Emily in France 🇫🇷 Discovering Black Gold in the Perigord
Truffle fans, prepare to be bedazzled
In my time in France, I've ventured to many corners of the hexagon. I’ve seen the sparkling aqua waters of the aptly named Côte d’Azur, and I’ve hiked into the Savoyard Alps. I've sipped Bordeaux in medieval Saint-Emilion, and I've stood in awe before the majestic Strasbourg Cathedral. But a few weeks ago, I got the chance to discover a new-to-me region, the Dordogne, synonymous with the aromatic fungus known as the Perigord truffle.
The nomenclature of this part of France can be a bit confusing. During the French Revolution, pre-existing provinces like the Dauphiné or Bresse were divvied up and renamed, often with an allusion to their most prominent topographic or hydrographic landmark. In this part of the world, a few hours due east of Bordeaux, what was once known as the Quercy was subdivided into the departments of the Lot and parts of Tarn-et-Garonne, Dordogne, Corrèze, and Aveyron. What was once the Périgord, meanwhile, was almost entirely transformed into the Dordogne, so named for the river that runs through it. The same cannot be said for the truffle for which this region is known, which retained the old province’s name.
My trip began with an early morning train to Brive-la-Gaillarde, where I embarked on a tasting tour of the picturesque town center. Armed with a handful of little moustachioed tickets supplied by the tourism board, I visited a number of different purveyors of regional delicacies for a free taste.
I got the chance to visit Fromagerie Miane, where I tasted a new-to-me regional delicacy, the tomme de Rilhac.
I also visited a specialty purveyor of foie gras, La Combe de Job. Here I tasted a dried fig stuffed with foie gras that blew my mind.
And of course, given the focus of the trip, I tried a chiffonade of truffle-infused ham from Le Comptoir de Clément.
For dinner, I visited La P'tite Cocotte, whose tasty small plates included local duck magret with clementines and turmeric popcorn. But it was the simple butternut squash roasted with spices and served with hazelnuts and a yogurt sauce that blew my mind.
The next morning, I climbed into my rental car and drove through the pouring rain to Rocamadour, a severe-looking town carved into a cliffside that only benefitted from the moodiness of the weather and the total emptiness conveyed by the low season.
After meeting with Thomas Sauzet at the tourism office, we embarked on a tour of the town, climbing the 216 steps to the shrine to the Black Madonna at the top, and we also peered into the lesser-known chapel in honor of the local passion for rugby.
We then headed to lunch at Le Relais des Gourmands, a lovely spot in Gramat, where Chef Carl Jenner is innovating the core ingredients of the local terroir. Foie gras and beef cheek pot au feu were reimagined as a rich terrine lightened with house-made pickles. Local rainbow trout was seasoned with sesame and ginger and barely seared, served alongside a citrus-forward acid lending a welcome pop of acidity.
The local farm-raised chicken was stuffed with mushrooms and glazed with a reduced red wine gravy, while roasted Quercy lamb shoulder was spiced with a lovely blend of cinnamon and nutmeg and paired with a rich yet ethereally light celery root purée.
Dessert was pure artistry: a deconstructed carrot cake of sorts featuring a rose of butter-confit carrot atop a spiced shortbread and scattered with cubes of gingerbread. The accompanying gingerbread ice cream was so delicious I couldn’t leave even a spoonful.
My next stop was Sarlat, a beautiful medieval city made of beige and gold stone, where I spent the night at the beautiful castle-like la Couleuvrine, which boasted its very own rampart.
For dinner, I dug into one of the region’s specialties: duck confit and pommes sarladaises, potatoes cooked in duck fat and named after the city.
The next morning, I got an early start at the Sarlat truffle market, which is held each Saturday in season. I reported all about the experience for Sherman's Travel, so keep an eye out for a link to that story soon!
The truffle market runs concurrently with a wider farmer’s market, some of which is held in a former church. I love to see the ways in which abandoned church buildings are being rehabilitated in France. One such church is a major setting in my novel all about cheese!
We then headed on a discovery of the town led by local guide Justine, culminating with a cheese tasting at the phenomenal Chez Pierrô, a delightful little cheese shop with a host of offerings both local and from across the hexagon. The washed-rind Montastruc kind of ate like a funkier Reblochon, and the truffled Brie de Meaux was an absolute showstopper.
The team here sources the local black Périgord truffles from just one truffle huntress, seasoning a base of mascarpone generously before filling the Brie. It then ages for about a week before sale, which allows the truffle to completely permeate the cheese.
But this was just the beginning of my adventures in ancient Périgord. Come back next week to hear about my visit to the very first official “Most Beautiful Village in France,” as well as to a unique truffle farm where you can dine on site and even spend the night.
Cheese of the Week
Tomme de Rilhac is a pressed cheese from Corrèze. Any lovers of Cantal will find the crumbly texture and rustic appearance of this cheese familiar, though it boasts even more intensity, with a lovely lactic, buttery character and nutty notes all counterbalanced with the sweet-and-savory allure of caramelized onions.
To discover more of my favorite cheeses, be sure to follow me on Instagram @emily_in_france, subscribe to my YouTube channel, and tune into the Terroir Podcast, where Caroline Conner and I delve into France's cheese, wine, and more one region at a time.
What I’m Eating
A.Lea unites comfort food flavors and fine dining appeal in a convivial dining room on the back side of the Butte Montmartre. With a small menu that changes regularly but notably featured one of the best chocolate mousses I’ve ever had, it’s the kind of place you return to again and again. More on the blog.
What I’m Doing
1. This evening (last minute, I know) I’m giving a reading at the Red Wheelbarrow of my short story, Pudding, which appeared in the most recent edition of Version Originale.
2. This weekend, I’ll be enjoying my first raclette of the season – the first cheese to ever defeat me and force me on a solitary walk along the beach for optimum digestion.
3. To check out perhaps the cheapest chicken-and-chips in the capital, at less than 7 euro per portion.
What I'm Writing
1. There’s perhaps nothing so Parisian as the theatrical tableside filleting of a sole meunière, and summer in the Sud wouldn’t be complete without a salade niçoise generously topped with tuna glistening in oil. In the Loire Valley, freshwater fish like barbel and catfish are far more common than saltwater specimens, though, unfortunately, they have far from the same illustrious reputation. This Loire Valley restaurant is trying to change that. For Frenchly.
2. On a still and frigid day in January, the Père Lachaise cemetery’s crematorium in Paris greeted a crowd, all coming to bid a final farewell to Forest Collins, much-loved member of the food and drinks community in France. She will be sorely missed. For Bonjour Paris.
3. From the archives: The food obsession of today’s Instagrammers is nothing compared to that of 19th-century Parisians, whose gluttony knew no bounds. For Vice.
What I’m Doing
If your New Year’s resolutions include setting aside more time for your writing, I’m excited to announce that the Nantes Writers’ Workshop is coming back for the third time this June, from the 16th to the 20th.
The week-long workshop encompasses a two-pronged approach to sparking your creativity and honing your craft. Spend mornings with me generating new material with guided prompts inspired by the city of Nantes, and spend afternoons ensconced in an Iowa-style workshop with co-founder Anna Polonyi, an Iowa alum and professional creative writing instructor.
Applications are now open – we’d love to welcome you!
FAQs
With the goal of bringing you the content you crave, I've solicited your help. What questions can I answer for you? Drop them into the newsletter chat, and I’ll answer as many as I can!
What I'm Reading
1. Mood Swings is a dystopian contemporary novel exploring a world affected by a thinly-veiled Covid calque. The narrative zeroes in on a handful of characters and the ways in which they cope with a world that seems doomed. From the billionaire attempting to save the world to the young twenty-something women forced to parent themselves, from the effects of cancel culture to the search for meaning in a world populated by nihilists, this book is an occasionally bumpy but always entertaining and eye-opening ride.
2. This excellent news that the butte Montmartre is becoming pedestrianized. In TimeOut.
3. This story about a near anarchy of a utopia in Holland, where residents work with one another to name roads, figure out waste management, and even manage schools, and where each resident is bound to devote half of their land to the production of food. In the Guardian.
A bientôt !