Cassoulet is possibly the most famous French stew of all. It comes from the Southwest quarter of France. Two municipalities claim the fame of being the birthplace of Cassoulet: the city of Toulouse and the village of Castelnaudary. There are many variants of the recipe, as there are here with Boston Baked Beans or Chili. My recipe makes no claim to authenticity, but you will be able to prepare it with ingredients from your supermarket. If you went to France, one extra ingredient would be "confit", which is literally candied duck or goose, not sweet but unbelievably tender and fatty. You would also use the duck or goose fat from the can of "confit" in the recipe. In France, cassoulet is also available in cans, ready to eat, again just like baked beans or chili here.

Soak the beans overnight in plenty of cold water, in the refrigerator.
The following day, drain the beans and place them in a stock pot, with enough cold water to cover plus 3 inches. Add one peeled onion studded with 2 of the cloves, the peeled carrot, and 4 peeled garlic cloves. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook until tender, skimming the surface if necessary.
Cut the duckling into 8 pieces (2 drumsticks, 2 thighs, and four quarter breasts). Leave the skin on, but trim large excess skin or fat. Prick the skin with a fork.
Cut the sausage in 3-inch segments.
Chop the remaining 2 onions. Mince the remaining 8 cloves garlic.
Preheat a skillet and dry-fry the duck pieces a bit, skin side down, to render the fat. Remove the duck pieces. Sear the lamb cubes and the sausage in the duck fat, in two batches. Remove the meat.
Fry the onion and the garlic in the same grease, until golden.
Preheat oven to 350F.
In a large oven-proof casserole, gently combine all the meat, the onion and garlic, the tomato paste, salt, pepper, bay leaves, remaining 2 cloves, nutmeg and thyme.
Check that your beans are tender. Scoop off some bean water if you think there is too much, but keep it around if you need it later. Discard the carrot and the whole onion, and the whole garlic cloves if you see them. 
Pour beans over the meats. Stir a bit. Cover.
Place into the oven and bake for 2 hours. If your vessel is very full, it may bubble over. To avoid this, you may keep the lid a bit ajar.
After 2 hours, remove the lid and taste and adjust the salt. Return to oven for another hour.
Toward the end, you may want to dust the top with a bit of bread crumbs, to create the legendary crust. I prefer not to.