The "full duck" experience in the Dourdogne

Make up your own gourmet meal! Sarlat le Canada is famous for canard en confit. Most of the Local Butcher Shops have duck confit. Maybe they have some cooked and ready to eat for takeout. Shop in Gourmet Shops or Farmers Market for more goodies. Pick up your own Bread and Wine, some Vineyards have tables to dine outside. In nice weather, we would Picnic or Tailgate in a scenic location. Get a Foam Cooler. Save $$$. We like to eat lunch on the road to save time touring. Takeout is great in your room after touring all day. Cafes or Bistros usually post their menus with chalkboard changes for the day. If it looks like the Locals eat there, that a good indication of good food at value.

It will be difficult to find a restaurant in the Dordogne that doesn't serve duck. That said, I suggest avoiding restaurants in Sarlat if you don't want to risk ending up in a tourist trap. However, there aren't enough unsuspecting tourists to rip off in March in Sarlat, so most are closed.

So here are a few suggestions, but you'll need to check if they're open.

Note that goose is also a local product, more difficult to raise and less profitable than duck, but it's also used to make foie gras and other dishes.

Not far from Sarlat is the "Ferme Auberge du Cantou." They are farmers and producers, so they only serve duck!

https://www.fermeducantou.fr/

https://maps.app.goo.gl/nuyvvG3tGE8d5sPW6

Same for Auberge Lacombe, duck as a starter, duck main course and homemade dessert (no duck!) for less than €30

https://maps.app.goo.gl/gSDKxHD99Y9DX55Q7

Also check out:

The restaurant at the Hotel Delpeyrat in Carsac-Aillac

https://hotel-delpeyrat.fr/le-restaurant-carsac-dordogne-perigord/

https://maps.app.goo.gl/HmcaJzbYfmNMrK7G9

The restaurant at the Hotel: La Traverse "Chez Les Filles"

https://latraverse24.fr/restaurant-cenac-la-roque-gageac-domme/

https://maps.app.goo.gl/A1qWCTPF64t5Fzij7

Also note that there are truffle markets in some villages until mid-March. On thursdays mornings in Excideuil

Le Grand Bleu in Sarlat (not in the old medieval part of town) was magnifique when we were there in 2023. NOT a tourist trap. Nor is it in the medieval city center.

https://www.legrandbleu.eu/

Our dinner at Le Grand Bleu was the best dinner we had during our month-long visit to France in 2023.

In the old city center in Sarlat, we enjoyed Gueule et Gosier … in the price range you’re looking at.

This is in answer to Kathleen's picnic suggestion:
Duck confit is cooked but it's not ready to eat. It usually comes surrounded by a large quantity of duck fat. Even the vacuum sealed packs of individuls legs have enough duck fat to season side dishes. You have to reheat the confit de canard to drain the fat and crisp the skin before adding it to other ingredients. Or, in warmer weather you can let it cool and use it in salads, but you really need access to running water to wash your hands after dealing with confit de canard. I make it about every two weeks paired with white beans.

Smoked, thinly sliced duck breast is sold in vacuum packs in the supermarkets and that can be used for a picnic even through it too will be a bit greasy to handle.

Restaurants with duck and foie gras are everywhere over in the Dordogne. In fact, I think every other restaurant in France has confit de canard on the menu, some housemade, others from small producers, others from large producers.

Duck or goose...both delicious. You might have better luck finding a goose farm. P.S. It is spelled Dordogne...no "u". (Sometimes a French misspelling can send you down the wrong road, although unlikely in this instance.)

I second Le Grand Bleu...not bargain priced but excellent food and service. Close to the train station, if I remember correctly.

The Grand Bleu restaurant is closed and only opens in mid-April when the tourists will be back.

Even if it were open, duck dishes wouldn't be the majority of what they offer, so it's not necessarily suitable for a "duck meal," and their prices are far above what the OP would be willing to pay.

Goose confit and goose foie gras have a more delicate flavor than duck foie gras. A proper foie gras is served with toasted bread, often accompanied by a little chutney, onion jam, or fig jam.

Never, ever refer to foie gras as pâté unless you want to be deported from the region. :)

It's the dried duck breasts that you can put cold in a salad (Périgourdine salad), but I can confirm that confit is not eaten cold at a picnic. It needs to be reheated in the oven, as Elizabeth mentioned. The duck fat in the can or the fat that coats the confit when it's vacuum-packed can be used to cook the famous "Pomme de terres sarladaise". (Just need garlic and parsley in addition).

You can use duck or goose fat to cook other dishes; it is known to be good for your health and to fight cardiovascular disease.

JoLui and Elizabeth,
My mouth is watering. Just a question...any recommendations for a good English language cookbook on poultry (a la sudouest/Dordogne). I can find duck confit and duck fat more readily now and am itching to cook something to remind me of the Perigord and of Bordeaux.
Sorry to usurp the thread, but my taste buds are hollering.

Judy, Maybe Elizabeth has some great suggestions for cookbooks in English that cover the Southwest and more specifically the Périgord region. I browsed Amazon and found just two titles focused on the Périgord, while there were quite a few about the Southwest.

From the books on the Périgord, I checked out the sample of "Bruno's Cookbook" by Martin Walker and Julia Watson .
I don’t really see how their recipe for tomato salad with shallots and "Vichyssoise et crème d'oseille" connects to the Périgord. It doesn’t seem relevant at all and quite odd.

And that recipe for "Sarladaise potatoes" with goat cheese, labeled as "adapted Bruno-style," feels completely off the mark.

That said, It was funny :)

The other book I found is titled "The Little Dordogne Kitchen" by Janice Croizet. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a sample available but the summary looks promising.

https://janicecroizet.com/

I didn’t see if they mention poultry options like turkey, chicken, or guinea fowl.

Also, it’s worth noting that in France, you can find a lot of regional cookbooks for €5 or less. Publishers release them at such low prices because they have numerous errors and don’t sell well. So, I won't be too critical of English-language cookbooks.

Here's the thing: you don't need a cookbook because duck confit is very easy to use. It's my go-to when I don't want to cook, and I always have a couple of legs in my fridge because it keeps. The hardest part is getting it out of the package and dealing with the fat.

The easiest is to heat it in a 350F oven until the fat melts off and the skin crisps. Once the duck is crisp, drain off the fat and add white beans to the pan and the duck. If there was gelatinous duck juice with the duck, add it to the beans and a little duck fat for flavor, maybe some garlic. Sometimes the beans are soaked and cooked by me with garlic, bouquet garni, or sometimes I use the white beans in tomato sauce from Monoprix. Add a green salad with vinaigrette to balance the salt and richness of the duck: no creamy bottled American dressing. The family and guests will think you're a genius when it's a very easy meal.
Regional cooking cookbooks:
Julia but she's labor-intensive, not for grandma's cooking.
French Regional Cooking by Anne Willan & l'Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne, Paris is the best regional book I've used.
jolui-- can tell you how to pan sauté the potatoes with garlic, the other common meal with confit. Again a green salad.

I think Paul-of-the-Frozen-North has abandoned this thread.

Elizabeth's recipe looks good to me; I'll see if I can book a table at her place. :) Personally, I remove the duck fat from around the duck confit before putting it in the oven. You can roughly strain it, keep it in the refrigerator, and use it in other recipes, but I generally use duck fat sold separately since in France it's sold in jars.

Regarding Sarlat-style potatoes, I tried to find a recipe on YouTube that's close to how I make them, but it's not easy! I found this one which seems pretty good. The guy speaks very slowly and you can set English subtitles.
Don't be surprised if you see "Greece" in the automatically generated translation; in French the word for fat is "graisse" and sounds the same as the country of Greece.

https://youtu.be/-R6dG6No_NY

Don't forget to choose a suitable variety of potato, not one for mashed potatoes. My friends and I have endless arguments and discussions about the ideal thickness of potato slices. 4 or 5 millimeters is a good compromise. You have to stir them from time to time, gently, otherwise they can turn into mush and you'll be banned from any kitchen for a year. :)

The same guy offers a recipe for Périgord salad. I make it in a similar way, but without the quail eggs. At 6:25, he uses raspberry vinegar to deglaze the gizzards, not "crème" as translated.

https://youtu.be/a8Lvx8BXyX4

JoLui and Elizabeth,
Merci, merci, merci!

Mai non, mon frere!! I am merely traveling around.

Unfortunately, the first farm resto is closed until "spring".

I'm looking at the Auberge Lacombe, but they are hard to contact, and are open on Wed not Tues.

check this one

L’auberge du Cantou

https://www.fermeducantou.fr/auberge/

20km from Sarlat

https://maps.app.goo.gl/nH1CGiV6tN4WEqrQ7

They also have a shop where you can buy farm products, lots of things made from duck.