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What to eat

Neufchâtel cheese is a heart-shaped soft cheese from Neufchâtel-en-Bray (Avenue Verte, Stage 4)

France is widely regarded as a place where the preparation and presentation of food is central to the country’s culture. Modern day French cuisine was first codified by Georges Auguste Escoffier in Le Guide Culinaire (1903). Central to Escoffier’s method was the use of light sauces made from stocks and broths to enhance the flavour of the dish in place of heavy sauces that had previously been used to mask the taste of bad meat. French cooking was further refined in the 1960s with the arrival of nouvelle cuisine which sought to simplify techniques, lessen cooking time and preserve natural flavours by changing cooking methods.

Northern France and Normandy are not particularly well-known for gastronomy, although there are a few local specialities you may wish to try (or avoid!). Andouillettes are coarse sausages made from pork intestines with a strong taste and distinctive odour. Not a dish for the faint hearted. As in nearby Belgium, moules et frites (mussels and chips) are popular light meals while Dieppe (Avenue Verte, Stage 4) is famous for hareng saur (smoked herring). Local cheese includes Neufchâtel (Avenue Verte, Stage 4) while Camembert (from lower Normandy), Brie (from the Marne valley) and Maroilles (from Picardy) are produced nearby. All are soft, creamy cows’ milk cheeses with blooming edible rinds. One way of serving cheese is le welsh, a northern French take on welsh rarebit consisting of ham and grilled cheese on toast often topped with an egg. Normandy and the Bray have orchards producing apples, pears and cherries from which fruit tarts such as tarte tatin are produced.