Loire

Bistro classics, brasserie staples, and Carême-Escoffier haute cuisine — the Paris-trained meta-kitchen that defined what 'French' tastes like to the world.

Olive oil, herbes de Provence, rosé — Mediterranean France. Bouillabaisse, ratatouille, pissaladière.

Bouchon culture — quenelles, andouillette, salade lyonnaise. France's gastronomic capital.

German-French border — choucroute garnie, tarte flambée, baeckeoffe. Riesling country.

Boeuf bourguignon, coq au vin, escargots — wine-braised heart of French cooking.

Massif Central cheese mountains — aligot, truffade, blue cheeses, lentilles du Puy.

Southwestern duck country — cassoulet, confit, foie gras, magret de canard.

Butter, cream, apples, calvados, camembert — Atlantic dairy belt. Sole meunière, tarte normande.

Alpine cuisine of Savoie and Haute-Savoie — built on mountain cheeses (Beaufort, Reblochon, Tomme, Abondance), the melted-cheese trinity of fondue, raclette and tartiflette, cured pork and diots sausages, potatoes, buckwheat crozets, and lake fish.

Atlantic Celtic France — crêpes, galettes au sarrasin, beurre blanc, kouign-amann.

The luxe larder of south-west France — foie gras, black truffle, walnuts, ceps and confit duck, with potatoes crisped in duck fat (sarladaises) and Bordeaux's wine-and-marrow cooking.

Mediterranean south from Nîmes to the Catalan border — salt-cod brandade, the squid-and-tomato tielles of Sète, Roussillon's snails and meatballs, and almond-and-fennel sweets.

Vosges butter-and-mirabelle — quiche Lorraine, madeleines, pâté Lorrain.

The island's maquis-scented cooking — fresh brocciu cheese in omelettes and fiadone, chestnut-flour pulenda, wild-boar civet, and chestnut-fed charcuterie (figatellu, lonzu, coppa).

The Jura / Franche-Comté table — Comté and Vacherin Mont d’Or cheeses, the oxidative vin jaune, morels, smoked Morteau and Montbéliard sausages, and the runny cheese spread cancoillotte.

Northern France and French Flanders — dark-beer beef braises (carbonnade), the cheese-and-beer Welsh, ham-and-mushroom ficelle picarde, the pungent Maroilles cheese tart, jellied potjevleesch, endives and a mussels-and-frites culture shared with Belgium.

Piperade, axoa, gâteau basque, jambon de Bayonne — Espelette pepper everywhere.

Champagne wine region — andouillette, biscuits roses, brut traditions.