Christian was explaining that the region was known for it's nut trees, strawberries and truffles. I mentioned it would be cool to see the truffle finding in action, but he said this isn't the season- December is truffle season in the Dordogne. White truffles are available now, but no one really eats them, except the Italians. We are kind of snobbish about our truffles, he admits.
I mentioned the tiny bit of info. I knew about truffles, that the pig or a dog sniffs them out and digs them up. He says it is actually the fly, la mouche, that is better at finding the truffles. It turns out the pig or dog will smell a truffle and dig it up, but it may not be fully ripe, or it may be on top of or next to a truffle that is just perfect, but this one is what the dog finds, not the deliciously ripe truffle. Not the case with the fly, the fly makes no mistakes.
At this point, we have arrived on the bank of the Vézère where we will put in our canoes. He gets out and he goes over to a tree. He proceeds to act out the truffle finding process while explaining. Trees that support truffles are grown in chalky soil , which is not ideal for the tree, but a very good condition for truffles. The weaker the tree, the better the truffles. the truffles grow near the roots of the trees.
Christian now goes into full theatrics. "One takes a baton and taps the ground around the tree, the terre brûlée surrounding the tree where no grass grows." Our guide now gets on his knee and pretends to tap the ground. He puts his head low to the ground and waits for a mouche, a fly, to come out of the ground. "If it does, you wait and watch", he says like a magician getting ready for the big reveal. "It will slowly jump or fly away from where it exited the ground. Within five minutes, if the mouche returns to the original spot, that is where a ripe truffle will be found! The mouche is never wrong." The mouche is never wrong. Let the weight of that sink in.
No, you can't just walk through the countryside in December, hoping to find truffles under scruffy trees. The trees are normally on private land and are protected with fences. Truffles are a hot commodity in the market. In the Dordogne region, a kilo of truffles may cost 300 to 500 Euros, but will fetch a price of 2500 to 3000 Euros in Paris per kilo.
Immediately, I began to conjure up a way to return in December. But for now, it's summer and we're headed out on la Vézère in a canoe... with a whole new respect for flies.
