History of village of Saint Cyprien:
The attractive village of St Cyprien is full of history: witness the narrow streets winding up to the 12th-century belltower-keep, part of the abbey church with its famed (and officially listed) organ-chest.
The town's history is tied into that of the abbey. Around 620 AD, a hermit named Cyprien settled in a cave that overlooked the Dordogne valley. Others gathered around him and a monastic community grew up. Barbarian invasions in the mid-9th century made the monks build defensive ramparts, of which the belltower-keep survives.
In 1076 the monastery, now an Augustine body, was doing so well that Bertrand de Got, archbishop of Bordeaux and later Pope Clement V, took it under his wing.
In the Hundred Years' War, St Cyprien suffered from its exposed border position between Eleanor's Aquitaine and the Kingdom of France.
The house:
It is prominently positioned in the place d'oies, historically a market square used for selling geese the hanging hooks are still in the stonework of the house. Pictures of the house are used in the tourist information brochure and many other advertisements for the area. While you stay here you will get used to the amount of times photographs are taken of the property.
Other Activities:
Canoeing, hot air ballooning, rock climbing, light aircraft aerodrome, chateaux visits.