Périgueux isn’t exactly a household word, I know. It’s a town in the Dordogne region of France that gives its name to Périgueux sauce, a heady sauce of truffles and Madiera wine. You have to love a region famous for truffles.
I had another of the region’s special foods for Christmas. Goose. You can go broke buying a goose for Christmas, so I let some friends do it. I just carved.
Goose fat is good for you, some have ventured. At least heart health is quite good in the region. There’s even a Goose Fat Information Service to let you in on some of the health benefits of goose fat.
Périgueux holiday get away
The trouble is, goose fat tends to get all over your oven walls when you cook a naked goose. So here’s what I’d do. I’d rent a place out in the country where geese are plentiful and relatively cheap, then cook it in a rental property, preferably one that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. The Périgueux holiday get away shown on the left would do nicely. It’s got an oven and double glazing over the windows so the odors of cooked goose won’t get out and offend anyone.
Of course, if it’s a real celebration you’ll want to go whole hog, so to speak, and get your hands on a big ol’ truffle to use in the Périgueux sauce or just to shave over anything warm and aromatic.
Southern France. It’s a wonderland. You get yourselves on a plane, preferably in late fall when the truffle season gets going, and you’ll land in a paradise for foodies and archaeologists. You’ve got all those prehistoric painted caves, geese, their livers, and truffles. What more can you want?
We recently stayed in lovely renovated farmhouse from which we explored the Bordeaux (Medoc/St Emillion) wine area along with Cognac and the Dordogne. Apart from the obvious savings of self catering we also appreciated the ability to walk down and back to the local village — to buy bread in the mornings and especially after some stunning meals (with wine) in the evenings.