It certainly seems like all areas of France have there own specialities, whether that be beer in Alsace or a certain spirit in Normandy, perhaps a juicy prune from Agen or a sloppy cheese.
Here where we live in Dax in the Southern Landes, the regional speciality is Foie Gras and a little further south of us in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques is the fabulous sheep's cheese Brebis.
What does your area produce and how do you rate it?
Reblochon, Thones is the Reblochon capital of France. We also have our Tomme, and not far from here, the vins de savoie, jongieux, chautagne, apremont, and so on. Of course, we are bee product snobs, and only use honey and royal jelly from the area... not so hard to find, since we produce both.
In Burgundy it's hard to know where to start. Wine - 44 different villages producing their own types, cheese - goodness knows how many but Epoisses is probably the most famous, escargots, oeufs meurette, Poulet de Bresse, Charolais beef, Boeuf Bourguignon, gougeres, jambon perseille, Creme de Cassis, truffles, anyone drooling yet?
@Norman C. It was meant to be tongue in cheek, there are actually 12 varietes of Beaujolais, the normal, the Villages and the 10 crus. Our local bar actually serves wine from Clochemerle as they have a vigneron in the family from there. Not my favourite, I prefer a Morgon.
Steve, I would love someone to say the Beaujolais of Clochemerle! Hang on somebody just did - me!
Johnny - I don't think so, but I rather suspect I know the place - near Brentano's Book shop?
Here in the Var it’s rosé, every possible variety of goat’s cheese, wonderful tomatoes, aubergines, melons, and anything with olives and truffles… In fact Aups is famous for black truffles in the winter, with a truffle market every Thursday.
Here in central Brittany it andouille sauages, (tripe sauages) & Ribot ( sour milk) not keen on either although I will eat the andouille cold
Up here in jolly old Normandy, we benefit from lots of different Boudin Blanc - I even joined the Boudin Blanc Society ...not very keen the the vanilla version though lol
Limousin: Apples (the only AOC variety), Limousin beef, and Clafoutis (should be with cherries, but often Mirabelles, when it should properly be called a Flaugnarde). Yuuum!
Monbazillac, pruneaux, walnuts, foie gras obviously, magret séché, nice but bland cheese from St Agne. That's in a small radius round chez moi.
In the Saone-et-Loire it is Charolais beef and Bresse chickens. Our most famous wine is Pouilly Fuisse.
Here in Cantal it's the cheese, 5 AOP's: Cantal, Salers, Saint Nectaire, Fourme d'Ambert, Bleu d'Auvergne, plus tens of local goat and brebis cheese. The famous dish La Truffade is made with tome fraîche and potatoes. And then we have the Pounty, of course.
Auvergne is not really known for it's wines, but there are some decent ones from Saint-Pourçain and Côtes-d'Auvergne, both AOC.
A couple of billion bottles of wine each year in the Languedoc. Keeps the glass makers busy.
Estofinado, gâteau à la broche, tripoux, tête de veau, échaudés, roquefort, marcillac wine, aligot,veau d'aveyron, I could go on for ages...!
We have Pineau, Cognac, Melons, all very good Produits du terroir.
We drink the Tursan Peter, not tried the Geaune though, I'll look out for it next time we're over there. thanks.
James, as you live south of Dax can I suggest if you haven't already tried it, some really nice wines from the Geaune area just to the east of you - The Tursan & Geaune wines are smooth and light so very quaffable at almost any time...
I usually get mine from the Cooperative in the village of Geaune and I find either the 'Chalosse' or 'Imperatrice' particularly pleasant and decent value for money.
côtes de Bourg et Blaye wines
Confit de canard, foie gras, Bergerac and Pecharmont wines and that's about all of real note.