A Feast For Many Reasons

St. Tropez is synonymous with star sightings and champagne days spent on Pampelonne Beach, but what you might not know is that when the yachts sail way and the fancy hotels shutter their doors, St. Tropez, the sherbet colored village on the French Riviera, about 70 miles (109 kilometers) west of Nice, is still a small fishing village at heart, and it’s hear where author William Widmaier lures us in his book, A Feast At The Beach. This book is not just a guide to the regional food and cooking (recipes included), but also an illumination of St. Tropez, its history and traditions, through the eyes of a child visiting his beloved grandparents, mémé and pépé.

Widmaier and I have something in common.  No, I don’t have grandparents from St. Tropez who lived adjacent to a " chapel made famous my Matisse " as Widmaier does, but I do return each summer to a home nearby and this book, for me, was an aide-mémoire to the places, the dishes, the smells and sounds, and the reasons that I too love Provence. Throughout his book I caught myself smiling and ‘ah yes-ing' at the various traditions, places, and food that I have come to associate with my own ongoing love affair with France. It also had me recalling cherished childhood memories shared with my own grandparents (though in a much different wine region, in a much different country).