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Patisseries successful Paris
Of people you tin bask exquisitely crafted patisseries each implicit France, but Paris is location to galore of the country’s champion pâtissiers, and galore of the idiosyncratic gateaux person a transportation to the city. As you delve into the layers of almond sponge, ganache and buttercream that signifier the opera cake, you whitethorn spot however it was inspired by the ornate balconies of the Palais Garnier opera house; portion the Paris-Brest, a wheel-shaped choux, was archetypal made successful 1910 to commemorate the famously brutal rhythm race. Seek retired a rum baba – a brioche-like dainty soaked successful rum‑infused syrup – and you mightiness beryllium told the communicative of however it was created by Nicolas Stohrer, the cook of the exiled Polish king Stanislas. The patisserie that bears his sanction has been astatine 51 rue Montorgueil since 1730 and is officially classed arsenic a historical monument.
Among the 21st-century stars of the Parisian pastry country are Cyril Lignac, who makes a sublime caramel eclair; Yann Couvreur, who takes the chouquette (similar to a profiterole) to the adjacent level by filling it with vanilla cream; and Cedric Grolet, whose trompe l’oeil patisseries are arsenic astonishing to the oculus arsenic the sensation buds – they look conscionable similar the fruits and nuts of their flavours. Those with dietary requirements request not miss retired either. Vegans are precise good catered for astatine Land&Monkeys, portion determination is simply a immense scope of gluten-free cakes, pastries and breads astatine Noglu.
Where to stay The family-run Hotel Saint-Paul Rive Gauche has doubles from €198 room-only, sawdays.co.uk
Salade niçoise successful Vieux Nice
Heaven assistance anyone who expects to see potatoes and French beans in a salade niçoise erstwhile in Nice; the real thing contains neither (such a suggestion whitethorn beryllium met with a “quelle horreur” from a local). There is overmuch statement astir what it should contain, however; immoderate Niçois volition lone usage tuna or anchovies, not both, and lone canned, not fresh; others importune it should incorporate a definite kind of olive.
While the locals conflict it retired successful their kitchens, you tin bask the welcoming ambiance successful the family-run restaurants of Vieux Nice, wherever your lone dilemma is what to order. Look retired for the Cuisine Nissarde motion (it shows a woman successful a straw chapeau with a handbasket of vegetables), which denotes that dishes person been made traditionally with good-quality ingredients. At Restaurant Acchiardo (mains from €17), the household are arrogant to archer the communicative of their Italian great-grandmother Madalin, who walked crossed the Alps successful the aboriginal 20th period for a occupation with an aristocratic English family, and aboriginal acceptable up the restaurant. Their salade niçoise includes rocket, basil, tomatoes, artichoke, egg, anchovies and tuna, and makes a large starter earlier their mains, specified arsenic beef fillet “Madalin style”, with anchovies, ail and parsley. Another must-try crockery successful Nice is the chickpea-flour pancake socca, which you tin bargain by the portion astatine Chez Theresa (€3) successful the Cours Saleya market, oregon astatine Chez Pipo (€3.80), and nibble it arsenic you rotation astir the old town and the port.
Where to stay Hotel Windsor has doubles from €90 room-only, hotelwindsornice.com
Oysters successful Bassin d’Arcachon
True fans of gourmet bivalves volition cognize that their flavour changes depending connected wherever they grow, which means you tin person amusive visiting antithetic areas of France to savour them, whether that beryllium Cancale successful Brittany oregon the Étang de Thau adjacent Montpellier. One of the astir enchanting areas to effort les huitres is the Bassin d’Arcachon connected the coast, an hour’s thrust westbound of Bordeaux.
On the Cap Ferret peninsula that curls astir the bay, you tin rhythm done the conifer forests and villas to oyster farmers’ villages specified arsenic L’Herbe, wherever you tin bargain nonstop from producers specified arsenic Chez Guillaume (half a twelve from €7). Order a platter and a solid of chilled achromatic wine, and swig them backmost arsenic you respect Europe’s tallest soil dune, the Dune de Pilat, crossed the water. When you’re done with the oysters, you tin instrumentality a surf lesson connected the Atlantic seashore of Cap Ferret, wherever the waves clang to shore. Or successful the bay, instrumentality a boat trip to the Île aux Oiseaux, wherever the brackish marshes are location to 150 taxon of birds. Nearby, the Cabanes Tchanquées are 2 cabins connected stilts that connection a cleanable vantage constituent of the bay.
Where to stay La Maison du Bassin has doubles from €180 room-only, lamaisondubassin.com
Choucroute garnie successful Strasbourg
The Alsatian capital has agelong been a gourmet hotspot, truthful overmuch truthful that the Büchmesser – the belly measurer – was erected other the cathedral successful 1567 to measurement the girth of the city’s enthusiastic eaters. See if you tin shimmy done the constrictive spread betwixt the gathering and the file connected the country of rue Mercière astatine the commencement of your trip, due to the fact that there’s nary mode you’ll acceptable done it by the end, particularly if you indulge successful the city’s signature dish, choucroute garnie. This sheet of fermented cabbage topped by antithetic cuts of pork and sausage is a staple connected the menus of the city’s accepted vino taverns, oregon winstubs, with their gingham tablecloths, carved woody furnishings and fantabulous vino lists, wherever you tin walk a bully portion of a day enjoying the cosy atmosphere.
Among the champion is Chez Yvonne (mains from €18.50), which dates from 1873 and aboriginal became a favourite of erstwhile French president Jacques Chirac, who erstwhile invited Boris Yeltsin to dine with him there. For his choucroute, cook Serge Cutillo has cautiously chosen each chopped of nutrient from apical section butchers. If you privation to effort a non-pork version, publication a array astatine the past edifice Maison Kammerzell (mains from €20.50), which celebrates its 600th day successful 2027 and looks similar it comes consecutive retired of a Grimm fairytale. Its speciality is simply a decadent buttery food choucroute with halibut, salmon and smoked haddock, which makes a pleasant alteration from the nutrient feasts elsewhere, though they service different versions with meats including confit duck limb (see the Dordogne, below).
Where to enactment Okko Hotel has doubles from €76 room-only, okkohotels.com
Confit de canard successful the Dordogne
Dishes utilizing ducks and geese person been a staple successful the south-west of France since the mediate ages and it became peculiarly casual to rear the birds aft maize was brought to France from the Americas and grew easy successful the lukewarm clime of the Dordogne. The best-loved crockery is confit de canard, successful which the legs of a duck (or goose, oie successful French) are salted and past cooked and preserved successful their ain fat. Once reheated, the tender nutrient conscionable falls disconnected the bone. It features connected menus successful bistros and restaurants successful the region’s villages and towns of honey-coloured stone, specified arsenic La Roque-Gageac and Tremolat, wherever you tin find a large mentation astatine Le Bistrot de la Place (€28 arsenic portion of a three-course meal). The champion happening astir the dish, though, is that it is casual to instrumentality location successful tins and jars acceptable to reheat. Look retired for it successful the fantabulous markets astatine Sarlat-la-Canèda (Wednesday and Saturday) and Issigeac (Sunday). You tin besides sojourn producers connected their farms; astatine La Garrigue Haute they service dishes featuring their cautiously reared ducks and geese from early June to late September (three-course menus from €28).
Where to stay Hotel Edward Premier in the charming village of Monpazier has doubles from €97 room-only, hoteledward1er.com
Gâteau nantais successful Nantes
The metropolis of Nantes has mastered reinvention, with unthinkable thoroughfare art installations and Les Machines de L’Île, a cultural task that includes a 12m-high mechanical elephant and ocean-inspired steampunk carousel. Yet its signature barroom pays testament to its past arsenic a shipbuilding powerhouse. The metropolis was liable for gathering thousands of ships progressive successful the enslaved trade, and gâteau nantais, the city’s signature cake, is made with ingredients from the Caribbean, specified arsenic sugar, vanilla and rum. You tin find it successful the city’s bakeries, including La Petite Boulangerie, wherever adept baker Franck Dépériers makes an fantabulous version.
Nantes openly acknowledges its portion successful the enslaved trade, and you tin sojourn the Memorial of the Abolition of Slavery connected the riverside astatine Quai de la Fosse. There is besides a moving accumulation astatine the Château des ducs de Bretagne, which shows the brutal conditions connected the ships. As the name of the chateau suggests, the city also has a historically Breton identity, truthful it’s a bully spot to tuck into buckwheat galettes and crêpes – determination are bully ones astatine some outposts of Le Loup, le Renard et la Galette (mains from €13). The metropolis precocious gained different jewel successful its culinary crown erstwhile the gourmet website La Liste named it Gastronomic Destination of 2025.
Where to enactment Sōzō Hotel has doubles from €124 room-only, sozohotel.fr
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Cassoulet successful south-west France
There are 3 towns successful south-west France that assertion cassoulet arsenic their signature dish. In Castelnaudary, radical proudly archer a charming communicative astir its invention during a siege in the people of the 100 years war, during which each disposable ingredients were piled into a pot for a sustaining repast and the force was held astatine bay. They observe it with gusto astatine the Fête du Cassoulet, 5 days of concerts, parades and eating arsenic overmuch of the stew arsenic you tin successful the town’s squares and marketplace halls during August. The tourer bureau besides has accusation astir the Route du Cassoulet, a 170km loop that allows you to find section restaurants and conscionable duck producers and the craftspeople who marque the indispensable cassole pot, from which the stew takes its name. It besides includes a halt astatine chap cassoulet municipality Carcassonne.
At the Toulouse à Table festival (May-November), meanwhile, you can join successful with an effort to acceptable a world grounds of serving 3,031 idiosyncratic pots of cassoulet to enthusiastic diners astatine Le Grand Banquet successful the Jardin du Grand Rond parkland connected 17 May. If you’d alternatively devour your cassoulet successful solitude, prime up a pot astatine the Marché Victor Hugo to take back to your lodgings. Alternatively, instrumentality a nutrient circuit with Taste of Toulouse oregon publication into 1 of the galore restaurants that serve it. Good versions are disposable at the blase Le Bibent (€30, different mains from €24) successful the city’s expansive cardinal quadrate Place du Capitole, oregon the homelier Restaurant Emile (€26 with confit de canard), wherever the terrasse overlooks the leafy Place Saint-Georges.
Where to stay The eco-friendly Hotel Albert Premier has doubles from €110 room-only, hotel-albert1.com
Axoa successful the Basque Country
When you’re exploring France’s Basque country, you can’t miss the strings of chilli peppers hanging in front of restaurants, shops, market stalls and red-and-white timber-framed buildings: this is the piment d’Espelette. Much loved for its gentle heat, it is dried and crushed to flavour dishes and products from charcuterie to chocolate, and is utilized liberally successful a local crockery called axoa (pronounced ah-cho-ah), a stew of chopped veal, bulb and peppers, with a warming smoky-sweet flavour. Try it successful the colony of Espelette itself, astatine restaurants similar Aintzina, which means “long ago” successful Basque, wherever it’s served with crispy ail potatoes for other piquancy (mains from €20).
Chefs crossed France emotion to sprinkle piment successful their dishes, and it’s worth taking a jar location to pep up thing arsenic elemental arsenic scrambled eggs oregon guacamole. Shops successful the colony each merchantability it successful powdered form, as well arsenic successful jellies, ketchups and sauces, and it’s worthy visiting the Atelier du Piment connected the outskirts to find retired much astir however it’s grown and dried. If you sojourn successful autumn, you’ll spot flame-red peppers growing connected the neat rows of vines and drying connected racks earlier they’re crushed into powder.
Where to stay The welcoming Hotel Arraya successful the village of Sare has doubles from £110 room-only, en.arraya.com
Tartiflette successful the Alps
When you’ve been skiing oregon hiking successful the mountains, there’s nary amended mode to refuel than with a serving of tartiflette. This creamy, oven-baked dish, layered with potato, onion, food and bacon, is nutrient for the psyche and originates successful the Aravis mountains, wherever it was alternatively unromantically invented successful its modern signifier successful the 1980s to beforehand its cardinal ingredient, Reblochon food (though it is based connected an 18th-century dish, péla).
The communicative down the earthy cow’s beverage cheese, with its brushed texture and nutty flavour, is much intriguing. It was archetypal made successful the 13th period because, fable has it, mountain-dwelling farmers had to manus implicit beverage to their landlords, and truthful would not afloat beverage their cows. They would past bash a duplicitous 2nd milking for themselves, with which they’d marque the food – successful aged French reblocher means to compression an udder again. The resort of Le Grand Bornandis successful the bosom of the Aravis mountains, and so an perfect spot to effort it. La Ferme du Pépé (mains from €21.50) is acceptable successful a cosy farmhouse that dates from 1800 and is proud of its tartiflette and different Savoyard specialities, including fondue and raclette.
Where to enactment The cosy Hotel Le Delta has doubles from €110 room-only, hotel-delta74.com
Poulet Gaston Gérard successful Dijon
Photograph: Image Professionals GmbH/Alamy
Burgundy is wherever you’ll find profoundly comforting dishes specified arsenic beef bourguignon and oeufs en meurettes. There are besides recipes made with its superior breed of chicken, the poulet de Bresse, specified arsenic coq au vin. Another chickenhearted crockery to effort successful the regional superior of Dijon combines it with different section speciality – mustard – and bears the sanction of a former mayor, Gaston Gérard. In 1930, Gérard invited Curnonsky, the leading nutrient professional of the time, to dinner, lone for his woman to sound a pot of mustard into the pan. In a swift determination of culinary ingenuity, she rescued the crockery with the assistance of immoderate cream, achromatic vino and Comté cheese. Curnonsky past named it after her husband. Thankfully, immoderate restaurants successful Dijon instrumentality the honour to her connected their menus. As you would expect from specified affluent ingredients, it’s quite a wintery dish. Try it astatine L’Epicerie & Cie successful Dijon’s lively Place Emile Zola, which serves fantabulous versions of the Burgundy classical dishes (mains from €15). If you want to prime up a cookware of mustard, go to La Moutarderie Edmond Fallot connected rue de la Chouette.
Where to enactment Mama Shelter Dijon has doubles from €140 room-only, mamashelter.com/dijon
Amuse Bouche: How to Eat Your Way Around France by Carolyn Boyd is published successful paperback by Profile connected 8 May astatine £10.99. To enactment the Guardian, bid your transcript astatine guardianbookshop.com
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