Fancy a feast of fungi

The smell is critical as indicated by this buyer in St Paul Trois Chateaux.

Take a Saturday morning walk along the main street of this small Drome town and be struck by the charm of its market and the relaxed gait of its citizens. Here life seems uncomplicated - and ten degrees warmer than in Paris.

Turn the corner of the main street into a tree-lined road running along the northern wall of a 12th-century Knights Templar castle, and everything changes. There is a crowd. There is noise. It is frantic. A pungent smell permeates the air.

People mill around the open boots of more than a dozen vehicles. Partly filled white plastic bags - the sort into which vendors back in the main street might put some garlic or a few onions - are being weighed. The bargaining is energetic.

Fingers speed over calculators. Deals are reached. The Euro notes being handed over by buyers are €100 and €200, which I rarely see and which many French shops, even in Paris, refuse to accept.

Those doing the selling are mostly shady-looking men. In another culture, on another street, at another time of day, they could be selling drugs - but not here. Welcome to Richerenches - population 542 - the truffle capital of Europe.

A truffle market is held here every Saturday from the beginning of the season in November to its end in March. It is the biggest in Europe. Smaller truffle markets are held in Chamaret (Mondays), Grignan and St Paul Trois Chateaux (Tuesdays), Montsegur sur Lauzon and Nyons (Thursdays) and Dieulefit and Suze la Rousse (Fridays).

In the Richerenches village church on the third Sunday in January, a Truffle Mass is held. On this day, the church collection is in truffles instead of money. At St Paul Trois Chateaux on the second Sunday in February is a truffle festival, which is why I am here.

Less than an hour by car north of Avignon, and an easy half day's travel from Paris, you can catch the TGV at Paris-Lyon after breakfast and be in the heart of the Drome in time for lunch.

Sticklers for administrative accuracy will by now be jumping up and shouting that Richerenches is not in Drome but in Valcluse, and they would be correct.

Through a quirk of history, Richerenches is in a small area known as the Enclave des Papes, and although surrounded by the Drome, it is not a part of it for administrative purposes. But in all other respects ...

Truffles are an important part of Drome culture. At a dinner the following night in nearby St Paul Trois Chateaux, a €45 ($95) three-course truffle meal is served. It is the climax of the third Fete Nationale de la Truffe. The last sitting, at 8pm, has 250 people crammed into the Musee de la Truffe, whose 20th anniversary is also being celebrated.

Seated at long trestle tables, I find myself next to a couple in their late 40s. He works at the nearby Tricastin nuclear power station, is a supporter of the Parti Socialiste and Mayor of a small, nearby village.

They are here, with all the others they tell me, because it is a relatively inexpensive way of eating a lot of truffles. As the wine flows, the conversation develops.

How often do you eat truffles I ask? Not as often as we would like, is the quick response - they are too expensive - €1000 ($2100) a kilo down here; sometimes over €2000 ($4200) a kilo in Paris.

The truffle is an underground fungus. It lives a symbiotic life, connected most commonly to the roots of trees, particularly oak and hazel.

Average-sized truffles weigh between 30 and 60g, are an irregular 2cm or more in diameter and are found just under the ground to a depth of 20cm.

Of the five different varieties of truffles grown and sold in France, Tuber Melanosporum, also called the Perigord truffle, is the best.

Truffles were known to the Greeks, Romans and to Medieval Europe. By the 19th century, France was digging up between 650 and 1000 tonnes of them a year.

Since World War I, far-reaching socio-economic change - in particular the abandonment of land cultivation, the wartime destruction of trees and deforestation - has meant the number of truffles harvested has declined dramatically.

Over the past decade, the figure has fallen to around 40 tonnes a year and last year, only 10 tonnes were harvested.

Shrinking numbers have led to crime. Truffle farms have been raided, and truffle dogs killed or kidnapped. The best truffle finder is the pig, but trained dogs are also accomplished - a good one can fetch €5000 ($10,500). On Christmas Day 2003 there was a shot-gun defence of truffle orchards near Aups, in the Cote d'Azur.

For those interested in what a truffle orchard looks like and how truffle dogs go about their task, Gilles Ayme, a fourth-generation trufficulteur, offers tours of his Grignan estate, southeast of Montelimar.

His shop sells everything remotely connected with truffles, including the little black diamonds themselves. It is a comfortable atmosphere for those not accustomed to truffle-buying to make their purchase.

Truffles are however just a small part of the attractions offered by the Drome. Part of France's Rhone-Alpes region, it has little in common with its Alpine neighbours and much in common with Provence to the south - castles, great vistas and a lovely summer climate.

This is one of the less spoilt areas of France, and one of its more spectacular orchard areas. Peaches, nectarines, apricots, pears, apples, kiwifruit, limes and walnuts all grow here. From mid-June to September, lavender blazes across the countryside.

Nyons, which has a population of 7000, is a major centre of olive farming. At the busy Thursday market, you can find everything from soap to tapenade, and an olive museum is thrown in for good measure.

Montelimar is home to nougat. Its manufacture dates from the 17th century when Olivier de Serres introduced the first almond trees into France from Asia. Its medieval centre is full of shops selling the town's famous product.

Throughout the Drome, and elsewhere in the region straddling the river Rhone, is Picadon cheese.

Made from whole goats' milk, it is often covered and marinated in olive oil flavoured with bay leaves.

Then there is the fruit of the grape. The wines from the Cotes du Rhone continue to be one of the best value-for-money wines in France. In the Drome, as elsewhere, wine trails wend their way among various Cotes du Rhone producers.

If you are in the Drome for the truffles, Hotel L'Esplan in St Paul Trois Chateaux provides a pleasant base. The hotel has 36 rooms and a good restaurant, if you stick to the traditional menu. The chef's experimentations are to be avoided. Hotel Picholine, 1km north of Nyons, is another good base.

At the end of my Drome visit I return to Paris with one carefully chosen, hand-picked 30g little gem. I agonise over how to use it to best advantage. In the end, I settle for something very simple.

I simmer some broad beans until they are cooked, then plunge them into cold water and skin them. The skinned beans are put in a pan with some warm, melted butter and gently heated.

Fine truffle shavings are gently mixed with the beans, heated for a few seconds, and served. Twenty grams of truffle is enough - just - for a broad bean entree for four.

The guests are very enthusiastic. "Don't thank me!" I exclaim. "Thank the truffle." They have no substitute, and no equal. They are, quite simply, magical.

CHECKLIST

Accommodation

Hotel L'Esplan in St Paul Trois Chateaux, 15 Place d'Esplan. Rooms cost from €60-90 ($126-190). Ph 0033 4 75 96 64 64.

Hotel Picholine is 1km north of Nyons via the Promenade des Anglais. Ph 0033 4 75 26 00 21.


More Information

See eat-french-truffle website link below.