No doubt you’ve discovered that nearly everyone who runs a château or busy bistrot in the region came here, intentionally, from somewhere else - often Paris. The Dordogne is about la Félibrée, a 100-year-old celebration of the ancient Occitan culture that rotates annually among the region’s villages and can best be described as the Rose Parade-meets-Renaissance festival.ĭordogne does have its share of sophistication. But, please, don’t bother to ask for entrecôte that’s not what they do here.īordeaux is about the Philippe Starck-designed Château les Carmes Haut-Brion, with its ship’s prow winery, plopped in the middle of a river like a metal-hulled cargo vessel.ĭordogne is about peasant-built castles perched on cliffs and bastide towns, medieval villages with timber-framed houses and fortified outer walls.īordeaux is about jazz festivals and stunning fireworks on Bastille Day launched from barges floating down the Garonne. If you desire something lighter, is there a beak-to-tail salad, Landaise, heaped with foie gras, duck confit and the poor bird’s organ meats? If you’re lucky. Do they make pâté and rillettes and saucisson out of duck for an appetizer? They do.įor the entrée, might they cook a leg and thigh confit or, perhaps, sear the breast and bathe it in a reduction of grated orange peel, cinnamon, star anise and red wine? Most assuredly. If you were near the end of your trip, you might have browsed the chic shops popping up around the Quai de Bacalan, once-abandoned old wine warehouses, and searched out Echoppe de la Lune, an upscale gourmet shop that sells the region’s unique comestibles such as Louit Frères mustard and Sel de Château, lavender-colored sea salt flavored with Cabernet.Ī quick glance at the menu on the chalk board reveals the region’s general all-duck-no-choice selection. Or maybe a friend told you the thing to do is to go to the back of the food hall and search for the oyster bar, L’Huitrier, and order the special: six fat, juicy Arcachon fines and a glass of crisp white Bordeaux, perhaps the Chateau la Tourette, for 15 euros (about $17). You probably went across the street to les Halles de Bacalan, dedicated to Bordelaise edibles and quaffables, and got a wheel of la petite rouelle, a goat cheese that looks remarkably like a coconut doughnut, and a loaf of walnut bread to eat along the River Garonne. No doubt you made a point of riding the sleek city tram to the revitalized Bacalan neighborhood to peruse the Anouk Legendre- and Nicolas Desmazières-designed Cité du Vin with its shimmering gold aluminum facade that, some say, symbolizes a Sauternes swishing around a wine glass. Bordeaux, France - Maybe you’ve been to Bordeaux, tucked in to the southwest corner of France, some 350 miles from Paris.

Map from paris to dordogne france