BRANTÔME , 27km north of Périgueux on the Angoulême road and beloved of British tourists, sits in a bend of the River Dronne, whose still, water-lilied surface mirrors the limes and weeping willows of the riverside gardens. On the north bank of the river are the church and convent buildings of the ancienne abbaye that for centuries has been Brantôme's focus. Its stone facades, now masking the secular offices of the Hôtel de Ville , have that... [More]