Photo by ANTONI SHKRABA on Pexels.com The village of Mouriès in Provence (13 Bouches-du-Rhone, Provence PACA), southeast of Avignon celebrates its local green table olives with a Green Olive Festival…

I tend to think of Garlic as a rather inert product when its on the supermarket shelf, with its clean hard bulbs. But of course, it is a vegetable from…

  • Post category:32 GersFrance - Food
  • Post last modified:August 22, 2008

Apparently there is a type of pain d'epices (spice cake, rather like gingerbread) made with honey which is designed to go with Foie Gras (Goose Liver)! So I learn from…

The Telegraph (19 Aug 08) includes a boat trip up the Rhone Valley as one of its top 10 river cruises: Navigating France’s mightiest river is a favourite for wine…

Caen (14, Calvados, Normandy) is a major French port and a cross-channel ferry port - but, of course, the Ferry docks at Ouistreham which is on the coast, whilst the…

Reilhaguet in the Lot, FranceI am a great fan of the Lot département (46 Midi-Pyrenees), initially from wine-hunting around the town of Cahors, and more recently further upstream on the Rivers Lot and Célé, where the landscapes get even more enticing. A recent trip was greatly enhanced by having Helen Martin’s book Lot: Travels Through a Limestone Landscape in SouthWest France, which tells the story of the landscape and people of this region of South West France.
It was her recommendation which led us to the stunning view at Reilhaguet (46 Lot) (see above) which she accurately describes as “the view to end all views, a roof of the world view, a heart-stopping, aching, yearning view” (about 25km north of Cahors just east of the N20).
But one of the undoubted joys of the region has to be its gastronomy and the richness of its markets, and with Helen’s permission we can share an extract from her chapter on “Food and Drink in the Lot”

Eating and drinking in the Lot is not so much gastronomy, it is more a way of life. Simple pleasures like early-morning mushrooming results in gastronomic treats at meal times.
The food used to revolve around the polyculture practised by the small propriétaires, less so today. But fruits are still bottled, geese are still stuffed, pigs are fattened, påtés are tinned, ducks are turned into hunks of confit, and yellow chickens, dotted with oil and butter and legs akimbo, are forced into ovens to emerge an hour or so later, tasting simply sensational. It is a day-in, day-out, year-long occupation. Tout es bou per sa sason ‘To everything there is a season’ takes on new meaning. ©Helen Martin

Helen Martin writes more about the Lot in her blog at http://lotbook.blogspot.com/

To read more about Food and Wine in the Lot see……… (more…)

The Montmartre vineyard in the heart of Paris is well-known, but the BK Wine Blog reports that a new vineyard has been established in the grounds of the Brettoneau Hospital…

Guy Cuisset at Chateau Grinou in Bergerac is an extraordinary winemaker - for years his wines took pride of place on the Allez Vins! wine list both with his "Tradition"…

At last some sense has arrived in the classification of Bordeaux wines/ Whilst at one exalted level there are the fine wines of the classic appellations of Margaux, St Emilion,…

Annecy Festival of the Lake The beautiful lake of Annecy (74 Haute-Savoie, Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes) in the heart of alpine Savoy, is well worth a visit at any time. The town of…

The town of Grasse (06 Alpes-Maritimes, Provence PACA) is famous for being the heart of the Provencal perfumery industry with evocative names such as Fragonard to entice you. Set up…

The village of Espelette (64 Pyrenees-Atlantiques, Nouvelle Aquitaine) in the Basque country of Southwest France devotes a weekend to celebrates with its Red Pepper Festival - Fete du Piment on…

Against the setting of the Riviera and the Mediterranean, Cannes (06 Alpes-Maritimes, Provence) holds a series of spectacular pyrotechnic extravaganzas Cannes Fireworks Festival (Festival d'Art Pyrotechnique) on evenings between 14…