Perigueux is a beautiful city in France, the capital of the Perigord region. It is surrounded by major tourist destinations, which means that Perigueux still works as a real city, despite its obvious beauty.

I fell in love with it initially when studying architecture because of its powerful Romanesque cathedral, then again when I visited with my family in 1979. It was always my dream to live within its walls for a period and to wander the narrow cobbled streets, visit the markets, or sit at a bar in one of the many perfectly scaled squares. In September 2012 the dream happened, and we rented an apartment right next to the main market square, with the bells of St Front battering down our windows.

These works were all done in situ, using reed pen and sepia ink, ink wash, and pastel with acrylic medium on primed canvas. They are all A3 in size for portability (two are 2 x A3 panoramas). The locations depended pretty much on finding somewhere to sit down, so they really are a random sample of the place.

I hope they convey some of the character of this wonderful city. Click on an image then use the arrows to see the large images.