Travel guide
Dordogne

The 12 keywords Dordogne

1. Jimbourat

In the not so distant past, each family killed its pig between Christmas and February. Then, the neighbours would come and dip the jimbourat, the broth used to cook the pigs, in which vegetables and bones were simmering. This broth was poured over slices of bread to make a very fatty and comforting soup, for a nice moment of conviviality.

2. Gouyassou

It is the commonly used francisation of an Occitan term for a little boy. The term is declined in gouya for the teenager and gouyate for the teenager. These two terms have somewhat pejorative connotations in their contemporary use. Before being a gouyassou, the young man is a funny man and the girl a droléta. So be careful

3. Lauzes

This is the roofing system used in the traditional dwellings of the Périgord Noir and in the dry-stone huts of the vernacular architecture. The lauzes are flat stones, roughly flattened. The basic stone is limestone. There are still craftsmen in the Périgord who are able to make this type of roofing.

4. Meita se, meita pork

"Half dogs, half pigs". This is the line, far from being an insult, that referred to the Périgourdins in reference to their resourcefulness during the struggle between the State and the Caussenards. Taxes, salt taxes, and requisitions were at the origin of this insurrection. It was not good to be a tax collector at that time!

5. Cingle

The term "cingle" represents a hill that follows the meanders of the Dordogne, Vézère or Lot rivers. Its slope facing the river is generally steep. From Trémolat, you will admire a unique panorama on the cingle of the Dordogne. Moreover, the term of cingle also indicates a large snake, reptile living in the wood.

6. Verjuice

The verjuice is the very acid juice extracted from grapes that have not had time to ripen. In cooking, it was a good substitute for lemon juice (rare here in the past) or vinegar in vinaigrettes, mustards, in the preparation of meat or fish dishes and sauces. It was emblematic of traditional Perigordian cuisine

7. Cavage

The word cavage is derived from the Latin cavus, meaning hollow. It gave rise to the words cavern, cavity. The verb caver is borrowed from the Latin cavare which means to dig. It is a vocabulary nowadays linked to truffles. To caver is to extract the truffle from the ground. The caveur is the person who looks for it using the cavadou, or truffle pick.

8. Buffadou

It is a traditional "blower" to fan the fire. It is a long wooden tube, in which one blows to direct the air towards a precise place of the hearth that one had lit. A remarkably efficient precision tool, its use can sometimes produce a farting noise that does not fail to amuse young and old alike!

9. Blanche

Blanche is the brandy obtained from the grape marc, also called goutte or fine. It is often perfectly translucent, but can be coloured after a passage in oak barrels. Note that in Périgord, brandy was made from all the local fruits, especially mirabelle plums and cherries, especially to avoid wasting

10. Trempil

A summer snack, which consisted of drinking a bowl of red wine cut with iced and sweetened water, in which bread was soaked. The dip had the property of shaking, satiating, refreshing and quenching at the same time, both adults and children at snack time. Other times, other customs... far from the food industry

11. Chabròl

Faire chabrot, or chabròl in Occitan, is a local custom which consists of adding red wine to the plate to dilute the liquid when there is still some soup left. Then, the whole thing is brought to the mouth, and swallowed with great gulps while making as much noise as possible. No, that's a grandfatherly joke!

12. Gabarre

The gabarre, from the Occitan gabarra, was a flat-bottomed boat called a "sol", with a shallow draught, which was used to transport goods. The Dordogne River thus became a major trade route between the Périgord and the Atlantic coast. It made merchants rich by transporting wine, wood, minerals and food.