Northern France home to 17 Michelin-starred restaurants
Home to 17 Michelin-starred restaurants, this region in northern France delivers extra helpings of gourmet fare.
1 Winning ways
In a country where the gastronomic meal is UNESCO-listed, this year’s winner of the European Region of Gastronomy is its northernmost: Hauts-de-France. It has 17 Michelin-starred restaurants alongside affordable bistro-style estaminets (cafes) where traditional Flemish recipes mix with French favourites. Base yourself in pretty Montreuil-sur-Mer and you’ll find a portfolio of easy-to-reach gourmet establishments masterminded by chef Alexandre Gauthier. His buzzy Grand Place Cafe serves brioche-based croque monsieurs, daily dishes such as endive baked with ham and cheese, and a Flemish favourite – the Welsh: a cheese-heavy hot sandwich pepped up with beer. For finer dining, try La Grenouillere, Gauthier’s two- Michelin-starred farmhouse restaurant and hotel. Overnight in one of the eight exquisite hunting huts, then enjoy blinis stuffed with tourteau crab, and beetroot ravioli with haddock butter. Alternatively, his Montreuil-sur-Mer restaurant, Anecdote, focuses on French retro favourites such as cotes de boeuf and the truly Gallic crepes suzette and tarte tatin.
2 Check out the cheeses
Carpeted in rich pastureland, Hauts-de-France produces some of the country’s most delectable dairy foods, including 200-plus cheeses. Planning a picnic? Look out for Maroilles, a soft cow’s milk cheese with a pungent mushroomy odour, or Mimolette, a semi-hard cheese with a fruity aroma. Likewise, brine-washed Chaud Biloute is delicious served warm and gooey from the oven. In Montreuil-sur-Mer, Fromagerie Caseus offers a huge variety of regional options, and the boulangerie opposite will suggest the perfect bread. In the region’s capital, Lille, you have Philippe Olivier’s three excellent cheese shops and, at the Wednesday and Saturday Arras Food Market, the creations of 2021 Cheese Champion, Virginie Dhorn Dubois, take centre stage.
3 Something fishy
Boulogne-sur-Mer is France’s biggest fishing port and its quays are lined with shacks selling tiny local “vive” fish alongside super-fresh spider crab, lobster, langoustines, scallops, sole and oysters. Learn to cook seafood faultlessly at La Matelote, where chef Stellio Lestienne offers tips and tricks spanning filleting, opening scallops and oysters like a pro, and making delicious accompanying sauces. Even better, you can eat what you create. Alternatively dine at Le Chatillon in the port area. Originally a restaurant for dock workers and sailors, it offers an excellent lunch of market-fresh seafood. Following this, explore Boulogne-sur-Mer’s cobbled historic heart.
4 Veg out
Hauts-de-France is the country’s agricultural heartland, yielding leeks, beetroot, sand-grown carrots, cauliflower and “pearl of the north” endives. All figure in the region’s gastronomy and there are even guild-style brotherhoods for individual varieties grown in the peaty Audomarois marshlands. Hop on a flat-bottomed “bacove” or barge from St Omer’s La Maison du Marais visitor centre, and admire these extraordinary market gardens. The marshes are also a reserve for hundreds of bird species such as storks and kingfishers. Nearby Saint-Omer is worth exploring for its stunning architecture, including a recently restored 17th-century Jesuit chapel and a glorious Gothic cathedral.
5 Dine in Saint-Omer
After exploring the town, try Bacove, Camille Delcroix’s casually elegant restaurant in the old quarter that uses ingredients sourced from the marshlands. Delcroix, a winner of TV show Top Chef and recently awarded Gault & Millau’s Cuisine of the Sea, Lakes and Rivers trophy, re-imagines traditional dishes with modern twists. Expect brasserie-style lunches or finely wrought tasting dinner menus of four or five courses from €80 ($129). These might include oysters with foraged herbs sorbet, Dombes duck with Jerusalem artichoke, or monkfish tail with Tilques carrots. Not to be missed.
6 Sweet temptations
The French are justifiably famous for patisserie, but Hauts-de-France excels in producing particular sweetmeats. Sugar-whipped Chantilly, originating from its namesake chateau, is a confection so popular there’s even a Brotherhood of Whipping Knights. If you’re visiting, head for its Atelier de la Chantilly and have a go at whipping your own. In Lille, seek out the stuccoed tearooms and chandeliers at Chez Meert, a bejewelled patisserie that opened in 1839. It specialises in a wafer-thin “gaufre” (waffle) filled with Madagascan vanilla paste. Chocolatier Beussent Lachelle, which growscacao in Ecuador, has shops throughout the region and a factory near Le Touquet-Paris-Plage.
7 Beer o’clock
Hauts-de-France has more than half of France’s breweries, producing 200-plus beers that span a hugely varied selection of blond, brown, amber and golden ales. Well-established breweries include brasseries Castelain, Saint-Germain and Goudale, but microbreweries are also on the rise. Look out for quirky beers by Lille-based Singe Savant and Les Celestins. If sampling appeals, Lille is your goal. The city has been brewing beer for a thousand years and runs an annual Biere a Lille Festival from September 17 to 24. Or, join a beer treasure hunt by L’Echappee Biere, the first brewery tourist agency in France. Every Saturday, the Route de la Biere mixes the city’s heritage attractions with stop-offs at bars for blind tastings.
8 Champagne country
Some of the finest Champagne producers are to be found in the southern part of Hauts-de-France; about 10 per cent of France’s output is produced in Aisne. Tour the area’s niche caves to learn more about particular blends of pinot noir, pinot meunier and chardonnay grapes and how to smell and savour those bubbles like a pro. Important Champagne cellars include Maison Pannier in Chateau-Thierry, which has stone quarries and 30m-deep cellars dating to the 13th century, and the UNESCO award-winning Champagne Meteyer house in Trelou-sur-Marne. Keep an eye out for the delectable, unsung local tipple Champagne Cricco.
9 Market forces
Feast your eyes on the region’s fabulous weekly food markets, and if self-catering, pick up some gastronomic gems for an authentic haute cuisine dinner. Saint-Omer’s Saturday market, replete with marshland vegetables and fruit, spreads out from cobbled Place du Marechal Foch. Lille’s Marche de Wazemmes is one of the country’s biggest, and home to fruit, vegetables, charcuterie, cheese and olives. Over in Amiens, the Saturday morning market in Place Parmentier sells vegetables, fruit and flowers brought by boat from the floating gardens. Stalls are piled high with fresh seafood from the Baie de Somme, and the daily covered market sells regional cheese, charcuterie and baked goods.
10 Where to stay
Chateau de Montreuil in Montreuil-sur-Mer offers easy access to the region’s top attractions. This 1930s green-shuttered country house hotel was created to accommodate the illustrious guests of Baroness Fould-Springer (who married a Rothschild), including Roger Moore, Whitney Houston and members of Britain’s royal family. Enjoying views over the town’s ramparts and the hotel’s glorious gardens, all of the 17 large bedrooms exude character. Expect wood panelling, delicate stucco work, antique furniture, some four-posters, and the occasional private terrace. There were plumbing issues during my stay but the hotel’s restaurant is excellent; from €140 ($225) a night.
Louise Roddon was a guest of Eurostar, which has return tickets from London St Pancras International to Lille from £78 ($145).