France has more than its fair share of flamboyant dishes – but the most elaborate of all is pressed duck, where a roast duck’s bones are crushed to create a decadent “blood sauce”.

Follow the loops of the River Seine that winds for 356km from Normandy to Paris, and there are subtle clues that point to the origins of one of French cuisine’s most revered dishes, le canard à la presse (pressed duck). 

As I stand on the riverside in the sleepy Normandy town of Duclair, set on one of those meandering bends just 20km from my first destination, the city of Rouen, I can see steep white cliffs towering above the waterway that once sheltered ducks who stopped to rest here on their migration south. En route, I passed the huge Christofle factory, the 200-year-old makers of exquisite cutlery and  silverware – and the famous silver duck press that is key to the dish’s great ceremonial service.

Le canard à la presse is an elaborate and macabre dish that is as much about ceremony as flavour. It involves dramatically crushing the carcass of a part-roasted duck in an ornate silver press that extracts the blood and juices, which are then used to cook the decadent “sauce au sang” (blood sauce) that is made tableside by the maitre d’. The sauce is immediately served with the tender ducks fillets, with the roasted legs brought out after as a second course.