This year Hauts-de-France has won the European Region of Gastronomy Award. It’s awarded by a body called the International Institute of Gastronomy, Culture, Arts and Tourism. The IGCAT (rather long winded but it does cover everything) picks a European country/region each year.

No surprises that it’s been awarded to France. But the region? Not one you might expect…not Provence, nor Normandy, nor Burgundy (Lyons must be gutted), nor the south west but…northern France! The Hauts-de-France win of the European Region of Gastronomy Award for 2023 has surprised everyone…except those who happen to live in the Nord, Pas de Calais and Picardy.

Winning the award is great news for anyone travelling from the UK. It’s on our doorstep.

About the Hauts-de-France European Gastronomy Award

The award highlights regions which promote the art of eating well. But it’s also about sustainability and meeting economic, ecological and social challenges. The Institute is a slow food and bio diversity advocate, formed in 2012 as a non-profit international organisation.

The award is very much about supporting local producers, farmers, cheese makers, winemakers and more. And Hauts-de-France won the European Award for the support, and for its products, traditional regional cooking, specialities and innovation. As the IGCAT put it: “producers and chefs put local, homemade and seasonal produce on the menu, with all the generosity of the ‘people of the North’”. This also reduces food miles, a key concern of the French.

The candidacy was led by Alexandre Gauthier, the 2-Michelin star chef of La Grenouillère in La Madelaine-sous-Montreuil along with a collective of 9 members.

A Delighted Hauts-de-France wins European Gastronomy Award

 The region’s response to the Award:

“Hauts-de-France is more like a hidden jewel, just like one of its most iconic food products, the endive, also called the ‘Pearl of the North’. Our gastronomy is alive, full of taste and authenticity. It is bitter, sweet and smoked; its incomparable flavours reflect nature with our coastline, great plains, fields and orchards, forming a fundamental part of what we offer visitors.”

Food of Hauts-de-France

Gastronomy in Hauts-de-France is full of surprises.

Did you know that the region is the world’s largest producer of endives, and Europe’s largest potato producer?

That Boulogne is France’s biggest fishing port with a fleet of around 100 working fishing boats catching over seventy species of fish a day?

That Saint-Omer is the French capital of summer cauliflowers?

That the region produces the country’s biggest selection of cheeses with more than 200 varieties. Buy them at specialist cheese shops like those owned by Philippe Olivier?

That 10% of France’s champagne is produced here?!

And that’s just for starters.

A Surprisingly Long History

During the Roman era, hams made in Cassel were exported to Italy and sold in Rome.

Beer was first produced around Valenciennes by the Celts who made cervoise. Then the medieval monks, knowing a thing or two about good living, took over. Beer was flavoured with gruyt (aromatic herbs) grown in the monastery gardens before hops were introduced. In the early 1900s there were around 2,000 breweries in Hauts-de-France. Today there may only be around 150 breweries, but they make up more than half of all breweries in France.  

Chantilly cream was invented in Hauts-de-France in 1671.

Top Restaurants in Hauts-de-France

There are 16 Michelin-starred restaurants, 2 of them with 2 Michelin stars and the others with 1 star. Also look out for a wide variety of local restaurants, from estaminets which have Flemish connections, to small bistros, plus a lot of fish and seafood restaurants.

Best Restaurants in Hauts-de-France

Visit the Food Producers

Cheese farms, chocolate makers, endive specialists and more offer visits where you can see and learn how each speciality is produced.

Take a Cookery Lesson

Learn how to cook fish in Boulogne, chicken in Arras and that famous whipped cream in Chantilly.  

All this and more has led to the Hauts-de-France official European Region of Gastronomy Award.

Here’s my article about the Food of Hauts-de-France.

More Information on the Region

How to get to Hauts-de-France

Tourist Offices

Hauts-de-France Tourism
Nord Department Tourism
Pas de Calais Tourism
Picardy Tourism

Regions of France
French Departments

Food in France

The Food of France – An Intriguing Story

The photograph at the top of the article is of Le Cerisier, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Lille.

The post Hauts-de-France wins European Gastronomy Award appeared first on Mary Anne's France.

Winning the European Region of Gastronomy Award for 2023 has put the food of Hauts-de-France on the map. This surprising region produces a real feast of local ingredients as well as beer, and yes, champagne. So what can you look forward to?

Some Surprising Facts

Hauts-de-France is the biggest agricultural region producing cereals and vegetables like soft wheat and sugar beets. It’s the world’s largest producer of endives, and Europe’s largest potato producer. The region is also a heavyweight player in the general agri-food industry.

And in case you aren’t convinced, the region produces 10% of French milk.

A Glorious Countryside of Contrasts

Orchards and market gardens in the Baie de Somme estuary and the marshes of Picardy grow fruit and vegetables. Shop locally for cauliflower from Saint-Omer, carrots from Tilques, leeks from Leblond, chicory from the Nord’s former quarries, beans from Soissons, lentils from Picardy, garlic from Locon, artichokes from Laon and rattes (potatoes) from Le Touquet.

Visit the Producers of the Food of Hauts-de-France

Ask at the local tourist office for producers you can visit.

For endives (chicon) visit La Ferme aux Chiconnettes in Achiet le Petit. Here you can buy confit of endives, jam, and other products you would never associate with the vegetable if like me, you eat it only as a gratin of braised endive wrapped in ham, backed in a bechamel sauce and sprinkled with cheese. They are sometimes closed so telephone first to check. Tel: +44 ())3 21 23 69 14.

Take a boat trip through the Audomarois Marshes in Clairmarais near Saint-Omer where small market gardens sell from the banks of the canals. I bought the best cauliflower I have ever tasted from one such.

Top Markets to Visit in Hauts-de-France

You’ll find the best food of Hauts-de-France in these markets.

Lille, Nord

The Marché de Wazemmes is one of France’s biggest selling every kind of fruit and vegetables, as well as charcuterie, cheeses and olives. Shop in the surrounding streets for Tunisian food.

Check out all the food markets, indoors and outdoors, in Lille.

Amiens, Picardy

On Saturday mornings, Amiens holds a large outdoor market in Place Parmentier where fresh vegetables grown in the market gardens of the nearby hortillonnages marshes are sold. Plus fresh seafood from the Baie de Somme.

Visit Les Halles du Beffroi for regional producers. It’s particularly good for local cheeses.

Boulogne, Pas de Calais

Boulogne is France’s top fishing port so not surprisingly here is where to buy the delights of the sea. The daily fish market on Quai Gambetta sells just-landed fish and seafood, crab, lobster, langoustines, scallops and more.
On Wed and Sat morning Place Dalton has an outdoor local food market.
Boulogne’s Markets

Montreuil-sur-Mer, Pas de Calais

Saturday morning on Place-de-Gaulle square, great organic local food is on sale. As Montreuil is very much a foodie destination, the quality and variety is astonishing.
check here for markets in and around Montreuil-sur-Mer

Dunkirk, Pas de Calais

Place de Gaulle has a seasonal fruit and vegetable market on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Check here for markets in and around Dunkirk.

Saint-Omer, Pas de Calais

On Saturday mornings, make for the large market on the Grand Place (Place du Marechal Foch). Much of the local produce comes from the nearby marshes where small market gardeners produce great seasonal variety. Saint-Omer is the French capital of summer cauliflower so buy yours here.
Check here for markets in and around Saint-Omer.

Saint-Valery-sur-Somme, Picardy

Make for the market on a Sunday for the freshest local fruit and veg. It’s in the Place des Pilotes.
More about the Somme.

Food of Hauts-de-France: Cheeses

Here’s another surprise: Hauts-de-France has the country’s biggest selection of cheeses with more than 200 varieties. Here are a few to look out for.

Abbaye de Belval is a traditional French cheese, also called Belval or Le Trappiste de Belval. Produced in Pas de Calais at Troisvaux by Trappist sisters, it’s made from raw cow’s milk and matures for 60 days. Once produced in the Belval Abbey, today the Trappist sisters have moved to another abbey though they still continue to produce the cheese. A semi-soft cheese with a subtle flavour washed in brine, there’s also Le Belval Bière Blonde, washed in blonde ale, and Le Belval Bière Brune, washed in brown ale. 

Abbaye du Mont des Cats is produced by monks in their monastery in Godewaersvelde. Made with pasteurized cow’s milk, it matures for at least a month while being washed with brine and dyed with roucou – a natural dye derived from annatto shrub. It’s salty, milky and hay-like.

Boulette d’Avesnes is made from cow’s milk and is conical in shape. Flavoured with tarragon, cloves, parsley, and pepper with its rind traditionally washed with beer it’s a stinky cheese with a strong taste.  

Chaud biloute is a traditional French cow’s milk cheese made in Saint-Aubin in the Nord department and sold in a wooden box. After 4 weeks of maturation in cellars, it’s ready for consumption. It’s a good cheese for a starter – put it in the oven for a few minutes so it’s runny and serve with crusty bread.

Gris de Lille (also known as Puant de Lille, Vieux Lille, and Puant Macere, ie stinking pickle) is another very pungent, semi-soft cheese produced from Nord-Pas de Calais and derived from Maroilles. The cheese is made with cow’s milk, and it is washed in brine for three months. Produced in square blocks, traditionally it was taken down the pits by the northern miners.

Maroilles is a soft cow’s milk cheese with a nutty, mushroom-like flavour – and a pungent smell (it’s affectionally called ‘old stinker’). Maroilles was first produced by monks in Nord-Pas de Calais and Aisne in the 10^th century (those monks knew a thing or two about good living). It’s matured for at least 35 days and is shaped into a square.

Historically it was produced by local farmers on June 24, Saint Jean Baptiste’s day. They then donated the aged cheeses to the Abbey for the monks to distribute to the Champagne grape harvesters. October 1 is still known as Maroilles Day in the region.
Try tarte au maroilles, a tart with shortcrust pastry base and a filling of Maroilles cheese and crème fraîche, butter, eggs, salt, and pepper.

Mimolette is a semi-hard cow’s milk cheese originating around Lille where it’s called a boule de Lille. This orange-coloured cheese is aged from 2 months (when it tastes like Parmesan). When aged for up to 2 years (extra-vieille) it has a hard skin which comes from cheese mites added to the skin for extra flavour.  

Visit a Cheese Producer

Spend 15 minutes at La Fromagerie Sainte Godeline (Les Frères Bernard) watching artisanal cheese makers. Then taste and stock up on their varieties to take home. The fromagerie is very near Calais.

La Finarde Cheese Caves in Arras has tastings in the Arras citadelle of cheeses from France and the Netherlands. They also have a stand in the Arras food market on Wednesday and Saturdays.

La Halte d’Autrefois, owned and run by Valerie Magniez, is a well known goat farm producing organic cheeses and bread made with goat’s milk. Near Montreuil, it makes a good family visit. You can milk the goats while your children can pet the animals then learn how the cheese is made.

Food of Hauts-de-France: Fish and Shellfish

Boulogne-sur-mer, France’s largest fishing port, has a fleet of around 100 working fishing boats catching over seventy species of fish a day. It leads Europe in seafood processing, for instance canning herrings to export to Norway.

If you’re in Boulogne and fancy a treat, book a meal at La Matelote hotel/restaurant where the Lestienne family offer a Lobster Menu using the freshest just-caught fish. If you’re a group of 5 or more people, you can book a cookery lesson here.

In the port area (Capécure), make for Le Châtillon where the fish is flappingly fresh. Originally a restaurant for sailors and dock workers, it’s owned by an ex-fishmonger who handpicks the ingredients, and offers top, very good value dishes.

Hauts-de-France Special Dishes

Like every French region, Hauts-de-France has its own specialities. So try these when you can for some great new tastes.

Flamiche: a traditional pie with chopped leeks, butter and crème fraiche which resembles a quiche. Some cooks add bacon, nutmeg and other vegetables. It dates back to the late 18^th century.

The Welsh (Welsh complet) is north France’s answer to the Welsh rarebit. It’s made with cheese cooked in boiling beer which is then poured over a slice of toast and ham. When it’s golden a fried egg is added on top.

Coquillade de la baie de Somme is a kind of chowder made with scallops, potatoes, onions, carrots, fish or vegetable stock and olive oil. The vegetables are simmered until tender then the scallops are added last.

Ficelle picarde or Picardy string is a savoury pancake filled with ham, cheese and mushrooms.

Carbonade Flamande is one of north France’s most famous, and popular, dishes. Adopted  from Belgium it’s made from beef, onions, beer and soft brown sugar.

Andouillettes are definitely an acquired, and strong, taste. The coarse-grained sausage is made using tripe (pork lower intestines) and wrapped in the pig’s colon (chitterlings). It’s cooked with wine, onions, pepper and seasonings. BUT do not fear: andouillettes from Cambrai can be made with veal.

Waterzoï is well worth trying. Adopted from Flanders, it’s a kind of bouillabaisse fish stew made of various kinds of fish and cooked in a pot. So eel, pike, carp and bass as well as cod and monkfish (in fact any kind of fish that is to hand) can end up in the pot.

Eel is another unusual type of fish used in northern France cooking. It can be roasted or cooked with butter, cream and fresh herbs (anguille au vert à la Flamande). Do try it if you can; it’s sweet and quite delicious.

Salt marsh lamb. Try this delicious lamb raised in the Somme bay in Picardy. The animals are reared on meadows which are regularly flooded by tidal waters between March and December. The sea grasses give the meat its own particular flavour. Salt marsh lamb is on sale between July and January.

Food of Hauts-de-France for those with a Sweet Tooth

Bêtises de Cambrai are French boiled sweets made in Cambrai. Bêtise means a stupid mistake so it’s claimed that they were invented by accident. Originally mint, flavours now include apple, chocolate, cherry, lemon, anis and more. They’re individually wrapped in cellophane and usually packed in boxes. Two confectioners claim to be the original inventors: Afchain and Despinoy.

Gauffre fourrée are waffles filled with butter and sugar, flavoured with vanilla or rum. Buy them at the famous Chez Meert in Lille, a beautiful shop and Art Deco tearoom dating back to 1909.

Palets de dame. Buy these crisp, buttery cookies in any pâtisserie. Traditionally covered with apricot jam and lemon-flavoured icing sugar, some are flavoured with rum, vanilla, or aniseed.

Chantilly Cream. This sweet, whipped cream is found everywhere in almost every restaurant in France. It comes from Chantilly (of course), in the Oise department, probably best known for its château.

It was invented in 1671 when King Louis XIV visited the Château de Chantilly, owned by the great princely general, Louis II de Bourbon-Condé who told his pastry chef, François Vatel, to organise the reception. But Sacré Bleu! He ran out of cream. Being a pastry chef of genius, he decided to whip the cream as hard as he could to give it volume. It was a triumph and Chantilly cream was born. Or so the story goes.

Most of us come across Chantilly cream in artificial form. But it’s a wonderful home-made cream. If you want to learn how to make it, book a lesson at the Atelier de la Chantilly, in Chantilly.  

Macarons Maison Jean Trogneux in Amiens has been making macaroons since 1872. Brought to France from her native Italy by Catherine de’Medici when she arrived in France in 1533 to marry the King, these are crispy outside and tender inside and are made of almond paste, sugar, honey, eggs and vanilla. They are a far cry from the oversweet (to my taste), garishly coloured macarons that have been made famous by Ladurée.

Chocoholics should look out for Beussent Lachelle chocolates, made in their factory in Beussent which you can visit. They  have shops all over northern France and grow their own beans in Ecuador.

What to Drink in Hauts-de-France?

Well beer of course. More than half of France’s breweries are based in Northern France. So if you’re a beer fan, this is the region to make for. Every variety of beer is here. If you’re visiting, ask at the local tourist office for breweries and for brewery tours. Some have excellent restaurants attached.

Some of the best known names are Brasserie Goudale, Brasserie Castelain and Brasserie Saint-Germain.

Look out for Bière de Garde from French Flanders. A traditional farmhouse ale it was brewed during the winter and stored until spring and summer. Beers in this category range in colour and are classified as blonde (gold), to classic amber (ambrée or copper), to brown (brune, dark brown). One of the best is Anostoké from Brasserie du Pays Flamand. Also try Brasserie Duyck’s Jenlain Bière de Garde.

Brewery Treats

Try the Vivat flagship brewery where beer is brewed in an old Benedictine abbey. Sold after the French Revolution, it expanded in 1910 when a new brick brewery was built. It continued producing beer until 1926. In 2000 the factory was restored and beer was brewed once again. You can see the old equipment, then eat and drink in the brasserie.

Book a beer treasure hunt in Lille with L’Echappée Bière every Saturday afternoon. It costs €70 per person but includes the tour, lunch and blind tastings in various different bars.

The Thiriez hop farm and brewery in Esquelbecq offers an hour-long tour with a tasting at the end. They also have 2 chambre d’hotes rooms if you want to stay. €55 and €60 per night for a double room.

Champagne

Another surprise as the region produces around 10% of all French champagne. It’s produced in the Aisne department that sits beside Champagne. The vineyards are in the Marne river valley. Visit some of the best known: Champagne Météyer in Trélou-sur-Marne established in 1860, Champagne Pannier in Château-Thierry and Leveque Dehan in Barzy-sur-Marne.

Wines from the Slag Heaps

Go to the vine-covered Pas de Calais slag heap (terril) in Haillicourt near Bruay-la Buissière. Who would have thought that a slag heap from former mines would be planted with Chardonnay vines? Fittingly, the vigneron has dubbed his crisp white wine not chardonnay but Le Charbonnay – a pun on the French for coal, charbon.

Where to Buy Beer, Wine and Champagne

There are many outlets and supermarkets for buying your particular tipple. I always go to Calais Vins near Calais. They have a huge range, are knowledgeable, speak English, ask what your favourites are, and give wine tastings. And you can now claim VAT back on purchases very easily as the staff take care of the paper work. Check out my article on Calais Vins VAT reclaim.

Cook with the Professionals in Hauts-de-France

If you want to learn how to use the local food of Hauts-de-France, head to the stunning town of Arras for a lesson with chef Gabriel Asseman of L’Oeuf ou La Poule (The Egg or the Chicken). On Wednesdays and Saturdays you start with a visit to the market to buy the ingredients you then cook back at the restaurant. There’s a wine pairing with wines from a local merchant.

Book at the Lille L’Atelier des Chefs, a company with cooking schools in different French cities. They have a wide range of classes, including cooking with families.

Learn French baking secrets from pastry chef Eric Chabot-Smyth who has produced delectable desserts in top restaurants around the world. He’s at Les Myrophorres in Abbeville.

Where to Eat in Hauts-de-France

There are 16 Michelin-starred chefs in Hauts-de-France. But don’t forget the restaurants with a bib gourmand (good value), and the local estaminets which are good bistro-style restaurants often with a Flemish twist.

The two best places for eating well are Lille and Montreuil-sur-Mer. Calais (one of my favourite cities) also has some good and very enjoyable restaurants.

More on where to eat in my article on Best Restaurants in Northern France.

More Information on the Region

How to get to Hauts-de-France

Tourist Offices

Hauts-de-France Tourism
Nord Department Tourism
Pas de Calais Tourism
Picardy Tourism

Regions of France
French Departments

Food in France

The Food of France – An Intriguing Story
The Food of Provence
The Food in Burgundy
The Best Regional French Food
Top Food Festivals in France

The Art of Cuisine of Toulouse-Lautrec great cook and artist who loved to entertain friends to his meals

The post Food of Hauts-de-France – Nord, Pas de Calais & Picardy appeared first on Mary Anne's France.

Northern France has so many great restaurants that it’s difficult to pick out the best. For a start there are 16 Michelin-starred chefs in northern France. Two restaurants, both in Pas de Calais, have two stars; 14 spread through Nord, Pas de Calais and Picardy have one star.

And don’t forget the restaurants with a Michelin bib gourmand (good quality; good value). Always look out for the local estaminets which are good bistro-style restaurants often with a Flemish twist.

There are many that should be included in this list of the best restaurants in northern France. So please if you find top restaurants, bistros, small local estaminets or even places for excellent snacks, do let me know.

For this article, Northern France refers only to the Hauts-de-France region. More on Normandy restaurants later!

PLEASE NOTE: I have only included set menu prices. Every restaurant has a carte to choose from as well.

A Note about the Maps

Here is a map for the whole northern France – Hauts-de-France region. You’ll find restaurant maps for each department – Nord, Pas de Calais and Picardy at the top of each list.

I have listed the restaurants geographically. So go to the map, see where you might be staying and click on the relevant restaurant. Information of the restaurant is in each department, following the geographical layout. I hope this makes sense!

Restaurants with 2 Michelin Stars in Northern France – Pas de Calais

La Grenouillière

Alexandre Gauthier cooks up a storm at La Grenouillière near Montreuil-sur-Mer. It’s a beautiful location in an old farmhouse now transformed with two impressive metallic marquees. The view is over the extensive woods and gardens to the countryside and Montreuil’s ramparts.

Alexandre Gauthier took over from his father in the kitchen 20 years ago. One of France’s most inventive chefs, his molecular cooking is contemporary, providing a meal to savour. He has a 19/20 score in Gault Millau. He also has the new ‘Green’ Michelin star given for his local, regional credentials.
There are 4 rooms to rent in the grounds.

Château de Beaulieu

Château de Beaulieu is owned and run by Christophe Dufossé . The estate has a vegetable garden (watered by springs from the estate and the moat), citrus greenhouse, a small farm for animals, an orchard, aromatic garden and beehives. The chef is a champion of organic, self-sufficient and sustainable fish and meat. Don’t miss out on the desserts! There are two restaurants in the red brick 19^th-century mansion, the Michelin-starred dining room and a country style brasserie. He has a green Michelin star for his use of over 30 local producers like saffron and fish from the Côte d’Opale.

For more restaurants in Pas de Calais see below.

Best Restaurants in Northern France – Nord Department

Haut Bonheur de la Table – 1 Michelin Star

Perched high up on a hill with great views, this restaurant is in the charming typically Flemish village of Cassel, well worth a visit for its windmill and museum. And here you’ll find this small restaurant (20 covers only) where chef Eugène Hobraiche produces some spectacular cooking. Fish comes from Dunkirk; try grilled wild turbot or tuna for a treat.

L’Auberge – Bib Gourmand

Once a tannery, now a very good simple restaurant near Hazebrouck. Chef Antonin Maresciano champions local produce and cooks well-known Flemish classics given a light modern twist.

Auberge du Vert Mont – 1 Michelin Star

Florent Ladeyn champions Flemish food with some of his inspiration from nearby Belgium. In a dining room with exposed rafters and overlooking the West Flanders hillsides, the food is cooked on a wood fire in front of the diners. He has always championed local produce using flowers and plants to decorate his dishes and he has been awarded a green Michelin star as well. Don’t miss the fries cooked in Maroilles cheese with caramelised onion.

Nature – 1 Michelin Star

Opposite the Saint-Vaast church in Armentières, Nicolas Gautier’s cooking is classical with contemporary twists. Local specialities produce dishes like lightly smoked scallops and roast Flanders pigeon stuffed under the skin with mushrooms. Fish comes from Boulogne and Dunkirk; local cheeses are excellent and varied.

Bistro RG – Bib Gourmand

Just next door to Nature, this more casual restaurant is run by Nicolas Gautier and his brother Mathieu. The short menu is based on the cooking of their father, Roger Gautier. It’s an acknowledgement of how important their father’s cooking was. Short bistro-style menu has favourites like steak frites, mussels; service is very good.

Outside Lille

Lille, capital of the Nord department, is a foodie destination. Its proximity to Belgium has added another Flemish layer with cosy small restaurants specialising in Belgian specialities as well as some notable destinations.

Balsamique – Bib Gourmand

Benjamin Bajeux is the inspiration behind this pretty restaurant which has a terrace for summer dining. Try inventive dishes like a beetroot Baba with smoked haddock from one of the top smokeries in Boulogne; classics like magret de canard with oven-cooked boulangères potatoes are equally good.

Le Val d’Auge – 1 Michelin Star

Christophe Hagnerelle is typical of the young chefs making a name in France today. He worked with Joël Robuchon at Le Jamin then went to Beirut and later spent six months in  Connecticut. He is strong on fish and also game in season such as grouse and hare.  

Arborescence – 1 Michelin Star

In a former textile factory near the station, Félix Robert and his sommelier wife Nidta run the restaurant. The dishes are geared towards fish and vegetables often with a Japanese or Asian slant. So expect dishes like tempura and subtle curries, all given a classical French and beautifully presented.

Rozó – 1 Michelin star

In Marcq-en-Baroeul, a suburb of Lille, pastry chef Camille Pailleau and chef Diego Delbecq are cooking up a few storms in a former printing works which took 2 years to restore. The open-plan, airy loft-style dining room has a glass roof and metal beams. The chefs operate in open kitchens behind glass panes and produce some great modern dishes using local ingredients like chicory and tartes au sucre. Two signature dishes to try: mushroom medley from the chef and heather honey dessert from the pastry chef.

In Lille

Le Restaurant du Cerisier – 1 Michelin star

On the first floor of a bold contemporary building in the heart of Lille, the former chef of Le Meurin, Mathieu Boutroy, can be seen performing in a superb theatrically visible kitchen. Mixing classic technique with modern flavours. Try lamb in a ras-el-hanout crust.

Pureté -1 Michelin Star

Lille’s old town is the location for another great restaurant. Behind a conventional wooden shop front, Gérald Guille’s restaurant decor is modern with wooden floors, tables and chairs and banquette seating. At the end an open kitchen shows the chef and his team cooking classic dishes with inventive touches, using the likes of yuzu and kumqat.

La Table – Hôtel Clarance – 1 Michelin star

The Hotel Clarance and La Table are located in an 18^th-century mansion in Lille’s delightful old town. You can eat in the wood-panelled dining rooms and in the former library. In good weather, dine on the terrace looking out over the grounds. Chef Alexandre Miquel, originally from Bethune, is equally at home with fish or meat and uses local, seasonal ingredients with herbs from the hotel’s garden.

Best Restaurants in Northern France – Pas de Calais

Hotel/Restaurant de la Plage

Niece of Michelin-starred William Elliot at Le Pavillon in the Hotel Westminster in Le Touquet, Solène Elliott won various big awards including Escoffier Young Talents in 2019. In 2020 she opened her restaurant in her parent’s hotel. Championing local produce, her menus include dishes like warm cheese pastry with salted radishes and smoked herring. Main dishes might include pork loin cooked in smoked garlic and paprika with creamed artichoke, onions and broad beans. The hotel, set on  the beach, is a delightful seaside destination.

Atlantic Hotel La Liégoise – 1 Michelin Star

Take in the panoramic sea view from the first-floor restaurant in the delightful Opal Coast Atlantic Hotel, much beloved by the locals. Benjamin Delpierre concentrates quite rightly on fish and shellfish, red mullet, snails, oysters, razor clams and mussels.
There’s also the excellent Brasserie L’Aloze on the ground floor which is open for lunch and dinner daily.

Le Colegram

This small bistro which opened a year ago serves the freshest food using local ingredients. In an old house on a corner, it’s simply but stylishly decorated and has a professional, friendly staff. Attracting both locals and tourists, the good value menu includes starters from €7 and mains from €17. Don’t miss the desserts (from €6) of the young pâtissier, 24 year old Candice Declercq.

Au Soldat Laboureur

Conveniently located near St Pol-sur-Ternoise, Arras and Béthune, Al Soldat Laboureux is a great, thoroughly traditional restaurant. The red brick building has a rustic décor, complete with wallpaper and a fireplace and is particularly good for families. The traditional menu has classic patés, well cooked meat and crème brûlée.

La Cour de Rémi – Bib Gourmand

Owner Sébastien cooks everything, from sourdough bread to ice creams. Well-sourced ingredients produce dishes like pink haunch of venison with dauphinoise potatoes or scallops with parsnip mousseline. It’s good value for money. If you want to stay, book one of the excellent rooms.

L’oeuf ou la Poule 

In the heart of Arras, this buzzing, friendly and very local restaurant delivers traditional French dishes with a modern touch. Try la poule au pot or any of the chicken dishes cooked in different ways (or go for the guinea fowl or vegetable risotto). And of course any egg dishes come from happy, free range hens.

Restaurant N9UF

The Leplat family runs this new restaurant opened in August 2022 on the ground floor of the large, grand, red brick Manoir Sainte Paule in a small town near Béthune. Chef Maxime Leplat produces modern dishes like veal paupiettes with a chausseur sauce and potatoes roasted with rosemary. All ingredients are locally sourced. There’s a terrace for summer dining.

A l’Fosse 7

This family-run, joyous restaurant is always buzzing with locals. Mellow stone walls, wooden floors and beams set the scene for good value, classic cooking. Dishes might include French onion soup and pot’je Vleesch and – great idea: all mains can be ordered in smaller portions. And with vegetables from the Sallaumines market gardens 3 kms away, you don’t get much more local than here.  

Air Accueil – Bib Gourmand

Chef Franck Gilabert offers good value for money and local specialities in this large restaurant near the Bitry-en-Artois airfield. Once the officers’ mess, now the restaurant offers the likes of local trout with creamed buckwheat and celery mousse. For meat try pork loin, braised chicory and creamed mushrooms. A far cry from the past.

For more restaurants in Calais, here’s my guide to this great, unexpectedly interesting city.

Best Restaurants in Northern France – Picardy

La Clé des Champs – Bib Gourmand

Nicolas Chamoin and his wife Adéline are enthusiastic, knowledgeable and charming. The restaurant’s modern décor is delightfully comfortable rather than startling. Concentrate on the excellent fish and shellfish from the coast, though meat dishes are equally pleasing. They do take-away, and have a small shop attached.

L’Orée de la Forêt – 1 Michelin star

This family–run hotel and restaurant has a great location in a late 19^th-century mansion surrounded by wooded grounds. The restaurant was opened by the grandmother of the chef Nicolas Leclercq in 1956. From the beginning, vegetables from the large kitchen garden were used, something of a novelty back then. Nicolas Leclercq won his Michelin star in 1994 and has held it ever since. He uses top seasonal ingredients to produce classic dishes.

Auberge À la Bonne Idée – 1 Michelin star

The restaurant is in a medieval village in the middle of the forest of Compiègne, near the Armistice Museum. With stone walls, beams and a fireplace, its’ a delightful venue. Try something a little different from chef Sébastien Tantot whose dishes are chalked up on a board. Set menus are adventurous and vegetables, fruit and aromatic plants and herbs from his own kitchen garden dominate.  

Le Verbois – 1 Michelin star

Le Verbois is another very successful family-run restaurant. Located in the former Rothschild family late 19^th-century hunting lodge, the décor is modern. Guillaume Guibet is the third generation, highly successful chef offering new creative dishes often with an Asian twist.

Auberge de La Grange aux Loups – Bib Gourmand

Julie and Dorian Wicart have established themselves in this enterprise – essentially a restaurant with rooms. Design is contemporary with exposed stone walls, wood beams and a central fireplace. Come here for excellent classic dishes with modern flourishes. Try a starter like salmon terrine with ratte potatoes and herbed fromage blanc. Mains include fish and meat with modern touches like roast shrimps and Camargue rice with chorizo and fennel. There’s a terrace for summer dining.

La Grange de Belle-Église – 1 Michelin star

This is the restaurant for great traditional cooking. The pretty restaurant is classically decorated with plush and comfortable tables and chairs and there’s a garden for outdoor dining. Chef Marc Duval champions classic dishes using local ingredients: asparagus, gnocchis, escargots. Main dishes are divided into 4 fish and 4 meat possibilities. Try roasted guinea fowl cooked in its own juice and in Jura vin jaune with sweet potatoes. For fish? Go for roast turbot with morilles and asparagus.  

More about Hauts-de-France

In 2023, Hauts-de-France won the Best European Gastronomy Award. Here’s an article about why the region won – ingredients, restaurants, dishes and more.

More about Food in France

The Food of France – An Intriguing Story
Discover the Best French Regional Food
Discover the top Food Festivals in France 
Read more about Food in Burgundy
Read more about the Food of Provence
French Christmas Food

Surprisingly, the artist Toulouse-Lautrec was a great cook. He followed the seasons and local produce. More about this unexpected gourmet and the Art of Cuisine.

France Regions
France Departments
How to get to Nord, Pas de Calais and Picardy

The post Best Restaurants in Northern France – Nord, Pas de Calais & Picardy appeared first on Mary Anne's France.

The Armistice Museum and Memorial is surprisingly little known to the general public – even in France. It’s an important site: it was here that the armistice to end World War I was signed in 1918. In 1940 this was where the Germans accepted the French surrender. It’s tucked away in the peaceful forest of Compiègne in Picardy, Hauts-de-France, far from battleground museums and war cemeteries. And it’s a private museum though with some government support.

The Armistice Museum is not even very well signposted but persevere in your quest; this small but impressive museum has a story well worth the telling.

As you turn off the main road and drive towards the museum, you pass the massive Alsace Lorraine Monument. The statue, located 250 metres down the road from the museum, shows a French sword cutting down the Imperial Eagle of Germany. The sculpture was more than symbolic; it was made by Edgar Brandt (1880-1960), an interesting character who began by designing weapons of war for the French army then became one of the 20th century’s greatest Art Deco ironwork craftsman. He also made the torch for the eternal flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Paris.

Park in the small car park – which is never full – then walk along a path through the trees to the clearing.

The Glade of the Armistice

A statue of Marshall Foch to one side looks down on the clearing. Foch, the supreme Allied commander who united the British, French and American forces is one of France’s great heroes. In 1918 he commanded the successful push back against the German offensive.

Emerging from the woods is a single railway track. It leads to the centre of the clearing and a huge slab in the ground commemorating the place where two railway carriages were brought in 1918.

Ahead between a Remembrance garden and a small tank stands a modest, low, white building with flags on the front, looking rather like a school.

The Armistice Museum

You buy your ticket in a small modest office then walk into the first long room. Nothing prepares you for the sight of the railway carriage that stands marooned here.

You peer through the windows at the carriage. This was where Marshall Foch, accompanied by the allies who included the First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir Rosslyn Wemyss, and the Chief of Staff, General Weygand, met with the Germans to sign the Armistice to end the horror that was World War I. It was signed on November 11^th at 5.10am though not officially declared until 11am. Armistice Day is officially celebrated at 11am on the 11th day of November.

The choice of the remote Compiègne forest setting was a deliberate one by Foch. It was a simple way of avoiding any intrusive journalists and protecting the German delegation from hostile crowds of French locals.

Graphic Horrors of World War I

It’s in the oval-shaped rotunda, a pleasant light space, where the major horrors of World War I are shown. A series of stereoscopes around the walls are labelled with different themes: the Somme, Verdun, other major battles, the army, the trenches and so on. The images stand out in startling 3D. Some show soldiers just standing around looking bored; others show guns firing, dead bodies, twisted bodies of horses, prisoners with their faces stripped of any expression except defeat, and more.

Then you walk through The Crypt where the names of the battles are carved into a wall behind the flags of the three nations.

You’re taken further into the war with a 3D film. You see more detail leading up to 1918; another film focuses on Augustin Trébuchon, the last French soldier killed during World War I, shot 15 minutes before the Armistice was enacted. It was 10.45am on November 11, 1918.

It reminded me of the Wilfred Owen memorial in North France. The soldier-poet was killed seven days before the end of the war. His mother received his last letter to her, and the telegram of the news of his death on November 11th.

You’ll see a variety of objects scattered throughout the museum: yellowing newspaper articles, photocopies, flags, objects made from shells. There are American artefacts and copies of newspapers from Raleigh, Virginia, describing the progress of the war.

The 1918 Armistice Room has scale models of the clearing and the railway carriage.

Treaty of Versailles 1919

Then you’re in a room explaining the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, signed in Versailles on June 28, 1919 after six months of talks and negotiations.

The Treaty imposed harsh conditions on Germany. It forced the Germans and their allies to take responsibility for ‘causing all the loss and damage’ during the war. Germany had to disarm, give territories away, particularly Alsace and Lorraine, and pay crippling reparations.

The Expansion of the Armistice Museum

The museum was expanded in 2018. The new section covers the years between the two world wars and the events that led to the German attack in 1939. Then you walk through a corridor with two model airplanes above you.

And this is where it comes full circle. In 1940 the Battle of France was lost and the Germans were in Paris. France was about to be divided in two: the German military occupied section and Vichy Frace government section under Marshal Philippe Pétain. This was the unoccupied ‘Free Zone’ that was made responsible for the civil administration of France and its colonies.

Marshal Pétain as prime minister had signed the armistice with Germany on June 22 1940. And of course it was signed in the railway carriage where Germany had signed the 1918 Armistice, symbolizing the Third Reich’s victory over France.

Hitler’s Revenge

CBS war correspondent William Shirer was present and saw Hitler’s reaction on seeing the Alsace Lorraine monument:

“Through my glasses I saw the Führer stop, glance at the [Alsace-Lorraine] monument…. Then he read the inscription on the great granite block in the center of the clearing: Here on the eleventh of November 1918 succumbed the criminal pride of the German empire… vanquished by the free peoples which it tried to enslave.“

“I look for the expression on Hitler’s face. I am but fifty yards from him and see him through my glasses as though he were directly in front of me. I have seen that face many times at the great moments of his life. But today! It is afire with scorn, anger, hate, revenge, triumph. He steps off the monument and contrives to make even this gesture a masterpiece of contempt. He glances back at it contemptuous, angry. … Suddenly, as though his face were not giving quite complete expression to his feelings, he throws his whole body into harmony with his mood. He swiftly snaps his hands on his hips, arches his shoulders, plants his feet wide apart. It is a magnificent gesture of defiance, of burning contempt.”

Hitler ordered the destruction of the site and the clearing. The Alsace Lorraine monument was dismantled and along with the other monuments were sent to Germany. Interestingly, Hitler saved the statue of Foch and left it where it stands today. The railway carriage was taken to Berlin to be put on display. It was then destroyed; either by air attack in the Ohrdruf prison camp in the Thuringian Forest, or by the SS in March 1945 as American troops advanced into Germany.

Hitler’s revenge was complete.

The Armistice site in 1944

Compiègne was liberated on October 21, 1944, almost exactly two months after the liberation of Paris. In November, General Marie-Pierre Keonig, the best known Free French leader after General de Gaulle who was in Britain, led a military parade in the Glade. The watching crowd included British, American and Polish officials.

The 1945 peace treaty was signed not here, but at Reims in Champagne.

In 1950, the French manufacturer Wagons-Lits donated an identical car to the original to the museum – 2439D. It was opened to the public on November 11.

More Articles on the 20th century World Wars

Here are more articles on World War II in Nord-Pas de Calais

La Coupole and Hitler’s V2 Rockets
The Secret Blockhouse of Eperlecques
Mimoyecques and Hitler’s V3 Rocket Dream

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission Centre shows how war graves are looked after throughout the world. Well worth a visit in North France.

The post The Armistice Museum and Memorial in Compiègne appeared first on Mary Anne's France.