The cuisine of Gironde has no trouble matching the top quality of its regional Bordeaux wines from some of the world’s best vineyards.

For starters, how about oysters from the Bay of Arcachon with a crisp dry white Graves, foie gras with a good Sauternes, or the season’s first asparagus from Blaye with just a little French dressing?

Seafood

Gironde’s long Atlantic coastline, and 100km shoreline of the Bay of Arcachon, make it hardly surprising seafood figures prominently on most menus.

Choose between shrimps from the Gironde Estuary, king prawns from the Medoc (almost 50% of France’s total supply comes from here), grilled sea bass or a local speciality “anguilles a la medocaine” – eels cooked with prunes in wine. Have fun oyster-tasting “degustation” in the “cabanes” of picturesque fishing villages such as L’Herbe and Piraillan on the Cap Ferret Peninsula. The locals sometimes steam them over beds of pine needles!

If you tire of fish, there’s tender Pauillac lamb marinated in red wine and herbs, “entrecote marchand de vin” – rib steak in a rich Bordeaux wine gravy – and grilled spiced wood pigeon in season. Local patisseries everywhere stock the little Bordeaux cakes known as “caneles”. Crunchy outside and moist within with a hint of rum, there’s nothing better with your coffee.