Food and Drink in Provence As simple as they are exciting, the culinary traditions of Provence and the Southern Alps entice lovers of sunny, colourful cuisine and seduce the most demanding palates.
The flavours and aromas reveal worlds that are echoed by the lively market stalls.
Quality restaurants rated in the "good food" guides are also plentiful as this region has always been a source of inspiration to chefs.
Wines and Vineyards
Provence has been a vine-growing area from time immemorial. In this land said to be "blessed by the gods", Mother Nature has done wonderful things as the vine is one of the jewels in her crown.
This area offers a tremendous field of discovery for connoisseurs and lovers of the good life. Setting out on a discovery of the vineyards provides an opportunity to take in some of the most beautiful parts of the region and stop off at a number of prestigious locations.
Organise your itinerary from vines to villages, from farms to châteaux, from estates to cellars, from wine festivals to wine museums.
Local Produce
Provencal cooking, based on garlic, herbs and olive oil is enjoyed for its flavours and its richness. Regional products can be discovered on the market stalls or direct from the farmers and the restaurants.
In Praise of the Olive
Irreplaceable, it plays the starring role in the local cooking. The comeback of natural products has encouraged a new taste for this fruit called “symbolic”, because what is more typically Provencal than the olive and its flavourful oil?
Tanche, picholine, Salonenque… there are as many varieties as there are districts.
A Garden Paradise
Used with all of the regional sauces, aubergines, courgettes, artichokes, carrots and garlic augment the traditional recipes. Eaten warm or cold, the traditional ratatouille is a favourite.
Fruits are also stars among the local products. In summer, and even in winter, they are greatly enjoyed in their seasons for their quality. Look out forCressane apples, melons from Cavaillon, cherries from Apt, and strawberries from Carpentras.
©CRT PACA / M. Raynaud
Crystallised Fruit
The favourite sweet of Pope VI and Madame de Sévigné allowed the town of Apt to become famous over the centuries as the crystallised fruit capital.
Lambs and Bulls
Lamb from the Alpilles de la Crau and from Sisteron is justly famous for the meat’s tenderness and good taste. The Camargue bull is also reared in the herds in the Camargue, it is served spit-roasted or stewed.
Charcuterie
Visit the Thoard district in the Haute Provence Alps for its sausage with herbs or cabbage. Try aromatic fresh sausage from the Southern Alps and Moutounesso, and lamb ham from Pra-Loup, in the Haute-Provence Alps.
A delicious dried sausage, the saucisson d’Arles, is worthy to represent the cream of French charcuterie, and the caillette from Var, a ball of meat, vegetables and herbs may be eaten hot or cold.
Seafood
In coastal markets, like the famous Old Port in Marseilles, or on the quayside, the fisherman come to offer the fruits of the Mediterranean. Here you’ll find the iodine flavours that permeate Provencal cooking: sardines, tuna, scorpion fish, seabream, cuttlefish, bream, conger eels, mullet, eels, red mullet, mussels, sea-urchins, vidats, squids, combined with delicate herbs and olive oil.
The ports along the coast celebrate the produce of the sea in numerous feasts - thonades, sardinades, oursinades – and the seaside restaurants offer many traditional dishes.
Farmhouse cheeses
The tradition born of rearing livestock between the Alps and Provence, and knowledge handed down from one generation to the next, provides treats for hikers and punctuate the markets with their flavourful aromas.
Enjoy the Banon with goat’s milk, wrapped in chestnut leaves or the Brousse from Var and Rove, a curdled fromage frais made from ewe’s milk. In the Haute-Alpes, try the Bleu du Queyras, attractively coated in parsley, the Tomme d’Arles with ewe’s milk, the Champoléon or “cheese with three milks”, the Tomme du Champsaur. Also, don’t miss the “chèvres” of the plain of the Crau and the Alpilles.
Honey, a Local Sweet
It is one of those small treats that you can’t resist. Ideal for spreading on bread for breakfast or a snack, it comes in many flavours including lavender, thyme, and acacia.
Almonds are also popular and are used in many biscuits and sweets, such a Calissons d’Aix, nougats, croquants.
Berlingots from Carpentras are many-coloured sweets that have been made since 1844. They were created from a sugar and peppermint mixture by a pastrycook and confectioner born in Carpentras the previous century. They are found in most of the confectioner’s shops in Carpentras.
Calissons
Since antiquity, gourmands have had the idea of mixing almonds and crystallised fruit, but it had to wait for the almond to be introduced in the15th Century and the development of its trade in Aix before the first Calissons could be created in Aix in the 19th Century.
According to the master Calisson makers, it owes its initial taste to the sweet Provence almond and its softness to the crystallised oranges and melons gorged with syrup, and its coat is a sheet of eucharist bread covered with royal icing. Calissons are sold in most of the bakers in Aix.
Truffles, the Black Diamonds
Rare and expensive, the truffle is also known as the “black diamond”. The “rabasse”, its Provencal name, mainly hides on the slopes of Mont Ventoux or in the Luberon, but is also found in the Var and on the Valensole plateau, in the Haute Provence Alps.