Food and Drink

Traditionally, wine producers made wine and sold it. What stock was not bought in bulk by retailers they sold via their own boutiques, occasionally holding tastings to encourage people to buy a case or two. 

From Tarn-et-Garonne to Brittany, the pickers are out

In our occasional series looking at different jobs, snail farmer Sylvain Rouchon, 43, tells Jessica Smith how he got into his unusual occupation

Lot-et-Garonne town welcomes planet's finest confitures to annual jam festival

There is still plenty to do in the vineyards, even if the biggest job - the harvest - is yet to come

Wine has been made in the capital since Roman times - and the mairie now owns the city's four main vineyards

Chicory is now very fashionable

The south-east of France, like Italy, is famous for its artisanal ice-cream in a multitude of flavours – some more unusual than others!

News of Languedoc vignerons protesting at the importation of cheap Spanish wine recently prompted an interesting discussion on The Connexion’s Facebook page.

Samantha David meets Didier Fournier, who gave up a career as a metal worker to produce oysters on Ile de Ré

Jonathan Hesford argues that the French palate and culture is the reason supermarkets do not stock a lot of imported wine

Organic products have never been so popular, with latest 2016 figures showing more shoppers going “bio”, the opening of new specialists all over France, a rise in the range and amount of organic products in supermarkets and the number of farms converting from conventional methods.

Along with the rise in people switching to organic food in France, some of the shops supplying them have also started to offer vegan and vegetarian foods – and this is a bonus for those who have long struggled to find supplies, especially vegan.

A charcuterie specialist from the Ardèche has saved a race of pig from extinction and produced a gastronomic ham included on the menu in Michelin-starred restaurants.

There are about 27,000 professional wine producers with their own winery and label in France and many of them are small, family businesses with an average of 8ha of land.