceps, when the season allows, to flavour festive dishes.
• Périgord walnuts in all their forms: oil, walnut cake and sweets to nibble.
• Macarons de Bergerac, small almond treats whose recipe goes back several centuries.

Opening hours, events and getting there: practical info

Entry to the market is free, and you only pay for what you eat, drink or take home. The 2025 edition ran from 3 to 28 December, with chalets open from 12pm, and from 10am on Wednesdays and Saturdays, until 8.30pm on the busiest days, and closed on 25 December. For winter 2026, dates are still to be confirmed by the town and the tourist office, which publish the programme in the autumn. The switching-on of the lights, with a fire show in front of the Church of Notre-Dame, traditionally opens the season in early December.

There is plenty to fill the days: pony rides on Place du Docteur Cayla, carriage rides around the Church of Notre-Dame, ice sculptures, parades of fire jugglers and giant puppets, concerts and creative workshops for children. Music-heritage lovers can also join tours of the organ in the Church of Notre-Dame, opened on some afternoons by the friends of the organ association.

By train, Bergerac station is about ten minutes' walk from the old centre, and the line reaches Bordeaux in just over an hour. By car, several car parks ring the town centre, but spaces fill up fast on December weekends: arrive early or aim for late afternoon, when the lights come on across the façades. The old centre is pedestrian and easy to walk round, although the cobbles call for a little care with a pushchair. Allow one to two hours to go round the chalets, more if you add a meal and a walk along the Dordogne.

Bergerac's heritage, a short walk from the chalets

Bergerac is worth exploring well beyond the chalets, and the medieval and Renaissance old centre is made for a slow stroll between two visits to the market. Place Pélissière, a former fish market square restored in the 1980s, gathers its half-timbered houses around the statue of Cyrano and the Church of Saint-Jacques, once a stop on the Way of St James. A little further, Place du Feu is home to Maison Peyrarède, a 17th-century mansion housing the Tobacco Museum, one of the few of its kind in France, where you follow the history of a crop that long supported the valley. The lanes then run down to the old port and the Dordogne, where flat-bottomed gabares (which once carried wine and timber down to Bordeaux) are back in service for guided trips: a view of the town, its tiled roofs and its stone bridge that you can enjoy even in the short December light.

The great local figure is still Cyrano, the witty, big-nosed musketeer immortalised by Edmond Rostand in 1897. The town has adopted him as its emblem, going as far as putting up two statues, and his name echoes through the shops and posters of the old town. Around them, Place de la Myrpe and its half-timbering, the Récollets convent and the honey-stone mansions form a compact old centre, pleasant on foot, where you go from the market to the historic lanes in a few minutes.

The Bergerac vineyards: Monbazillac, Pécharmant and the Maison des Vins

Bergerac gives its name to a wine region of nearly 12,000 hectares, thirteen appellations and several hundred winegrowers spread across both banks of the Dordogne. The Maison des Vins, housed in the Récollets cloister (a 17th-century monastic building facing the river), is the gateway to understanding these terroirs: you taste by the glass, pick out estates to visit and leave with a few bottles for the holidays. It is the obvious warm stop when the cold bites between two rounds of the chalets.

Two appellations stand out. Monbazillac, the golden sweet white made from botrytised grapes on the slopes south of town, goes as well with foie gras as a starter as with dessert, and its Renaissance château opens its cellars for tastings a few minutes' drive away. Pécharmant, at the other end of the scale, produces deep, tannic reds for ageing, grown on gravelly terraces north-east of Bergerac and made for hearty winter stews. In between, dry Bergerac whites, rosés and Côtes de Bergerac reds complete a wide range that you will find on the market stands and at wine shops in the centre.

If you stay longer, the wine route winds between the châteaux and hilltop villages of the area, making Bergerac a good base for exploring the Périgord. The Sarlat Christmas market and its medieval lanes are less than an hour away, while the Périgueux Christmas market rounds off a trip through the Périgord. Further west, the Bordeaux Christmas market and its big village on the Allées de Tourny offer a change of scale for a weekend.