“I believe that this great peaceful region of France will be a sacred spot for man, and when the critics have killed off the poets this will be the refuge and the cradle of poets to come. France will someday exist no more but the Dordogne will live on just as dreams live on and nourish the souls of men.” (Henry Miller, The Colossus of Maroussi)

My favorite place in the world is just off the Dordogne near the town of Lacave, about ten miles from the great pilgrimage site of Rocamador, but that is another story. Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne is a beautiful quiet town at the edge of the Lot and the Corrèze that features an almost intact medieval center dominated by the Église Saint Pierre. This church has one of the great tympana in France and features a Vierge Romane which some consider a Black Madonna. How a…