The capital of Gascony — Armagnac brandy, duck confit, foie gras, and a Gothic cathedral with the finest Renaissance choir stalls in France
Auch is the capital of the Gers département — the beating heart of Gascony, the southwestern French region that has arguably the most distinctive and most unapologetically rich food culture in France. Duck confit (duck legs salted, slowly cooked in their own fat, and preserved for months), foie gras, magret de canard (the duck breast from foie gras-producing birds), Gascon black pig sausages, Armagnac, and cassoulet are not regional specialities here — they are everyday food. Armagnac, the oldest distilled spirit in France (documented from 1411, predating Cognac by at least 60 years), is prod…
Auch (Augusta Auscorum) was the capital of the Aquitani Ausci tribe, then a major Roman city in the province of Novempopulana. It became the seat of the Archbishop of Auch — the most senior ecclesiastical see in southwestern France — in the Carolingian period and remained so until the Revolution. The power of the archbishops explains the scale of the Cathedral: built from 1489 to 1680, it is one of the last great Gothic cathedrals built in France. D'Artagnan — the historical model for Alexandre Dumas's character — was born in a village 30km south of Auch; the city has a statue and claims him…