Marché Nocturne at Audrix

We celebrated our Fourth of July by heading off for the picturesque village of Audrix, north of Siorac and south of Le Bugue, for the first summer "marché nocturne" (night market) of the year. We feared it might be overrun with visiting Americans who may have read about this charming gastronomic event in last May's Gourmet Magazine.

But we were pleasantly surprised to find the gathering crowd mostly French, and mostly hungry, like us. After quickly staking out our claim at a sunny table, we quickly emptied out our basket of important tools for this event -- tablecloth, bread knife, silverware, napkins, bottle opener and wineglasses. Gotta come prepared for an event like this!

Worrying about finding a parking place and an empty table, we had arrived early, about 6:30 p.m., and found plenty of room for our group of eight, six of whom were our Sonoma County guests at our B&B. They'd hoped to participate in an event like this during their stay with us, and we were happy to find that the first night market of the year would happen during their stay.

Our first bottles of Bergerac rosé were promptly opened, and some of us headed out to scout out the vendors and find goodies to bring back to the table. Not a problem...the first booths we headed to featured classic sampler plates of Perigordine treats such as dried, smoked thin-sliced duck breast, foie gras, green salad and walnuts, and some deep-fried escargot.

The escargot was actually from a small, local producer and was a bit of a surprise to me as it's not really a Dordogne regional specialty. Who knew there was an escargot rancher in our neighborhood? You can even visit their farm in nearby Vaunac for a tour and tasting, during the summer months.

Sadly, the deep-fried version was a little dough-y and I don't think it showed off the escargot well -- it could've been a little nugget of chicken or any other mystery meat in the middle of that dough-ball. But later, someone else went for the more classic preparation, in the shell with garlic-parsley butter, and the slimy little guys became tender, delectable treats.

We followed up with plates of sautéed foie gras, glazed with balsamic vinegar and a few drops of honey, grilled lamb with herbes de provence, cheeses, tourain blanchi (white garlic soup), and ...surprise...more wine!

Exceptional, artisanal ice creams finished us off -- with the sun-drenched flavors of local ripe fruits, and the always popular classics of deep bitter chocolate and creamy vanilla.

Side show of the evening was the dance of the bread baker. This guy works hard for his money. Watch a moment or two of his technique on this video...(oops! trouble uploading...check back later)

One half-hour after loading the oven, the boulanger was back at work, pulling the hot loaves out of the oven and onto a slatted table. We queued up to grab the steaming hot babies and juggle them from one hand to another as we waited to have them individually weighed so we could pay for them by the 100g...then a mad, juggling dash back to the table to tear it apart.

The stone and brick bread oven in the town square gets this same workout every Saturday night through August now -- and we'll be there as often as we can. Can't think of a better way to spend a summer Saturday evening in the Perigord!