So next question is, I have the Boulanger book and a few CDs (Esbelin, Soulette, Montbel) but what else is out there? The pickings seem a little slim for french trad music. For the uilleann pipes I have about 60 CDs and multiple tune books/tutors. For my gaita I have about 15+ CDs and “O Penta Fol” and “Os Segredos”.
So where is the great canon of french trad music? There has to be something, some classic tune collection, more artists putting out CDs, something…
Jeff
I don’t konw how easy it is to get in your part of the world but “The Massif Central Tune Books 1&2” are a must.
As for recordings the first few albums by La Chavannee was where I started , some of their later albums were mostly songs and didn’t interest me that much.
10+ visits to St Chartier helped!
These are free tune collections:
http://www.nyckelharpa.nl/Travak/Deutsch/index%20-%20D.htm (click on “Notenheft”)
http://www.cartron.org/musique/Recueil2.pdf
A CD well worth listening to is “Avalanche Cie.”, the sheet music is included on the CD. http://musette.free.fr/aval/menu.htm
A click on “Menu général” at the bottom of the page will get you plenty of information, pictures etc.
Thanks guys, I did some searching around on those links and found a few tune books. 
The Massif Central Tune Books 1&2 and now know as “the Bal Folk Tune Book”, see link below for the full story. I just ordered it off of Amazon.
http://accordeonaire.blogspot.com/2011/05/update-bal-folk-tune-book.html
still looking for CDs…
The Bal Folk book unfortunately does not have many of the recently composed tunes that were in Massif Central.
The Lark Camp music library page has a good collection:
http://www.larkcamp.com/LarkLibrary/French/French.html
Also this may be a good resource:
You nailed it with that last link. 
I would say the place to start is with La Chavannee and Frederic Paris. The ones that Mitch Gordon has on his site are fantastic. But even through Amazon you can get stuff like Rage de Dance.
http://accordeonaire.blogspot.com/2011/02/frederic-paris-and-la-chavannee.html
Also, Patrick Bouffard is a hurdy gurdy player who is never without a fantastic piper.
Another great, less well known group is Musique a Deux. What you might call “bog standard” French trad. Exactly what you would hear at a Bal in the Massif Central.
http://accordeonaire.blogspot.com/2011/07/tribute-musiqu-deux.html
Yes, Mitch Gordon is a great guy, and his OP stuff is priceless (Frédéric Paris’ Carnet de Bal, for example). Other suggestions for CDs: Patrick Bouffard, a great hurdy gurdy player who always has a great piper with him, a number of his are available from Amazon or iTunes or other sources. La Chavannée, as someone mentioned, is really the gold mine – I’ve got every one of theirs and none disappoints. A less well know group is Musique à Deux, a husband and wife duo of what might be called “bog standard” French trad … the stuff that they actually play at dances.
La Chavannée and Frédéric Paris
http://accordeonaire.blogspot.com/2011/02/frederic-paris-and-la-chavannee.html
Musique à Deux
http://accordeonaire.blogspot.com/2011/07/tribute-musiqu-deux.html
Sorry for the almost duplicates. I’m new in these parts.
No problem, accordeonaire … They were different enough to allow them both to stand.
Welcome to the board!
..IF you can find them:
“Ocora” label:
560051 Gascony Bagpipes
559083 Les Brayauds
559044 Jean Blanchard
559081 Christian Vesvre
“Auvidis” label:
6831 Cabrette Musiques d’ Auvergne
8202 Eric Montbel + Jean Blanchard
6830 Vielles et Cornemuses (B Blanc, et al)
“les livres sacrés” 
You might also look for cabrette players, Jose Roux and Dominique Paris. They do play “the canon.”
…and Michel Esbelin (solo or with his band Les costauds de la lune)
You should give a look at the aepem.com website. There is a very good collection of cd’s with a lot of bagpipes (la machine, barbances, carré de deux, la fraternelle) and cabrette.
I’m looking for “rage de danse” from La Chavannée. It’s available on amazon, but MP3 downloads from amazon are not possible here in Belgium. Could someone send me the MP3’s?
I’d also be interested in MP3’s of the two first vinyls of La Chavannée.
The wonderful band Blowzabella did a lot to popularise French trad. in the UK, and their first tune book ‘Encyclopeadia Blowzabellica’ contains the dots of many classic, ‘canonical’ if you will, Massif Central tunes (there’s some, but not troubling, overlap with the Massif Central Tune Books). There are also English and Breton tunes in there, but a goodly proportion of French.
Their 2nd book, ‘New Tunes For Dancing’, is a collection of the tunes they have written themselves: so whilst it doesn’t fit the criteria in operation here, it’s IMNSHO well worth having for the music for classic tunes by Andy Cutting, Paul James, Jon Swayne et al in there.
They’re currently redecorating their website so I can’t give a direct link to the online shop, but if you go to http://www.blowzabella.com you can find the books on sale from there.
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Cabrette music
http://www.cabrette.com/jouer/jouer.htm
http://jpserre.free.fr/musique.htm
Some great information here … thanks everybody! 
Cheers
Claus