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You are here: Home / Travel / Europe / France / Fest ‘Oie – Sarlat Celebrates

Fest ‘Oie – Sarlat Celebrates

April 27, 2014 by Fiona Maclean 16 Comments

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Last Updated on November 23, 2016

Fest’Oie – Eating your Goose in Style:

The celebrations in Sarlat for Fest’Oie  embrace the entire community.  Apart from the ‘educational’ experiences, visiting farms and Foie Gras production centres, the event is essentially an extended party.  A weekend of food, wine music and dance.  As my friends observed…everyone was there, from tiny children through to the elderly…and even the teenagers were happily dancing by the end of the evening.

Fest'Oie - Evening Event 1

I’d originally assumed that the Festival was a long running event, but in fact it is something created recently as a celebration of the heritage of Foie Gras d’Oie production in the Perigord Noir and of the associated traditions of the region.  Held over a weekend in February the Fest’Oie comprises a whole series of fun events focussing around Saturday evening’s Bodég’oie – an open air party with food and drink, a street fair in the town centre on Sunday morning and a massive sit down lunch.

Fest'oie - evening

 

Fest 'oie woman

Sunday’s street fair was already busy by 10am.  There were traditional games

Fest'Oie Cracking Nuts

A lot of geese

Fest'Oie Geese from Farm

Even the chance to get up close and personal with some of them

Fest'Oie - I talk to the birds

Some of the smallest geese in town

Fest'Oie Goslings 2

Vegetarian options (at this stage looking quite appealing – cute goslings have a strange way of engendering a guilt complex for me)

Fest'Oie Goose Egg Omlette

The grand finale, a lunch with 16 courses of regional specialities, most involving one or other part of the Goose, the ‘Fest’Oie’ was held in a packed hall.  I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but this was actually a ‘beak to tail’ experience, where we sampled a whole variety of dishes that were made from goose.

Fest'Oie Lunch

It was a huge, slightly chaotic but for all that very splendid lunch party where it seemed as if every person from Sarlat and the surrounding area was there in force.

Fest'Oie Food

Apart from a lot of food, there was more live music

Fest'Oie - Music

Line dancing

More food

Fest'Oie - Salade

More line dancing

Fest'Oie Line Dancing 2

And more music

Fest'Oie Band 2

We actually left a little early to catch a flight back to the UK, but the party was in full swing still – and looked as if it would be going on into the night.  It’s actually quite hard to convey the dynamic of the event in words and photos, but my friends from the Implausible Blog were there and created this wonderful video diary of the whole event. Take a look and you should find the party atmosphere becomes immediately apparent.

I feel privileged to have been invited to take part in what is at the moment essentially a local event, with very few people from outside the region. Despite the wintery weather it was a vibrant experience and a real celebration of local tradition.

For more information on Sarlat and the annual Fest’Oie held in February:
Email Katia Veyret: k.veyret@sarlat-tourisme.com
Sarlat Tourist Office

City Jet flies to Brive in the Dordogne from London City Airport:
The Brive Dordogne Valley Airport
19600 Nespouls
France

We stayed at Hotel le Renoir, a few minutes from the Town Centre

Filed Under: France, Travel Tagged With: Perigord Noir, Sarlat

About Fiona Maclean

London based freelance writer and marketing consultant. I edit London-Unattached.com and write for a number of other publications. With a music degree and a background in marketing across many sectors, my passions include all types of music, food, restaurants, wine and travel

Comments

  1. Jane Willis says

    November 19, 2018 at 2:50 pm

    This looks fascinating! I don’t think I’ve ever seen as much foie gras in my life as I did when I shopped in a French supermarket one Christmas Eve. I do love the stuff, even though I sometimes hate myself for doing so!

    Reply
  2. Diane Wood says

    May 15, 2014 at 10:40 pm

    hmmm, if seeing the live geese put you off (hopefully it did) if you google how Foie Gras is produced, you’d be sickened 🙁

    Reply
  3. WILLIAM OTOOLE says

    May 8, 2014 at 9:43 pm

    What a fantastic looking event this looked like.. Although I am not familiar with the event it does not mean that I should not perhaps try and go to the next one… It’s great to learn new things.. New cultures.. New taste’s. 🙂

    William

    Reply
  4. Stevie Wilson says

    May 4, 2014 at 3:20 am

    this looks like an amazing event. I have never heard of this before. It sounds like a goose gone wild event.. except the geese were cooked

    Reply
  5. Ren Behan says

    May 2, 2014 at 8:04 pm

    Looks like a very fun festival! I’d love an omelette with those wild mushroom.

    Reply
  6. ManjiriK says

    April 30, 2014 at 11:19 am

    what a fabulous celebration and so good to see the involvement of the local community with great gusto! I love the photographs but nothing can make me go sit in a pen with LIVE GEESE ! No sir! Those veggie options look delicious and am up for Line dancing any day!

    Love the video by Implausible espp the part where the geese waddle around town hahahaha!

    Reply
  7. Sarah, Maison Cupcake says

    April 29, 2014 at 4:36 pm

    I love how the French throw themselves into entire festival mode to celebrate one particular food… I remember reading Peter Mayle rattling off a whole list of them in one of his Provence books. Although we’ve got a huge improvement in UK food events, we’ve not much mastered ones this focussed. Sounds like an awesome trip, I’d love to go back and stroke the brass geese in Sarlat market place which is probably much safer than getting too close to the real thing!

    Actually that’s reminded me my university campus at Cat Hill in Cockfosters used to have some resident geese. They used to terrify me and I had to walk through them to get into the campus building with them hissing and chasing me!!

    Reply
  8. Glamorous Glutton says

    April 28, 2014 at 5:14 pm

    This looks like a wonderful event, you’re all having a great time. Love the look of the wild mushrooms too. GG

    Reply
  9. Sue Robinson says

    April 28, 2014 at 1:15 pm

    Would never have guessed that a goose festival could be so much fun!

    Reply
  10. Bintu @ Recipes From A Pantry says

    April 28, 2014 at 10:25 am

    I love this – I think I would have been a pro at the nut cracking and would have downed a couple of those 14 Euro omelettes.

    Reply
  11. Savi says

    April 28, 2014 at 9:32 am

    Fabulous article Fiona – I had no clue about this festival, will definitely look it up now. It looks like such fun 🙂

    Reply
  12. Karen says

    April 28, 2014 at 9:22 am

    FABULOUS write up Fiona, and my own piece is still in the pipeline! When I post it, I will link to your posts here! 🙂 GREAT photos too!

    Reply
  13. Polly says

    April 28, 2014 at 9:02 am

    looks like you really had fun!! Those goslings are so cute!

    Reply
    • Fiona Maclean says

      April 28, 2014 at 9:07 am

      They were! for me a little counter-intuitive at a celebration of foie gras though

      Reply
  14. Heidi Roberts says

    April 27, 2014 at 10:14 pm

    Looks like you had a great time! Certainly lots of food, line dancing and music.

    Reply
    • Fiona Maclean says

      April 27, 2014 at 10:16 pm

      hahaha, yes, a LOT of line dancing…

      Reply

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