Good evening

Good food can make a holiday - and where better for foodie travellers than France? There’s great cuisine to be sampled across the country, but certain areas offer unique culinary experiences - as our expert Carolyn Boyd reveals in her piece on 10 delicacies not to miss and the best regions to try them.

You can’t beat Paris for patisseries - many of which have a connection to the city. “As you delve into the layers of almond sponge, ganache and buttercream that form the ‘opera cake’, you may see how it was inspired by the ornate balconies of the Palais Garnier opera house,” she writes.

For salade nicoise head to Nice (where the authentic dish contains neither potatoes or French beans found elsewhere - “quelle horreur”); the Bassin d’Arcachon is one of the most enchanting places for oysters; while the Alsatian capital of Strasbourg is the place to go for its signature choucroute garnie (fermented cabbage topped with pork and sausage).

Other specialities to tempt travellers’ tastebuds include confit de canard, the much-loved duck leg feast of the Dordogne, and cassoulet in south-west France (there’s even a five-day festival celebrating the stew in Castelnaudary). Round it all off with the gâteau nantais, the cake of Nantes, made with ingredients from the Caribbean (sugar, vanilla and rum).

Bon voyage - and bon appetit!