The Rhone Alps region is literally bursting with fresh, natural produce. Its gastronomic flair is based not only on the solid foundations of regional cooking, whether from the Savoie, Ardèche or Forez, but also on the skills of the region’s great chefs and the quality of its local products. A number of these also bear the Appellation d'Origine Controlee (AOC) quality mark.

© RA Tourisme / R. Schleipman


The AOC

The Rhone Alps is recognised as the principal region of taste. Blue cheese from Gex, walnuts from Grenoble, the picodon cheese from Drôme-Ardèche. All of these products, plus many others, today bear the AOC label proving their exceptional quality. It is the same for the “tanche” variety of Nyons olive, which was the first to be awarded an AOC in 1994. Then there is the special Bresse poultry, or more particularly the “poulet de Bresse”, which is the only chicken in France and elsewhere to be awarded a specific quality label.

Abundance and Diversity of its “Terroirs”

You can start your meal with the various speciality “charcuteries” from Lyon, the Ardèche or the Savoie, followed by chicken from Bresse or fish from the Dombes or the mountain lakes and rivers, or perhaps even lamb from the Baronnies, all dishes that are sure to make any self-respecting gourmet’s mouth water in anticipation.

And then there are truffles from the Tricastin, black olives from Nyons, juicy Rhône valley fruits, red summer fruits from the Lyon area as well as chestnuts from the Ardèche.

The region’s cheese platter is quite simply one of the finest in the whole of France: Rigotte de Condrieu, Reblochon and Beaufort from Savoie, Bleu de Bresse, Picodon Drômois and Saint-Félicien ardéchois, Saint Marcellin dauphinois, Fourmes and Briques de la Loire. Taste “à la lyonnaise”, as part of a “mâchon” or traditional workers’ meal, in one of Lyon’s “bouchons” or after a day’s skiing in the form of a raclette, fondue Savoyarde or tartiflette.