Your French Holiday: Southwest France, The Dordogne Region

Where is the Dordogne Department ("state"/"county") in France?

What is the Dordogne?

I didn't know I was still so emotional about the Dordogne region of France. I haven't been there for about five years. But before that I was there almost every year, four times in all, for from two weeks to six weeks. The reason I didn't stay longer wasn't that I didn't want to, it was that there was so much else to see just in the southwest of France: in the Lot region south of the Dodorgne, in the Pyrenees, in the Languedoc region and in the Basque country. Let me warn you, you may get hooked on the ever-varying landscape, the many possibilities of adventure, the fascinating pre-historical archeology, and the romance of the history from the troubadors to the never-ending battles (they mostly ended in 1453) between French and the English, who owned a good part of western France for several hundred years. By the way, the Lot and the Dordogne are the names of two of the 100 administrative units called Departments into which France is divided (four are overseas departments); they are usually named after rivers or other notable elements of the geography-the Lot and the Dordogne are two rivers which flow into the Garonne River, which flows into the Atlantic).

Speaking of romance, that's one reason I'm so emotional about the southwest of France. To fall in love, to have adventures, to love and lose...it all sounds theatrically romantic, but it is the stuff of life and what creates memories that resound in your mind for the rest of your days.

The English

But never mind me, what's there to see. What's on offer, as the British, who lunge into the Dordogne every summer, would say. And, by the way, the prices for property in this particular region of France are sky-high (and worth it for investment even now) because even Englishmen have to admit they can't stand the English weather, and when they realize there actually exists a sun and it can be found in the south of France, well, they buy, build and steal homes in the Dordogne as quick as they can pull together a pot of pounds to pay for it. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife, Cherie (obviously her English parents must have been francophiles with a name like that) spend their summer vacations in their home in the Dordogne. Frankly, the Frenchmen and women I've spoken with are not too happy with all the English who have put down roots in the Dordogne and built up little retirement and vacation villages full of their peers. And frankly, the French don't really care for the ice-veined British that much and it's probably best that the deracinated northerners tend to keep to themselves and out of the way of the duck farmers and wild-boar hunters of the Dordogne. On the other hand, though the men and women of this relative hinterland won't ever become your bosom buddies, they do tend to like Americans for their openness, especially if they turn down a bit the volume of their voice and act natural instead of as if they were in a vacation comedy flick.

Ducks, ducks, ducks

I did say the magic word, "ducks didn't I? As chickens are to Americans, ducks are to the French, and particularly Frenchmen from the south of France, like the Dordogne. Oh, and geese, too. As hot dogs and hamburgers are to Americans, foie gras is to Frenchmen. What is foie gras? Literally foie is liver and gras is fat. And you know how farm geese and ducks get fat livers, don't you? No, it's not from eating McDonald hamburgers. It's from having tubes stuck down their throats into the bird's crop (a storage area in the esophagus) and grain mash forced down while their bills are held closed until the grain is stored. It's done four to five times a day for two to five weeks (depending in part on the size of the bird). This is called gavage (Wikipedia explanation). I recently heard none other than travel author Rick Steeves defending this practice, whose description usually nauseates not only animal defense people, but most others. (His defense was the usual: your treatment of animals is worse than someone else's-in this case the American practice of keeping chickens practically immobile in tight cages until time for slaughter and an after-life as McNuggets. Did I hear someone say something about "two wrongs don't make a right?")

I know I've flown from ducks to geese, but let me add one more item about the force-feeding of geese. In the Lot Department, which is south of the Dordogne Department, I stayed in the riverside (Lot river) house of an artist who repaired the art and sculpture in old churches. Nearby was a highly recommended restaurant named Imhotep. Strange, I thought, to name a restaurant after the famous architect of the Pharoahs of ancient Egypt, a man known for designing pyramids, not inventing recipes. But, according to the restaurateur and a big sign with an explanation outside the restaurant, force-feeding of fowl (including geese) was the invention of none other than architect Imhotep. I don't know whether Imhotep was responsible, but the truth is that force-feeding of fowl did originate in the Middle East and North Africa, and since Egypt is responsible for so many of the great things of Western Civilization (like the information written up by the ancient Greek historians and a lot of the basis for Plato's philosophy), I can certainly swallow (pardon the pun) this attribution of gavage to an Egyptian like Imhotep.

How to serve foie gras.

Something about Imhotep

Back to ducks. Since I'm not usually a big spender in the splendid restaurants in France, and since I tend to think I'm splurging when I get a meal at a brasserie where the locals hang out, I tend to think of French food in terms of duck. I like salads with gesiers, that is duck gizzards, the muscle that surrounds the esophagus. Unknowingly, I grew up eating chicken gesiers in Massachusetts, we called them gizzards, and I loved them-so I was all ready to love ordinary French food. The French, like the Chinese, do tend to eat a lot of the parts of an animal that Anglo-Saxons tend to throw out, like brains, tripe, tongues, and gizzards. If you put your mind to rest for a while, it is quite possible to get to like this kind of food. And eventually you can amaze your French friends by ordering tripe (fr: les tripes, plural) and tongue (fr: la langue, as in language); they'll pardon all your mispronunciations of their language if you eat their favorite foods. Check out these sites for the kind of food we're looking at.

A British view of gesiers and a recipe for a gesier salad.

Learn how to cook in the most wonderful historic town in the Dordogne

Just for fun here's a site to find all kinds of recipes.

A great site about French food with lots of links. Use your search tool to look for the Dordogne sites. Especially good if you happen to be in the U.K.

For people who become addicts of Dordogne food, here is "Dodogne Direct," especially usefull for Dordogne fans in the U.K.

A description of a French cooking holiday by someone who took the cooking course in the Dordogne.

A list and description of great restaurants in the Dordogne with lots of links to information about the area.

What's on offer?

Besides the special and tasty food of the Southwest-and my I add the fruits and vegetables are marvelously fresh and tasty, especially from the weekly markets-there is plenty to do. The French are remarkably sporty (part of the reason they are generally not obese-yet). They aren't at all like the old posters of Paris, sitting at a bar slumped over their absinthe. So being out in the countryside you can join in the games. Hang gliding? You've got it. Parachuting. River rafting. Rowing. Fishing. Hunting (check up on the permit requirements first, the French are extremely careful about who has guns and ammunition). And the quieter games: Fishing, tennis, boules (lawn bowling). And lots and lots of hiking in the most beautiful and welcoming countryside at any level of difficulty you are looking for. Though to find really challenging peaks, you'd have to go a ways south to the Pyrenees mountain range or east to the Jura and Alps ranges. And remember to bring your best camera; the Dordogne is a photographer's paradise. Castles and old villages, for example.

Fortresses and Chateaux

When you think of old, medieval France, of course it's in every corner of the realm (the Hexagon the French call it from the shape of the country), but for a less tourist-crowded (depending on when and where you go, of course, but by-and-large less crowded) and, to my mind, more romantic exploration of the past, I recommend the Dordogne.

I have never come accross a complete count of the fortresses still existing in the Dordogne. By fortress, I mean what the French call a "chateau fort," that is a palace constructed to ward off invaders and from which the residents can sally forth under a baron, duke or prince to do damage to their enemies. But I would guess there are upwards of thirty to visit and then perhaps a hundred or more "chateaux," which means everything from grand mansions to semi-fortresses. One could specialize (and there are French speciliasts, of course) in learning about and visiting these remnants of European history which span the epochs from roughly the 12th century to the 19th century.

If you want to read a time-travel novel by Michael Crichton about the days when the British and the French were jousting at each other across the Dordogne River (along with a plot of modern corporate corruption) I strongly suggest his Timeline both in its paperback and DVD appearences.

Tremendous castles to visit are the ones Crichton wrote about, Castelnaud, on the south bank of the Dordogne which faces its arch enemy the castle of Beynac, which except for ten years when it was held by Richard the Lionheart, was property of the French during the Hundred Years War. Beynac has probably has the better views of the countryside of the two castles. Inside Beynac, I remember visiting the huge dining hall of the knights (faithfully restored) and being told by the guide that one reason it had to have been so huge was that the knights kept their horses with them while they ate-in the same great room-so that if an alarm sound they could mount and be out the gates when every second counted. And the reason the staircases are so narrow was to give the advantage to the defenders who would be fighting going upward and thus they would be facing only one or a few invaders at a time.

Visiting these castles you can take advantage of both campsites and hotels as well as rooms and apartments for rent and also the famous French "gites" which are homes run (at least part of the year) as guest houses. I found that an easy way to find a last-minute apartment was to go to the Tourism Office in the ancient and worth-seeing town of Sarlat and asking the English-speaking agent there to find me one. I had a choice of about six during the highest point of the tourism season. Or, before you go, you can write for a catalogue of housing and gites from a.) the Dordogne Tourism Office or b.) Google "gites dordogne" for catalogues of Gites available for the area; there are lists and listings available both in English and in French. In this era of the high Euro gites are often a good bargain since the French government subsidizes tourist accommodations to keep people in the countryside when so many are leaving for the better economies of the cities.

Here are two links to get started exploring the tourism offices in the Dordogne. I haven't checked all to see if they offer English, but I think many do.

Aquitaine Region Dordogne Tourist Offices.html (just click on "open in new window" for each town to see pictures and places to stay-you might find a town or village you like.

This is just a beginning for the wonderful parts of Southern France in the Deparments of the Dordogn and the Lot.

Happy Travels