Tasty tour in the South of France

When referring to French gastronomy and even emphasising comparisons with other local cuisines, one usually refers to the cuisine cultivated by restaurants in Paris and the culture that has developed from them.

A family trip to the south of France allowed me to revisit and admire the cuisine of the French south. It is cooking with finesse and mastery, with apparent influences from its Italian neighbours, who deservedly compete with high gastronomy, and with more rustic textures from island cuisines such as Corsica. After all, Provence and local gastronomy have always had a different trajectory from classic French cuisine.

My route starts from the bustling St. Tropez. There, we tried the Italian Cucina (curated by Alain Ducasse) at the Byblos Hotel. But good French cuisine in an Italian setting? Of course! Another version of Italian gastronomy is more airy and more refined than classic flavours, such as the often tedious vitello tonnato, a Neapolitan pizza margarita with stracciatella truly unbeatable, a linguine vongole with authentic vongole that can hardly be matched in balance and flavours by the best Italian osteria. The parmigiana di melanzane brought tears to your eyes, all in a lovely garden in the centre of St Tropez.

Next stop: Le Café! Adventurous, smiling, bustling in the southern trend that knows how to have fun and how to stay up late with meaning! French Southern cuisine with simple flavours. I stood out for the eggs with leek à la mimosa, the perfect veal sweetbreads, and a fantastic niçoise with fresh tuna. The twist was the fun with live music until 2:00 a.m. Allez! Tousdebout! For the brave, the fun continued until dawn, just next door at the famous Club Les Caves du Roy.

I would be doing St. Tropez (with its many Michelin-starred restaurants that I didn`t have time to honour) an injustice if I didn`t make special mention of two restaurants that you can only visit at midday: Byblos Beach and the notorious Club 55. I will omit to mention the beach infrastructure (sunbeds, etc.), which is rudimentary compared to our now high-end standards.

At Byblos Beach (au bord de la mer) we tried an original tarte tatin with tomato and pine nuts. I could never have imagined how well a simple tomato can be brought out in the right hands... far from fancy suggestions and complicated flavour combinations! This was followed by a decadent yet airy sole meunière with capers and beurre noisette mild in both intensity, density and nuance. All this was accompanied by a simple rosé wine of which I was unaware of its existence: the Cuvée Elégance 2023 from the Mas de Pampelonne vineyard, dear... It is next to the famous Pampelonne beach that hugs the Gulf of St. Tropez. Its aromas touch a Silex and make you think that far away from the much-publicized rosés of the south, there are still, even today, hidden gems... Wherever you get it (in 2023), don`t hesitate!

Two words about the passage from the historic Le Club 55. It has been lazily left in its time... with all the good things and its anachronistic "deck chairs" (a mattress downstairs with a rudimentary wooden headboard). On the plus side, Club 55`s restaurant is listed. Stable value. Fresh vegetable salad to cut it yourself à volonté..., jumbo prawns with corail sauce, roasted corn with butter sauce reminiscent of childhood and a ratatouille-like the one you see in the children`s play of the same name and drooling. We tried Christfish (saint-pierre so you can spot it immediately when it`s recommended), masterfully roasted and accompanied by a buttery sauce that takes it to the top. As poorly done as it is, it can be just as successful in the right hands of a masterful cook. The meal ends with a tartetropeziénne, an airy brioche, and deep cream flavoured with fresh red fruit.

Before I go into two more places worth visiting gastronomically, I`ll mention a small, quaint, strangely peaceful and full of art. It is Le Castellet. The medieval village with its 15th-century castle is located in the centre of Bandole, and you will be amazed at the number of itinerant painters and art exhibitions in every nook and alley you stroll through. If the road takes you there, on the border of northern Provence, in addition to an obligatory visit to the 12th-century church of Saint-Saveur, try a Chausson crepe (I`d suggest wholemeal) with whatever your heart draws you in and quench your thirst with cider.

Now, let`s go further southeast: to the mystical Eze. The village where Nitzsche lived and completed his famous work "Thus Spoke Zarathustra". Small churches with large domes, often cloudy from the wave of humidity and fog that covers this hilly village, give a mystical atmosphere to the cobbled streets. In one of them, Mahler`s classical symphonic music overwhelms even the most unsuspecting passer-by. Every step, every corner pleasantly surprises you. An obligatory stop at least for an aperitif, if not for dinner, at the hotel Château La Chèvre d`Or. Its terrace, perched on the Eze cliff, helps to contemplate the entire bay of Beaulieu sur Mer and the romantic Cape St. Jean Cap Ferrat. In the open-air space of Les Remparts restaurant, gaze out over the Mediterranean and sip a glass of champagne accompanied by a multitude of "humble" sardines, apparently a favourite ingredient of the diasporic chef for tapas in the hotel`s lush courtyard. Inland, you`ll find the diasporic La Chèvre d`Or restaurant in an impressive glass-panelled room overlooking Monte Carlo on one side and St. Jean Cap Ferrat on the other. The cuisine is avant-gardiste, focusing mainly on fish, while meat appears only on pigeon breast on this year`s tasting menu. Don`t miss the crab (torteaux) with a crispy crepe, apricots, and saffron from the Alpine Sospel. The raw material of the highest quality, views as far as the eye can see, and a wine cellar that challenges the most discerning. It`s worth the sacrifice to give a chance to a menu accompanied by a Jacques Selosse or any other cabana that would, in your opinion, accentuate a pure seafood walk. A word of advice: don`t go there after sunset for dinner! Enjoy it accompanied by soft music and a magnificent view. No matter how often I`ve been there, I want to return! Something like the canzone Torna a Surriento...

And from the hills, one descends to the coast, to Beaulieu-sur-Mer with its lush, green villas of the non-parvenus holidaymakers of the south and, at the edge, the enchanting Saint-Jean-cap-Ferrat. The Grand Hôtel, now part of the Four Seasons chain, dominates there. In the idyllic garden, under a "mattress" of ancient pine trees that makes one wonder if it`s real or a figment of Edgar Allan Poe`s imagination, you`ll find La Veranda (article presentation photo): the hotel`s casual restaurant (the gastronomic Cap on another trip...). Dinner is accompanied by soft live music and pure Mediterranean French cuisine. Filet pepperoni is finished in front of you with flambé and creamy sauce, sautéed barbecue with vegetables, and buttery sauce. Still, with fish dominating the palette, lobster ravioli and an extremely up-to-date wine list shared between La Veranda and the gastronomic restaurant Le Cap, which is housed on the side. In its modern cellar, you`ll find everything from simple, earthy Provençal wines to all the great reds from Bordeaux or Burgundy. An impressive collection of vintage collections from DRC`s Grands-Echézeaux and La Tâche for anyone ready to invest a five-figure number for a one-night stand.

The trip ended in Monte Carlo. If you defy the bustling plaza in which you gawk over coffee at whatever supercar is on the world`s roads, take the time to try the atmospheric Amazonico. New arrival in the region after London, Dubai. South American cuisine with Brazilian skewers of rump steak, excellent cuts of lamb, potato tapas with Iberico pork (Patacones Mechados), mince pies (to render empanadas in Greek) with wagyu beef and truffle cream and excellent cocktails. Live band, views of the illuminated casino and the legendary Hôtel de Paris. It`s a superb nightclub in the same space to "burn off" dinner calories by dancing until the morning!

I close with my all-time favourite, Alain Ducasse`s Louis XV three-star restaurant headed by the experienced chef Emmanuel Pilon with a tenure - albeit an ephemeral one - even at ADMO (Adrià Ducasse Mederaux Ombres). Don`t forget to wear a jacket on the terrace or in the Salle Empire, gentlemen! The menu has constantly evolved over the last few years, and I have visited twice without missing the classics! The San Remo shrimp layered with golden caviar and rockfish jelly is there! The mains are almost all refreshed. Impressive lobster with geranium vegetables and flowers, sensational plum pigeon with liver boudin and other pigeon goodies, excellent vegan dishes like eggplant with black garlic and vegetable misote with eggplant. The desserts have been dominated for more than twenty years by the legendary baba au rhum with airy vanilla cream and a selection of all the XOs of the rums: a tasting with Clément Cuvée Robert Peronet will convince you. Menu changes include the - in my opinion, erroneous - restriction of the selection of pastries (the mythical croissants are no more), while the frozen mountain of fresh butter that inspired our own Hector at Corfu`s Etrusco is no longer there... I was also left with mixed impressions by the drastically limited wine list, not missing some great labels that the gracious and well-educated Hélène Dutech, sous-chef sommelier, studiously - and rightly - avoids recommending.