Food and wine of the Périgord

The Périgord on a plate

Much of Périgord cooking began on the farm, and the cookery writer La Mazille brought it to a wider audience with La Bonne Cuisine du Périgord in 1929. Dordogne Experience is a family business, owned and run by Cassie, creating walking and cycling holidays in the Dordogne for over 40 years. Many of our hotels are small, family-run places with a good dinner, so this guide covers what you will meet at the table and how to eat well on the trail.

Signature dishes

Duck: confit, magret and foie gras

Confit de canard began as a way for farmers to preserve duck or goose: the legs are cooked slowly in their own fat for about three hours, then stored in it. It is often served with pommes sarladaises or cèpes.

Magret is the breast of a duck raised for foie gras. It became popular in the early 1970s and is usually simply grilled. You will also see gésiers (gizzards, often in salads) and cou farci, a stuffed duck neck.

Foie gras is the liver of ducks or geese fattened on maize, served cold as a terrine or mi-cuit, or pan-fried. Duck foie gras from the Périgord can carry an IGP label, which guarantees the birds were raised on a Périgord farm and prepared in the Périgord. If you would rather not eat it, there is almost always another choice.

Pommes de terre sarladaises

Named after Sarlat, these are thinly sliced raw potatoes cooked in goose or duck fat with garlic and parsley. They come with most regional main courses, especially confit and magret. Some restaurants add slices of truffle, though Saveur notes that truffle is not traditional to the dish.

Tourin and “faire chabrol”

Tourin (also spelled tourain) is the Périgord’s garlic soup, made with garlic, often onion, and goose fat or lard, thickened with egg and poured over slices of bread. It is traditionally served to newlyweds.

When you reach the last few spoonfuls, a Périgord custom is to faire chabrol (or chabrot): pour a splash of red wine into the bowl and drink the mixture straight from it. Today it is seen as an old country custom, though some people still do it for fun.

Enchaud and mique

Enchaud is a loin of pork cooked slowly with garlic in goose fat, a pork version of confit. It is most often eaten cold, in slices.

Mique is a large dumpling made from bread or flour, eggs and sometimes bacon, cooked in a broth of vegetables and meat. Older versions used maize flour. Leftovers are good fried in butter.

Truffles and cèpes on the plate

The simplest way to taste the black truffle is in an omelette aux truffes or scrambled eggs. Locals store a truffle with fresh eggs so they absorb its scent.

Sauce Périgueux, named after the Périgord’s capital, is a rich sauce of Madeira and chopped truffle, served with beef fillet, eggs or poultry, and classically with tournedos Rossini.

Cèpes (porcini) grow in oak and chestnut woods in summer and mostly in autumn. They are often pan-fried à la persillade, with garlic and parsley, in duck fat, or made into an omelette, soup or tart. Fresh cèpes appear from early September until about All Saints’ Day (1 November).

Salade périgourdine

The Périgord’s big salad is a meal in itself: green leaves with confit gizzards, slices of dried or smoked magret, walnuts and croutons, dressed with walnut oil and vinegar.

Walnut cake, walnut tart and flaugnarde

Gâteau aux noix is made with finely ground walnut kernels, sometimes flavoured with rum or vanilla. Tarte aux noix, a walnut tart, is just as common. Flaugnarde is a baked batter pudding from the Périgord and Limousin, related to clafoutis, made with eggs, flour, sugar and milk and pieces of apple, pear or plum.

Dishes to look for on a menu

Ingredients and labels

The black truffle

The Périgord black truffle, Tuber melanosporum, is known locally as the “black diamond”. It grows under truffle oaks, is found by trained dogs, and is a winter product: the season runs from about December to February, sometimes into March.

The famous truffle markets are all in winter. Sarlat sells truffles on Saturday mornings in season and holds its Fête de la Truffe in mid-January. Sainte-Alvère holds a controlled market on Monday mornings from late November to late February, where every truffle is inspected and graded. In the Lot, Lalbenque holds a wholesale truffle market on Tuesday afternoons in winter, listed as a Site Remarquable du Goût.

Our holidays run from April to October, so you will not see the winter markets. You may, however, meet the summer truffle, Tuber aestivum or Saint-Jean truffle: black outside, pale inside, milder, harvested from about May to September and eaten raw. Sainte-Alvère holds a summer truffle market from mid-June to mid-July, and Limogne-en-Quercy in the Lot has one on Sunday mornings from mid-June to mid-August.

In Sarlat, the Truffle Museum (Musée de la Truffe) at 9 Rue des Consuls is set in a building listed as a historic monument, with an immersive visit, workshops and tastings. It is included on Premium Périgord. Some truffle growers also open their truffières for guided visits.

Noix du Périgord

The walnuts of the Périgord have been protected since 2002, first as an AOC and since 2004 as an AOP, and walnut oil from the Périgord has had its own AOP since 2021. The walnut AOP covers 612 communes, mainly in the Dordogne, Lot, Corrèze and Charente, and four varieties: Franquette, Marbot, Grandjean and Corne.

The harvest runs from mid-September to the end of October, so an autumn holiday brings fresh walnuts. Walnut oil, pressed hot or cold, has a strong, toasty flavour and is used to dress salads.

Rocamadour and cabécou

Rocamadour is a small, flat disc of raw goats’ milk cheese, weighing about 35 g and roughly 6 cm across. It has been protected since 1996. It is made mainly in the Lot and named after the town of Rocamadour. Try it at room temperature, or warm on toast or in a salad.

Cabécou is the general name for these small, soft goats’ cheeses, usually under 40 g. Locals suggest a glass of Bergerac or Domme wine with it.

Strawberries, chestnuts, lamb and saffron

• Fraise du Périgord IGP. Périgord strawberries have had an IGP since 2004. They are picked from April to October, in varieties such as Gariguette, Mara des Bois and Charlotte, and Vergt, south of Périgueux, holds a strawberry festival in May.
• Chestnuts. Grown mainly in the Périgord Vert and the south of the Périgord Noir, and used for flour, cakes, cream and a chestnut liqueur.
• Agneau du Quercy IGP. Farm lamb from the Causse du Lot breed, raised in the Lot and neighbouring areas, including around Sarlat.
• Saffron. Grown in the Quercy and, on a small scale, in the Dordogne. It takes 150 to 200 hand-picked flowers to make about a gram.

Wines

Bergerac and its neighbours

The Bergerac vineyards lie along the Dordogne in the south-west of the department, around the town of Bergerac, in the Périgord Pourpre. The Pays de Bergerac tourist office counts 10 AOPs covering 17 wines: reds, rosés, dry whites, sweet whites and dessert wines.

Names to look for:

• Pécharmant: a red from near Bergerac that rewards some ageing.
• Monbazillac: the famous sweet white, from the left bank of the Dordogne directly across from Bergerac, an AOC since 1936. It is made only from grapes touched by noble rot, and the 16th-century Château de Monbazillac stands among the vines.
• Saussignac: a dessert wine from late-picked, very ripe grapes.
• Rosette: the smallest appellation, making sweet whites.
• Montravel: dry whites and reds; its neighbours Côtes de Montravel and Haut-Montravel make sweet whites.
• Côtes de Duras: just over the border in the Lot-et-Garonne, making reds, rosés and dry and sweet whites. It shares a wine route with Bergerac.

Cahors and the Quercy

Cahors is the red wine of the Lot valley, grown on terraces in the river’s meanders west of Cahors. It has been an AOC since 1971 and must be at least 70% Malbec, known locally as Côt or Auxerrois, with Merlot or Tannat making up the rest. Its deep colour earned it the name “black wine”, and in the Middle Ages it was shipped to England through Bordeaux.

Coteaux du Quercy, from the south of the Lot and north of the Tarn-et-Garonne, makes reds and rosés based on Cabernet Franc.

Small local wines on our routes

Two small vineyards sit right on our routes. Vin de Domme comes from the limestone slopes of the Céou valley below Domme. Abandoned after phylloxera and replanted a century later, it now has around 17 producers. In the Lot, the Coteaux de Glanes IGP covers seven communes around Bretenoux, on the Dordogne between Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne and Carennac, making red, rosé and white wines.

Which wines are close to which routes

Premium Périgord and Cycling in the Dordogne pass through Domme, home of Vin de Domme. France’s Most Beautiful Villages and Exploring Rocamadour are close to Coteaux de Glanes country, and Cahors is the Lot’s red. On every route, the Bergerac and Monbazillac vineyards lie further west.

Walnut wine and liqueurs

Vin de noix is a sweet aperitif made in June from green walnuts steeped in red wine with sugar and spices. Don’t confuse it with eau de noix, a stronger spirit made from green walnuts. Look out too for chestnut liqueur and truffle aperitifs.

Eating out

Lunch, dinner and closing days

• Lunch is usually from about 12 to 2pm, and kitchens are strict about service times. Arrive before 1pm to be safe.
• Dinner usually starts around 7 to 7.30pm.
• Expect closing days. In small towns, restaurants often close on Mondays, and on Sundays many serve lunch only. Some restaurants on our routes also close on other days. That is why France’s Most Beautiful Villages starts on set days only, and why a cycling holiday starting on a Sunday or Monday has one dinner fewer included (with the price reduced).
• Shops close at lunchtime too, often from 12 to 2pm, so buy picnic supplies in the morning. Some small villages have nowhere open at midday.

Menu du jour and formule

Many restaurants offer a menu du jour at lunchtime: a fixed-price menu, usually three courses with bread, sometimes with coffee or a small jug of wine included. The choice may be limited. A formule is a shorter version, such as starter and main or main and dessert, and a formule du marché is built around seasonal local produce.

Markets and night markets

Sarlat’s market fills the medieval town on Wednesday mornings and all day on Saturdays, with foie gras, duck, walnuts, honey, wine and, in season, cèpes and strawberries. Smaller markets on our Dordogne routes include Les Eyzies and Beynac (mid-June to mid-September) on Mondays, Castelnaud on Tuesdays, Montignac on Wednesdays, Domme on Thursdays, La Roque-Gageac on Fridays and Saint-Geniès on Sundays. Many village markets are seasonal. See our market days guide for more.

In summer, look out for night markets, the Marchés des Producteurs de Pays. Farmers cook what you choose on the spot, and everyone eats together at long tables in the village square. They are held in villages around Sarlat, and in the Lot there are summer evening markets at Carennac, Padirac and Souillac. Dates change each year, so check the local tourist office.

Fermes-auberges and farm visits

A ferme-auberge is a farm restaurant, run on a working farm and cooking mainly with its own produce. Book a table in advance. The label is used by networks such as Bienvenue à la ferme, run by France’s chambers of agriculture since 1988, which also lists farm shops, farm visits and producers’ markets.

Walnut and truffle visits

The Écomusée de la Noix at Castelnaud-la-Chapelle, at the foot of the Château de Castelnaud, sits in a 7-hectare organic walnut grove and explains walnut growing, with a miller showing how the oil is made. The stone-wheeled Moulin de Vielcroze nearby also presses walnut oil. Castelnaud is on Castles & Caves and Cycling in the Dordogne. For truffles, Sainte-Alvère, further west, has a truffle trail and a demonstration truffle farm. Check opening times on the official sites before you go.

Vegetarian and other dietary needs

Being honest: eating vegetarian in the Périgord can be harder than at home. Tourist areas cater better, but elsewhere it can be hit and miss, because so many local dishes are based on duck or pork, and cooking fat is often duck fat. Omelettes, salads with goats’ cheese and walnuts, and the cheese course are useful standbys. Tell us when you book and tell your hotels ahead of time, especially where dinner is included, so they can plan something for you. The Domme lunch platter on Premium Périgord can be made vegetarian on request. The same goes for allergies and other diets.

Which holidays go there

NewPremium · Walking

Premium Périgord

A Gourmet Journey

6 days · from £950 per person, sharing a double/twin room

6 days from £950, short walks of 4.6 to 14.1 km (2.9 to 8.8 miles) a day. Included: a Truffle Museum tour and tasting, a private wine tasting with paired dishes in a 15th-century chapel cellar in Sarlat, and a cheese and charcuterie platter for lunch in Domme. Also 7 and 8 days.

Walking

Castles & Caves of the Dordogne

8 days · from £995 per person, sharing a double/twin room

8 days from £995. Walk past Castelnaud, near the walnut museum, and end with a free day in Sarlat, with its Wednesday and Saturday markets.

Cycling

Cycling in the Dordogne

8 days · from £1,250 per person, sharing a double/twin room

8 days from £1,250. Ride through Domme, Castelnaud, Les Eyzies, Montignac and Saint-Geniès, all with weekly markets, with a free day in Sarlat.

Walking

Exploring Rocamadour

8 days · from £975 per person, sharing a double/twin room

8 days from £975. Two nights in Rocamadour, home of the AOP goats’ cheese, finishing at Carennac.

Walking

France’s Most Beautiful Villages

8 days · from £965 per person, sharing a double/twin room

8 days from £965. Through Rocamadour cheese and Coteaux de Glanes country, via Carennac, Padirac and Castelnau.