The food and drink of Provence

These wild herbs make their way into other produits artisanaux, that with a little digging can easily be unearthed from specialist shops and producers. This pink-hued liqueur, made with the colourful buds of mountain thyme is particular to the valley where it was made, but the joy of food shopping in France is that such unique offerings are available everywhere, if not in the supermarché.

Beer has never been a huge draw for me in France, displaying little of the craft and variety of the nation’s wines. But high in the Alps, in the Ubaye Valley, I found a real gem. After a fifty-year hiatus, traditional beers are once again being brewed in the mountains. La Brasserie des Hautes Vallees, France’s highest brewery at more than 1500 metres, is producing a range of bière sauvage – wild beer. Unpasteurised, unfiltered and bottle-fermented, they are made with local organic ingredients and pollution-free spring water for flavours that are unique to this wild mountain land.

Wine has been made in Provence for the past 2600 years and the oldest wine region in France is located here. Rosé accounts for nearly ninety percent of production, a focus that is unique to Provence, and the region sets the benchmark for this type of wine. Striking differences in climate, altitude, soils, rainfall and flora create a huge range of individual terroirs across the area’s nine protected AOCs, each with their own special characteristics. Les Baux de Provence, for example, is particularly suited to organic production due to its endless hours of hot, bright sun and strong Mistral winds. Palette is the smallest Provençal AOC, yet it is home to over twenty-five grape varietals; dedicated to the preservation of Provençal wine traditions, all its grapes are hand-harvested.

Meat has traditionally been eaten sparingly in the region; instead, vegetables play a key role. The Durance and Rhône valleys are found in Provence – two hugely fertile areas known as The Garden of France – and beautifully flavoured Mediterranean vegetables like tomatoes, aubergines, peppers, courgettes, fennel, artichokes, onions and garlic, as well as pulses like chickpeas, feature strongly. Some of the best food I had in Provence came from bakeries and street food stalls – hearty chunks of pie stuffed with courgettes and local cheese; pastry pizza topped with ripe, juicy tomatoes and socca; a hot, creamy chickpea pancake baked in huge round pans with plenty of olive oil.

Fruits – berries, figs, melons, persimmons, apples, citrus – are central to desserts, with the excess processed into all kinds of preserves. There are jams and spreads, but also pâtes de fruit – delicate set fruit purées in rainbow colours with a sparkly sugar coating.

Truffles also grow well in the area, loving, as they do, the same soils as vines. More than two-thirds of French truffles originate in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region and both the prized black Perigord truffle and the more common Burgundy truffle can be found here. An autumn or winter visit is the perfect time to enjoy this culinary treat, as the season ranges from November to March. Other wild mushrooms that grow abundantly in the varied landscape of Provence are also at their best as the days start to cool.

Olives are a feature of Provençal cuisine, piled high in markets and puréed into the region’s famous tapenade – a deeply flavourful blend of black olives, capers, anchovy, garlic and olive oil.

Olive oil is also an important regional product, although today’s producers are a different breed to the generations that preceded them. New to the art but dedicated to artisan production, they are reviving and modernising ancient traditions, creating complex, nuanced oils with a strong emphasis on production values and terroir. The limits of Provence’s crop means these oils are rarely found outside the region, so they are well worth seeking out.

There is so much more to discover. The wood-fired ovens found throughout the Alps, making smoky, charred pizzas and roasted meats. The huge range of seafood and the classic Provence dishes that showcase it – bouillabaisse, a fish stew served with rouille; fruits de mer, a plate of strikingly fresh seafood drizzled with fresh lemon; salad Niçoise, a joyful plate celebrating the best of land and sea. The speciality chèvre cheeses, only found within a few miles of the farms that makes them. There are producers with a long history of traditional production, but also a new generation who are remaking old recipes and reviving new skills. But to find out more about them, I guess you’ll just have to visit.