Argentat-sur-Dordogne

Why visit?

Argentat-sur-Dordogne was the capital of the ‘gabariers’ (traditional boatmen) in the 18th and 19th centuries and evidence of those past days can still be found in the city and its surroundings.

Who’s concerned?

Heritage and landscape lovers, families, water sports addicts

Time needed at least

Half a day

Why visit?

Argentat-sur-Dordogne was the capital of the ‘gabariers’ (traditional boatmen) in the 18th and 19th centuries and evidence of those past days can still be found in the city and its surroundings.

Who’s concerned?

Heritage and landscape lovers, families, water sports addicts

Time needed at least

Half a day

The little town of Argentat-sur-Dordogne is in an idyllic setting on the Dordogne River where the river forms a wider flood plain than in its higher reaches. Its name comes fittingly from the Celtic Argentoratum which means ‘passage of the river’.

There were Iron Age settlements nearby but the town of Argentat really appeared ‘on the map’ in the 10th century when it was recorded as a walled town centered around a priory.

Argentat-sur-Dordogne, capital of the ‘gabariers’

Traditional gabare or courpet floating on the Dordogne River near Argentat in Dordogne Valley in France

© Malika Turin

The heyday of Argentat-sur-Dordogne was in the 18th and 19th centuries when river trade developed.
Wood for stakes in the vineyards and wine barrels were transported to the Bordeaux area in flat-bottomed boats locally called ‘courpet’ and further down the river ‘gabares’.

Though boats have been replaced by trains and trucks for commercial transport, the city of Argentat-sur-Dordogne is still closely linked to the river. Every year in summer, people from the area and beyond gather to celebrate those past days during the ‘Tous sur le Pont’ festival. For two days, visitors can enjoy concerts, boat races and standup paddle lessons amongst other activities organised next to and on the river.

As evidence of the town’s former wealth, a ‘courpet’ replica can be seen tied up at one of the quaysides. In the city, the elegant buildings with stone slab ‘lauze’ or slate roofs and turrets and wooden balconies along the quayside stand testimony to those past days.

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