SPECIAL REPRINT EDITION! The Southwest of France is a key destination for long leisurely stays or weekend breaks. Delia Gray-Durant, an art historian who has lived and worked in the region, knows this landscape of contrasts intimately. Its artistic,architectural and historic inheritance is equally wide-ranging: caves decorated by prehistoric man; superb Romanesque pilgrimage churches and forbidding Gothic ones; grand 18th-century and cityscapes; eclectic seaside architecture; and rich art collections. Mountains, rivers, rolling hills, pine forests, and the Atlantic coast have determined the spectacular range of food and drink on offer.