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The Independent’s Simon Calder narrates an interesting and informative Podcast which you can download and take with you to the cosmopolitan city of Nice, an easy option with many budget airlines flying in from numerous UK airports - or take the TGV from London!

Beginning in the Promenade des Anglais, Simon Calder explores the Matisse Museum and admires the beautiful views of the hills of Provence. He also samples the region’s cuisine, trying traditional corn pancakes and dining at the luxurious Aphrodite restaurant, before tasting some locally produced wine.

The local wine is called Bellet AOC.The vineyards lie within the city limits in the hills above the town. Seldom seen in the UK, the whites are made from Rolle and some Chardonnay with Folle Noir for the reds with some Grenache and Cinsault. Rosé comes from Braquet and Cinsault. Yapp Brothers stock the Bellet AC wines of Domaine de la Source - the rosé 2007 being “a dry and fruity rosé with aromas of wild roses. On the palate, red berry flavours precede a clean, dry finish.”, whilst the 2007 Blanc is described as “An esoteric dry white wine with subtle hints of Provençal pine. The wine displays aromas of pear and wild flowers when young and quince and toasted almonds when it reaches maturity. The dry but fruity palate has balanced acidity and good fruit characteristics, preceding an alluring dry finish.”

Some Links:
Hi Hotel
Musée Matisse in Nice
Aphrodite Restaurant
Nice Official Tourist Office

The village of Lautrec (81 Tarn, Midi-Pyrenees) is proud of its local pink garlic (l’ail rose) and celebrates this every year in August with a Festival, market, competitions and music.

According to Chocolate & Zucchini. one of the best food websites:-

Apart from its undeniable attractiveness, l’Ail Rose de Lautrec is also distinguished for its aromatic and subtle taste, sweeter and milder than its white cousin. It also keeps for much longer, six months to a year. It can be used anywhere you would normally use garlic — raw or cooked, sliced, chopped, crushed or unpeeled (”en chemise”, which means “shirt on”) — but also in a variety of recipes created especially for it : a pink garlic soup, a walnut and pink garlic tart, a lime and garlic sorbet, and even a pink garlic chocolate cake!

For more on Lautrec’s Pink Garlic and the Festival see www.ailrosedelautrec.com

Lautrec also holds an annual Bread and Windmills Festival (Fete des Pains et Saveurs) 15 August 2008, celebrating the making of bread from milling the wheat in a traditional windmill through to the finished product!

For more on the Tarn and our customised map

An interesting little video on the Guardian Online site about the struggle to protect the genuine Camembert cheese from Normandy. I had not realised that the name Camembert is not protected in the same way as Champagne wine or Pont l’Eveque cheese, so almost anyone can make a soft cows milk cheese and call it Camembert. The only product which is protected is the raw-milk (lait cru) Camembert de Normandie AOC, which is strictly controlled and limited to only 5 producers in Normandy.

I must admit I have just checked the Camembert I had for lunch yesterday (very nice and in that perfect state of gloopiness before the ammonia kicks in) - but it is not an AOC, despite being made by a reputable (but big) French producer in Normandy!

For genuine Camembert de Normandie AOC in the UK try Turnbull’s Deli in Shaftesbury, Dorset.

For our customised map of the Orne département CLICK HERE

For much more on Camembert Read more on this…

It looks exactly like the Café du Port on the quai Deschamps; it’s uncanny, as if they’ve brought the tiles and the brass fitments over piece by piece. You look out of the window expecting to see the Garonne, and instead you’re on Park Lane

The Telegraph (11 April 08) recommends some places to eat authentic French cuisine in the UK - the above description is about a new eatery in London’s Park Lane called Bord’eaux (which translates as “waterside”)
A meal at a decent French restaurant in the UK might just provide a cheaper alternative to a trip to France this year, bearing in mind the disastrous Euro exchange rate (currently £1=€1.20 at the Post Office).

The Cafe du Port in Bordeaux is on the right bank of the river and overlooks the port area with impressive views of the sweeping curve of the Garonne and Napoleon’s stone bridge (Pont de Pierre). Fish is their speciality.

Another option in Bordeaux is la Tupina “authentic southwest” in rue porte de la Monnaie (see map) which was recommended by Rick Stein in his Rick Stein’s French Odyssey series series and Voted 2^nd Best Bistrot in the world by the New York Herald Tribune!

See our customised Google Map of Bordeaux

Other recommendations from the Telegraph article for eating French in the UK:-
The Great House, Market Place, Lavenham in Suffolk - an attractive small medieval village in the middlle of East Anglia- “A striking medieval English building houses a romantic room serving classic Gallic cuisine. Try the hearty pavé of beef in a rich red-wine sauce with beef marrow”

French Living in Nottingham, which also featured in our article on where to eat Cassoulet. This endearing rustic bistro is decked out with checked tablecloths and serves onglet à l’échalote, using a typically French cut of beef with a sauce of shallots and veal stock, sautéed potatoes and seasoned vegetables

Restaurant Bosquet in Kenilworth,Warwickshire which focuses on the gastronomy of SW France The chef Bernard Lignier’s south-western French roots add character to this little restaurant in a terrace. Much of the menu has modern touches, but the starter of quail with Puy lentils and foie gras could not be more classically French. Their wine list features a good selection of the wines of Southwest France - Madiran, Cahors and Jurancon.

The Independent (5 April 08) has another article based on research (this time from the French National Statistics Institute) which shows that your chances of getting to a healthy old age are better in France than in the UK, and that this is probably due to both diet and red wine!

Despite the French passion for cream, eggs and foie gras, le digestif after a meal, and an addiction to Gitanes cigarettes, they have half our obesity levels, less than half our death rate from heart disease and lower rates of cancer in women (but not men). They play boules and cycle, even in their dotage, which keeps them active enough to enjoy lunch. And lunch they take very seriously – a proper, sit-down, three- or four-course meal from an early age…. there are regional differences. Expectation of life is higher in the south of France than in the north, and especially high in the south-west. If you truly wish to live to be 100, you could try the red wine, olive oil, poultry, fish and haricots of the typical French south-western diet.. Then there is the wine. There have been rapid increases in wine sales in the UK in the past decade, yet British consumption at 27 litres a head per year still has a long way to go to match the French at 64 litres. Despite drinking in greater quantities, the French drink more moderately, with meals, as opposed to binge drinking in Britain.

This tends to reinforce the value of tannic red wines such as Madiran with its high levels of procyanadin which is thought to have beneficial effects on the heart.

I suspect that is also has something to do with the pace of life, as outside of Paris things do appear less frenetic than in the UK - people do stop for lunch and generally seem less hassled - athough not necessarily better humoured! The availability of fresh, locally sourced seasonal food is also clearly better in the many small local markets - and shopping at the market itself can be less stressful than going to the supermarket.
The Red Wine Diet