SARLAT, FRANCE

When I had a chat with Lisa, a French colleague, she said I have to visit Perigord because it is the place with the best duck and goose (edible) products, aka foie gras and duck dishes. I love a good duck dish. I've only had foie gras once in my life and I enjoyed it, I knew had to have it again in France and what better place to have it than one of the largest producers in the world of this luxurious cuisine?

Perigord is one of the many large regions in France. Sarlat is a capital, medieval town of Perigord Noir, one part of Perigord out of 3 others. We decided to come here because it's along the journey we were planning.

The drive to Sarlat was to be honest, one of the worst ones. The town is located somewhat uphill, and Ee Von + uphill drive = faints. It also didn't help that it was 7 freaking hours drive from Loire Valley where we were. Poor driver/husband haha.

Thank goodness we picked a good accommodation. So gorgeous! I'm not very good with interior design description so I shall let the pictures do the talking.

I found this while googling for accommodation in Sarlat and saw a blogger mention this place. It looked so lovely and it's got a really good rating in Tripadvisor as well. It's basically BnB type of accommodation. The host is an English man (sorry I forgot his name!) who was really nice, he helped us with navigating around the town and gave us suggestions on what to see and where to eat.

The room was so spacious and comfortable. The bathroom though, a little strange. The floor's carpeted and there weren't shower curtains? We had to shower seated in the bathtub to avoid wetting the carpet. Not like we should care whether or not the carpet's wet but I feel a little icky stepping on wet floors, but that's just me.

In general, highly recommended!

Les Cordeliers

51 rue des Cordeliers

24200 Sarlat-la-Caneda France

+33(0)553319466, +33(0)676780401

info@hotelsarlat.com

The town itself was beautiful. The buildings/houses were mainly built in pale ochre stones. We were lucky enough to be there on the day the market was on! It was pretty quiet as it's still winter so there wasn't much of a buzz, however it was a great way to see what the town was about and what the local produces were.

Strolling through the city hall square, the market and the streets, the one thing which became apparent to us was that every 3-5 shops, one will be selling foie gras. The market's local farmers were selling their own foie gras and other duck and goose products. There was also truffle (and all sorts of its products under the sun), walnuts (walnut oil, walnut cake, walnut pastry) and some cheese.

I can't remember the name of this church we went into...

If my French is usable I think that sign means white goose.

Foie Gras everywhere!

For lunch, we went to this brasserie our host recommended. Ok he didn't actually recommend but he said if he feels like having a meal this is where he would usually go to. I actually don't even remember the name, probably because food was so-so.

I had the magret de canard (duck breast) of course, served with salad and frites (chips). I was prepared to be blown away by the duck but sadly it was a little dry. I've learned that in France, you'll be asked how you would like your duck done, like steak. I was surprised when I was asked because I've had duck breasts before in Melbourne and I've never been asked that question. I always thought the only/acceptable way to have it is pink.

Anyway I said medium rare thinking that's the universal magic word in the steak world assuming it applies to duck as well. Of course it didn't turn out great for me.

After having duck another time somewhere else in France, I've learned that the right word for it is 'rare', if you want it pink. Pictures will come in a future post.

One thing I did notice with the duck was it tasted very meaty, like steak without that beefy taste! I think people who don't like to eat steak because they don't like the beefy taste, will enjoy duck breast more.

Wk had the cassoulet, a slow cooked dish consisting sausage, confit de canard (preserved duck leg), pork skin and beans. His type of thing, not mine.

Lol this picture. This guy sells dried prunes, apricots and I think the other tray was persimmons. He was really nice, kept offering me to try and he spoke English and was really friendly. So I bought some dried prunes from him haha. But the prunes were delicious anyway to be fair.

These are saucisson, French dry-cured sausage. They're delicious!

This is the inside of what used to be the Sainte Marie church. It now serves as a venue for a covered market. The gigantic steel doors were built not too long ago as part of restoration efforts.

We bought some foie gras from this shop and here's the lady closing the shop during lunch hour. In France mainly in smaller towns, during lunch hour, the town is dead for 2 hours. Especially being winter, you don't even see people sitting outside under the sun to have their meals. Restaurants will be the only shops opened for business in that 2 hours where everything else shuts.

And this lady who we bought our foie gras from was so nice! Generally everyone in this town that we spoke to were really nice :D Anyway, we weren't sure what type of foie gras to get because since they're all labeled in French, we had no idea what the differences were. She very patiently educated us on what is what. It also helped that it was quiet and we were the only customers in the small shop. I guess that's one of the advantages of traveling in the winter.

I was trying to write about what we've learned about foie gras from our very brief experience with the French lady in the shop but I found this article which explains it so much better! Although it does not mention what they are called in French so for non-French people, this is what you would typically see in labels:

Foie Gras de canard = Duck foie gras

Foie Gras d'oie = Goose foie gras

And to make it short and simple;

Entier = The entire liver, more expensive

Bloc = Imperfect bits and pieces of the liver processed together, less expensive

When she tried to explain entier and bloc to Wk, she took out a piece of A4 paper and tore bits and pieces off the corners and edges. With the remaining center, large piece of the A4, she explained that's entier. Then she gathered the torn bits and pieces of A4 together and explained that's bloc. What a clever way to explain! We got it right away.

And here is our beautiful accommodation. It's the building in the middle with blue windows, not the one with red underneath it. The building beside it with 2 chimneys. Our room was literally the entire first floor!

For our meals, I depended heavily on Tripadvisor. It's really easy to use because you can search for top rated restaurants by the region and even smaller towns. This one here had some really good ratings so we thought we'd give it a try. I was expecting to give Perigord's duck another chance to redeem itself but when we entered the shop, I knew the chance was gone.

They serve nothing but ham and cheese! Look at all the ham hocks hanging above us. I assume that's the owner behind me slicing the ham for service.

Ok not literally nothing unless you consider salad and potatoes a part of something wtf.

We were so surprised that in the midst of foie gras and duck breasts that seems to be what the town is made of, there's this tiny little restaurant which specializes in ham and cheese. I don't even know where this sort of cuisine originate from. It's a little bit like fondue, but not really.

Menu was of course in French but the nice lazy who served us very kindly explained everything to us, although we had absolutely no idea what to expect until our dishes arrived.

When she plated the dish in front of me she looked at me and said "I hope you are not on a diet?"

LOL.

Look at how thin the hams were shaved, like pieces of pink rags on a plate with a blob of cheese lol. The ham was pretty much the same for all of their dishes, only difference is the cheese they serve with. I can't remember what we ordered but I think mine was some melted Swiss cheese and potatoes, and Wk was a different type of cheese with some alcohol added into it and baked in a ramekin, and his came with salad.

Verdict: DELICIOUS. There's something about the combination that's so satisfying in that cold winter night.

It may be a biased verdict because I love cheese, but it's some seriously good ham and cheese! The portion though was so massive I could barely finish it. I looked around and everyone (we may be the only Asian tourists there) seems to have no problem finishing their dishes, have a glass of wine or two and a dessert. Wtf do they have a blackhole in their stomach or what?

Anyway, I would recommend this place! Bookings are necessary. We walked in without a booking and was so lucky to have gotten a table.

Chez le Gaulois
9 rue de Tourny
24200 Sarlat-la-Caneda
05 53 59 50 64

The next morning before continuing our journey to the next region we took a stroll and did some last minute shopping