In a place with so much diversity, there are as many food traditions as areas. The palette of flavours grows a little wider every step of the way, from local home-grown products to traditional recipes and dishes by renowned creative chefs.
The products of Languedoc-Roussillon come from an area stretching from the coast to the mountains. At the seaside, shellfish platters heaped with oysters, mussels and clams delight the tastebuds. So do the countless Mediterranean fish sought-after for their flavour, including tuna, bream and sea bass.
Orchards and gardens grow gorgeous fruits, vegetables and herbs all along the plain. The olive, the culinary queen here, finds good company in basil, thyme, rosemary, bay leaf and sorrel.
Higher up, where the vegetation is sparser, you enter the tempting land of chestnuts, wild mushrooms and Lozère cheeses.
Delicious combinations
The region’s fresh products have given rise to countless recipes with names that tantalise our palates: aligot and tripoux from Lozère, cassoulet from Castelnaudary, gardiane de taureau from Camargue, brandade from Nîmes, rouille and tielle from Sète, Catalan cream, brasucade, cargolade, bullinade and pâtés from Pézenas, tapenades and more. Discover them at markets, speciality shops and restaurants with the "Restaurateurs de France" label, which do an outstanding job of preparing local home-grown products to their best advantage.
From vine to wine
Vines are everywhere in Languedoc-Roussillon, where growing wine grapes is a passion and a tradition. Vineyards are inseparable from history in this region.
Each village, or almost, has a cooperative wine cellar. Between year-round sunshine,soil with unique characteristics, and winds that keep the vines healthy, Languedoc-Roussillon is a promised land for wine.
Over the past several decades, emphasis on quality has raised Languedoc-Roussillon to the rank of the world’s greatest winemaking regions, capable of competing with the most distinguished vineyards.
Today, over 30 A.O.C. labels make up a palette of white, red, rosé and sparkling wines with rich bouquets and complex flavours, not to mention the muscatels and sweet natural wines that belong to the great regional tradition. And the vins de pays have come into their own by giving each variety a new dimension.
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