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Gastronomie! Food Museums and Heritage Sites of France,
by Tom Hughes and Meredith Sayles Hughes, is to be published this coming October by Bunker Hill Publishing. So if you love food, love history, love travel, get set to buy the book, yes, OUR book!

A guide for food loving travelers, whether they venture forth or voyage vicariously, this book is for the foodie with an inquiring mind, the “fana (tique) de la cuisine “ who travels not only to eat, but also to discover answers to questions like these:

• How is Rocquefort cheese made?
• What ingredients are blended into Benedictine?
• How are Burgundy snails raised ?
• Why did this whole foie gras thing begin?
• Why are Brittany and Normandy so well suited to apple growing?
• Have truffle dogs really replaced pigs?
• What does the French Revolution have to do with salt?

We don’t supply all the answers but by exploring our unique itinerary, we direct you to those who can—the people and sites that honor, preserve and explain local food traditions. ( Click here to continue reading.)

We explore:

• the Saffron Museum in Boynes
• the world food museum at Agropolis in Montpellier
• the ruins of a huge Roman mill outside Arles
• the Olive Museum in Nyons
• the fig orchards of Solliès-Pont
• the oyster beds of Ile d’Oléron
• the turkey parade and festival in Licques
• the village bake ovens of Bugey
• the Chocolate Museum in Biarritz
• the Newfoundland Fishing Museum in Fécamp
• the Honey Museum in Gramont
• the melon statue in Cavaillon
• the truffle market in Lalbenque, and much more, including many Sites Remarquable du Goût.

Dedicated “foodies” will not be surprised to learn that France, the mother country of Western cuisine, is the home of more museums about food, and more initiatives to preserve food heritage traditions and sites, than any other. Food and drink matter to the French, even if they do stop off at the traiteur to pick up a moist serving of ratatouille and a creamy slab of pommes de terre dauphinoises, of a work night. Despite the inroads of fast food, and the presence of “le micro” in many French kitchens, region by region and town by town, people are coming together to preserve and protect the country’s food heritage.

Reverence for “terroir” perhaps explains why. Inadequately translated as “soil,” the word denotes land, traditional foods, and the role of the family in preserving it all, region by region. Increasingly, however, the majority of frogs, snails and many other foods associated with French cuisine come in from elsewhere. Concerned with what is either lost or in danger of disappearing, motivated people have created the food museums and heritage sites of France—dedicated to researching, collecting, preserving and explaining the rich diversity of French food and cuisine.

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