This is Why You Should Visit Gascony

A recent article in Architectural Digest gives us 9 good reasons to visit Gascony, France, where Ariane grew up. Read on and start booking your flight!

7 Easy Ways to Celebrate Bastille Day

Every July 14th the French, already expert party-makers, throw a celebration so big that it’s heard around the world. Bastille Day is celebrated across the United States, from Chicago and New York City, to the more obvious New Orleans, and where ever expatriates live. At D’Artagnan we take la fête nationale pretty seriously. This Bastille Day…

Make Bastille Day Party Plans

Feasts, fêtes, and fireworks are the traditional ways to celebrate Bastille Day, the national day of independence in France. And where there are parties, there is food. While there is no traditional food associated with Bastille Day, many choose to eat peasant food in a nod to the proletariat nature of the uprising that Bastille…

Gascony: The Most Delicious Part of France

In a recent New York Times article, David McAninch asks the question “Is Gascony the most delicious part of France?” To which Ariane answers, “Of course it is!” For Gascon food is richer than the sunny cuisine of Provence. It is unabashedly, defiantly rich. Duck fat, not olive oil, is the local currency. Everything gets cooked…

Support Lupiac, the Birthplace of D’Artagnan

Lupiac is home to a new equestrian statue of our hero D’Artagnan. Help this little town in Southwest France raise enough money to beautify their central square where the statue resides. Click through to the campaign and scroll past the French for the English language version … and then contribute to this good cause. Your…

Is Your Olive Oil the Real Thing?

You may have read about the olive oil scandals in recent years.  If not, you better sit down. Even if labeled so, EVOO is not always extra virgin, and sometimes it’s not even olive oil. Adulterated with cheap canola or sunflower oil, many of the widely-available brands are simply not the real thing. And worse, the…

Armchair Traveler: Gascony

We love Michael Ruhlman’s writing, whether it’s in a cookbook, his blog or even twitter. But this article in the July issue of Conde Nast Traveler about his culinary pilgrimage to Gascony is enough to make the stomach rumble. It’s possible that we are a little biased; Ariane is quoted in the article, and of…