[upbeat music] Bienvenue en France.

That's welcome to France to you and me.

I'm traveling throughout this beautiful country to explore the very best in French cuisine.

Bon appetit.

It's a personal journey.

It's where I learned to cook.

Magical times.

Magical times.

And it was the home and inspiration for one of my biggest food heroes, Keith Floyd.

And what's more, I bought his motor.

This was Keith Floyd's very own car for 16 years.

And it's now mine.

Gives me goosebumps.

So, join me as I rediscover the food destination that has it all.

This is really, really delicious.

Mm-mm-mm.

[theme music] ♪ ♪ [smooth music] JAMES: Ah.

When the weather's this good here in France, you simply can't beat being out on the water.

Bonjour.

MAN: [french] JAMES: [french] This beautiful area isn't just home to boats.

Underneath its surface contains hidden treasures Yes, today on my French adventure, my crew and I will be heading down the glorious Canal du Midi.

An historic waterway and a gateway to some of Southern France's tastiest seafood.

Built in the 17th century to improve export routes, Le Canal du Midi carried essential goods like rice, wheat, wine, and fish from inland France to the Mediterranean Sea.

It runs an impressive 150 miles from Toulouse to Etang de Thau.

And it's midway up in Carcassonne, where we start our journey.

[pleasant music] ♪ ♪ Once a major trading port for the canal, Carcassonne is a city steeped in over 2,000 years of history, boasting generous servings of Roman and medieval architecture, not to mention more than a dash of tourist tat.

It really is a stunning place this.

Now, I'm here early because I've been told that it gets really busy with tourists.

In the spirit of this, I'm going to do a little bit of shopping, mainly because I want to buy some presents for the crew.

You see, aren't I nice?

Finish this first.

It gets busy around here pretty quickly.

Thanks to its rich history and proximity to the canal, Carcassonne has become a favorite for souvenir-hungry tourists like me.

Around 4 million of us tread these streets every year.

And on my souvenir hunt, I managed to find a tasteful garden ornament that reminds me of my dog Ralph back home.

But I don't think my lot appreciated it.

Oh well, hopefully I can keep them happy with some grub.

And I found the perfect spot on the banks of the canal to cook a delicious fish feast.

What an amazing location this is.

It's beautiful, isn't it?

You've got the canal opens up into the big part of the river here.

And then further around the corner, if you were to venture further around the corner by boat, you'd end up with Montpelier and then further around Marseille.

And I thought I'd do a dish celebrating all that's best about the local area.

We've got some beautiful clams, a nice little bit of fish, courgettes, and then olives.

And I thought I'd use some of these to create a fish stew.

So, the first thing I'm going to do, is take our nice piece of cod.

Now look at that fella.

It's a big chunk of cod.

And what I'm going to do is create something that I haven't done since I was at college, to be honest.

I'm going to just cut this straight through the center to create a little darne.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is what they call a darne.

It's a piece of fish with a bone right through the middle.

Simple as that.

So, I'm just going to chop this into four darnes.

Normally this would be done with salmon.

So give it a whack through.

So in the pan, a little drizzle of olive oil.

So just pop the fish straight in.

Wherever possible, it's a good idea when you've got fish this good, to keep the bone in.

It keeps the moisture in.

So often as a chef, you just fillet this and pan fry it.

But whenever you get fish like this, and I couldn't resist when I saw it to buy a big chunk.

So, just flip it over.

That's all I want is just a nice little bit of color on it first.

I'm not going to cook it all the way through.

I'm going to finish off the cooking in the stew so I retain all those lovely juices.

It is a great way to eat fish, turbot, halibut, any fish like this, cod on the bone.

Always cook it on the bone.

So, just lift this out and get the pan nice and hot again.

Because this is only going to take about five minutes to cook once I make everything else.

Now, we start off with this particularly for the sauce just with some aromatics, some shallots and garlic.

You just chuck it all in.

Stick the lid on it and leave it.

It's perfect for cooking on one of these boats, maybe a little bit bigger than that one.

And this one.

And that one.

Something slightly bigger, but still, you get the drift.

I like to use a little bit more garlic than usual, so just a touch more.

Start this off.

Now, into here as well, I'm going to put this.

This is fennel.

It's fabulous, really underused back in the UK.

It's great in salads.

Thinly slice it and refresh it in ice cold water to make it come alive.

But in a stew like this, if you cook it for long enough, it tastes delicious.

So, what I'm going to do now is grab some oil, because it's kind of like a tomato-based sauce really for this one.

So we take the fennel, the onions and the garlic first and start to sweat these down.

You get a wonderful aniseedy sort of flavor from fennel particularly with fish.

It's delicious.

So, just sweat that down nicely.

And at the same time, we'll pop in a few of these.

I couldn't resist these.

These are fab.

It's a cross between a courgette and a squash, I suppose, when you look at it.

But they're really just a type of courgette.

What I'm going to do is just chop these up into sort of dice.

Now, the reason why I'm putting everything in dice is that I want it to cook at the same time.

So, in we go with the courgettes.

Quick mix round and then I can concentrate on these fellas.

I couldn't resist this, buying some beautiful tomatoes.

These were for sale by the side of the road.

They're just fabulous.

Just look at the colors, beautiful green ones.

Just check that out.

Look at that, just gorgeous color.

I've got an obsession with tomatoes.

Not in a weird way, but just an obsession because it reminds me so much of my grandparents.

They used to have an allotment when I used to get dropped off to be babysat for, used to venture down to the tomatoes.

My granddad used to be so pleased and so chuffed that his grandson was taking interest in everything that he grew.

The taste of a fresh tomato, there is nothing else like it, full of moisture.

Delicious.

So, we take the whole lot.

They're going to go into our pan and cook these down just for a couple of minutes.

Just stew that down a little bit.

Now, the liquid of this, we're going to pop in some of this.

This is passata.

It's like sort of a puree of tomatoes, not a tomato puree, just a puree of tomatoes that's going to go in there as well.

A little dash of white wine.

Right, just to finish this off, we give this a quick stir.

Now, the best advice I can give you is taste this first, because at this moment in time, before we add the fish and the clams and everything else, we need to season it.

Because what you don't want to be doing is stirring it around afterwards.

It's going to break up the fish.

So, black pepper.

Now, a lot of times, the tomato, particularly that passata, can be quite bitter.

So you need to add a pinch of sugar, but just make sure it's seasoned properly and everything just starts to just break up a little bit, not too much.

A little bit more salt.

Now finally, we're going to take our fish.

So I've got these chunks of cod.

Just pop those in as well like that.

Get all that juice out there as well.

Some black olives-- these are grown all over the place around here, in front of supermarkets, on roundabouts, everywhere.

We'll grab some basil, just a few sprigs of basil.

Just look at that.

It just looks fabulous.

And then I couldn't resist to get some clams, and just pop them in amongst everything else.

And after about three or four minutes, these clams will start to open.

Stick the lid on.

Meanwhile, Rob will take nice, pretty shots of everything around.

I'll see you in a bit.

Bonjour.

See the name of that.

I reckon they got bored.

Le boat.

Of all the things you can call it.

Now, to finish this off, doesn't require too much, just a touch of fresh basil just ripped up over the top.

And because I'm a chef, we have to do this thing, a little drizzle of olive oil.

See that?

Lift this out.

How good does this look?

You've got everything all in one pan, beautiful clams, nice tomato sauce, a few olives.

I'm going to try a bit of this because the fish, it just starts to fall apart.

Look at that.

[upbeat music] Mm-mm-mm.

I couldn't think of a better dish to cook right here.

It's delicious, that.

Bonjour.

Often chefs try to be far too complicated, but food like this is proper food, simple food, tasty food.

See, that's the life I want, instead of stood here sweating like a pig.

But there you go, my one pot fish stew with darnes of cod, clams and a selection of stunning local veg.

Tasty that.

My French culinary adventure has brought me from the chaos of Carcassonne to Agde and the calm of lake Canal du Midi.

OK, relative calm.

It's like waiting for the 7:48 to Waterloo.

But to experience some of the stunning seafood this area has to offer, the crew and I are heading down the canal to the coast.

And in this area, this is the only way to travel.

It's packed in here.

I don't have to cook for this lot, do I?

Luckily, there's no chance of that.

You see, our director informs me that the boat chef has, in fact, kindly offered to cook us up a proper local speciality for lunch.

Look at him.

What a trouper.

So until then, I can sit back and relax.

I've got a job.

OK, well, that was the plan until the director had an idea.

I'm on duty with the rope.

As the boat go down, I let the rope up.

[gentle music] [voice over radio] I think that's my cue.

OK, Captain.

Right.

Job done.

I hope no one's taking my seat.

And we're off.

♪ ♪ This is more like it.

The canal is a masterstroke of French engineering.

By the mid 1800s, over 100,000 metric tons of goods were being transported down here each year.

Since then, it's evolved into a wonderful way for tourists to while away the day en route to the coast.

There's something really special about this, really relaxing.

And I'm glad I'm not cooking lunch today.

I don't know what it is, water, what it does to people.

It's just brilliant.

This just brings back memories of my childhood.

We didn't actually come on a canal barge in France when we came on holiday, but what we did do when we couldn't get to France, we used to go on holiday down the River Thames, hire a boat, and me and my sister used to have huge arguments.

Must have been about seven or eight years old, on where to eat.

It was the days of the Bernie Inns.

She always wanted to go there with the steak, the jacket potato, the wrinkly peas.

I was more interested in the salad bar and the fancy mustard.

I don't know what it is.

It's just peaceful ish until he starts talking.

This is equivalent to sort of a coach trip on water.

But here's something you definitely won't find on a coach trip to Whitby.

Ca va?

Olivier.

Ca va.

Ca va.

Chef Olivier preparing lunch for no less than 140 people in a kitchen so small, cameraman Rob has to film it through a window.

Olivier is creating a basquaise dish which is basically which we've got.

I like late basquaise.

So, we've got onions in there and mixed peppers Red and green.

[french] Paella.

Paella.

He's got some chorizo, peppers, mainly chicken.

It smells amazing in here.

Paella differs from north to south.

Near the coast you get fish.

Inland, you get rabbit and snails and chicken.

Less than 70 miles from the Spanish border, it's not surprising to find paella on the menu.

In here now, he's putting some onions and garlic.

But the dish he's cooking us has real local flavor thanks to its star ingredient.

This is the cuttlefish going in there, big chunks of cuttlefish.

Yep, that's the one.

Cuttlefish breed in the shallow lagoons you find at the coastal end of the canal.

And Olivier knows just how to get the best out of them.

Now, this cuttlefish has been frozen.

It's a good idea with cuttlefish, if you can get it fresh, octopus, that kind of stuff, to freeze it.

It tenderizes it as well.

The only other time I've ever had cuttlefish before was, and that was actually in Cyprus.

And they hung it on the line, the clothing line where they put their underpants and socks and stuff like that, and it was used to dry it all out, and that would tenderize it as well.

But this is a much better alternative I think.

Salt and pepper going in, dried bay leaves, and then herb of Provence, thyme rosemary, that kind of stuff.

[french] [french] JAMES: Bit of white wine going in there now.

Tomato puree going in now, a lot of tomato puree.

OLIVIER: [french] JAMES: This is like a passata.

You could probably use chopped tomatoes at home for this.

He's put a bit of white sugar in there now, caster sugar.

It's often when you put tomato puree in anything it's quite bitter.

So, you offset that with some sugar.

A bit of water.

Basically, Olivier's going to leave this for about half an hour just to gently simmer away in here.

So sure?

What?

It's hot in here.

Now, here's a telling comparison.

Make a mental note of the size of Olivier's kitchen.

That's the kitchen.

That's it.

And compare it to this, the room is cooking for, complete with all 140 diners, including four hungry Englishmen.

This is really good.

Really good.

I was a little bit worried at first when you put all that tomato puree in, but he kind of knows what he's doing.

But after about a good 45 minutes cooking just gently on the stove, it tenderizes that cuttlefish.

I like this.

Cheers cheers.

Cheers.

- Cheers.

- Cheers cheers.

Cheers, everybody.

Cheers, Rob.

Thanks, Rob.

Cheers, Rob.

Now eat your food.

You just can't help but be inspired, a delicious serving of cuttlefish stew and the peace and tranquility of the Canal du.

Midi.

[announcement over pa] I knew it wouldn't last long.

Anyway, tasty stews are the way forward.

If you want to cook a no-fuss supper.

And here's a great one you can cook even if your kitchen is the size of Olivier's.

Now, this is an amazing dish.

The only sort of link that I can think of really, is that it's, it's kind of like the French equivalent to buttered chicken from India.

It's wonderful, wonderful dish.

It contains tomatoes at its base.

Of course, we've got chicken.

We've got some vinegar, red wine vinegar that is.

And we've got a little bit of garlic, some tarragon, that classic combination with chicken, bit of white wine, a few bits of stock.

And we finish it with cream and mustard at the end.

So, it's all about the chicken first of all.

So, we've got a nice chicken here.

We don't waste any of it.

So basically what we do is we cut it for sautes.

That's to remove the joints of meat, make it easier to serve and easier to eat.

So, the first thing we do is put the chicken thighs away from the carcass.

Do that-- same with the other side.

Cut these into two joints.

So you've got your legs and your thighs as well with the chicken itself here.

What I do is whack it through there like that.

Trim it either side of the breast meat there, cut it through, chopping it all up like that.

And then same thing with this-- cut it straight through.

It's just easier to eat.

So the first thing we do, incorporate it all really, not waste any of it.

A little bit of oil and some salt and pepper.

So, get the pan on nice and hot and just brown these.

You're not creating like a rich dark sauce so you don't have to brown the meat too much.

So once you get a nice color to it like that, we can take our chicken, throw it in the oven.

And we're going to create our sauce.

And our sauce is really simple.

Down here it contains look, a little bit of tomato pulp.

This is the inside of the tomatoes.

You can use tinned tomatoes for this if you wanted.

We've got the outside, which I'm going to dice up and put in the sauce later, tomato puree, a little bit of red wine vinegar, tarragon, and garlic, a little bit of stock as well.

I'm going to finish that off with a couple of ingredients later.

But it's all about the garlic to start off with.

So, chop it up.

About two cloves of garlic will be enough for this.

Now, if you want it nice and fine, which you do for this sauce, it's the best advice really, is to take a touch of salt and just using the knife, you press it like that, and this creates a nice paste.

Now, there's no onions in this.

This is just a simple sauce predominantly using tomatoes.

So, what I'm going to use is use the tomato pulp.

That goes into a pan.

Then we go with the garlic, then add the tomato puree.

It's quite a bit of tomato puree in here.

Then we deglaze this with the red wine vinegar.

Then we can add some chicken stock.

Just add a touch of white wine and then a few springs of fresh tarragon.

Just bring it to the boil.

It's going to take a couple of minutes.

Meanwhile, we grab our chicken.

This is basically just to speed up the process of cooking really.

And then grab your sauce and pour the entire lot over the top.

And then all we do is return it back to the oven.

And we want to cook this just gently for about 20 minutes.

So, after about 20 minutes your chicken looks like that.

Delicious.

And then grab a pot to serve it in.

I love these sort of copper dishes.

And all we do is you just lift out the chicken.

The great thing about this dish is you don't waste any of it.

It's kind of one of those dishes that you find in French cafes, really.

And people think, oh, vinegar, chicken, really?

You don't really go for it, but it's just delicious.

Now, it's all about the sauce for this bit.

So, what we're going to do is just pass this through a sieve just to get rid of the pulp part of it.

And then bring this to the boil, and it's nearly finished.

But what we do is we put the addition of just a few ingredients in here, one of which is some good old French Dijon mustard.

The other one is some cream.

So just grab your Dijon mustard, a good dollop of Dijon in there, and then a bit of double cream.

Grab a whisk.

Just whisk this in.

This is what the French call to monter au beurre.

It's to finish off a sauce in butter.

And it's really crucial.

You use quite a bit of butter.

That's just the start.

Bit more.

You see, if you're watching this and you sat at the gym-- or you wouldn't be sat at the gym, you'd be running on what they call a treadmill, apparently.

Turn it up higher because there's more going in.

Now, don't go and ruin this at home.

It cannot work without proper butter.

But really, with this you get a wonderful, rich shine to this sauce.

Just look at that.

And then finally, we can add the chopped bits of tomato.

They can go in, and then fresh tarragon right at the end.

[pleasant music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Do you know what?

I've said it all along.

The several dishes that make my leg shake.

And this is one of them.

But I'll pour that over the top.

And there you have it, poulet saute with red wine vinegar.

I think your leg will shake.

[upbeat music] My journey down the famous Canal du Midi in the Southwest of France has brought me to L'Etang de Thau, a saltwater lagoon on the Mediterranean Coast.

♪ ♪ What's amazing, actually, is you come along the river, it opens out into this area here.

This is famous for the oyster beds.

And then around the corner you've got Marseille and everywhere else.

But it's a stunning part of the world.

Time to get off.

[pleasant music] But just as gorgeous as the scenery, is of course, the seafood, particularly those oysters.

In fact, around 10% of France's oysters come from this very place.

Fed by the mild waters of the Mediterranean Sea, this lagoon is absolutely perfect for growing oysters.

There's no tide, so the oysters are submerged all day, every day.

And very little current means they don't get bashed about.

Those ideal conditions help oysters to grow around twice as fast as their Atlantic-grown cousins.

And it means L'Etang de Thau oyster farmers like these guys can produce up to 8,000 tons of oysters on a good year.

Do you know what?

I actually feel sorry for the humble oyster because it's had a bit of a bad press because people either love it or hate it.

Now, if you've never tried oysters before, you don't have to try them raw.

Try them cooked first of all.

You can use a recipe from America, New Orleans, Rockefeller, that classic recipe combination of herbs and breadcrumbs topped over an open oyster and then put under the grill.

You can deep fry them in a little batter.

They taste wonderful with a little chili dipping sauce.

But the purists will tell you, you have to have an oyster fresh.

And this, to be honest, is one of the best places for them.

And it's just as well because the locals love them, especially raw with a squeeze of lemon perhaps maybe alongside some prawns, or of course with a dollop of tartar sauce.

Shellfish is a treat, however it served.

And if you can't get your hands on any oysters, try this seafood sharer.

Now, I love oysters, but they're quite difficult to get hold of in the UK.

So, I'm going to create a dish using razor clams.

And these little fellas are amazing.

Now, to catch these is actually quite cool because when you walk along the beach, you'll see little holes in the sand.

So, you fill the hole with seawater.

And what happens is this little fella thinks that the tide's come in.

So, it comes out and then you grab it and you've got razor clams.

They're fantastic things these, delicious.

So the first thing we need to do is prepare our clams.

And for that, we need to cook our razor clams first because they take slightly longer to cook than the other ones.

And we have to prepare them.

It's actually quite simple to prepare once they're cooked.

I'm going to take a little bit of chopped shallot first of all.

The reason why I'm using shallot, it's milder.

It cooks quicker, much more sweeter in flavor.

So just grab a little bit of butter with our shallot.

This is basically just to get the liquid from the clams out, but also the meat.

Unlike the smaller clams which I'm going to serve whole, these you have to remove the meat from the inside.

There's a little bit of preparation to begin with.

All we do once you've got the shallots nicely softened, is we throw our clams in.

A bit of white wine.

Shut the lid.

And these are going to cook for a couple of minutes.

Meanwhile, we can prepare the rest of our ingredients.

Now, unlike the shallot that's in here, which I'm going to drain off, the rest of it, I'm going to serve with it.

I'm going to use some fennel, which has got a wonderful flavor.

They use a lot of fennel in soups and stews over in France, as well as using this for salads.

But braising it is also fantastic.

A little bit of shallot, again, chop this nice and small.

Now, the key to cooking these clams is don't overcook them.

Because like most shellfish if you overcook it, it goes tough.

So, literally the time is on a couple of minutes.

That's all it needs.

And the shells will open up.

Bit of garlic.

And then my clams should be ready, which they are.

So we just lift them out.

Now, it's a good idea to keep this juice because this is delicious.

So I'm basically just going to pass this through a sieve.

This is like homemade stock really, fish stock.

I'm going to utilize that to cook everything in because then we can turn our attention to the clams themselves.

Now, these are quite straightforward to prepare.

All you do is you just grab one end.

A whole lot just comes straight out.

Now, I'm going to utilize the shells to serve this in as well.

And then it's a matter of basically just dissecting it.

There's two parts to this clam, the meaty bit, which is that bit, and then the bit you don't want, which is this brown bit.

Remove it like that.

It's not poisonous or anything, but it's just not very pleasant to eat.

So you're taking all the white parts, but not this bit here, which is its mouth.

Lose that out of the way and we chop up all the white bits.

And these are often referred to as a poor man's oyster.

If you want to go out fishing for them, it's kind of like free food, isn't it really?

So you've got the nice razor clam meat all there.

Once you get everything prepared like this, it's quite easy now.

All we do is we grab our butter and we're going to sweat down our shallots, garlic and fennel.

Now, because this is quite quick to cook, what we have to do is make sure that the shallots, the fennel and the garlic is cooked.

Because the minute I add the clams, the clock's ticking.

It takes about three or four minutes to cook them just a little bit longer than mussels.

But you don't want cooked fish and then raw veg to eat with it.

Now, I know I get a lot of letters and complaints about me using too much butter, but you know, I'm not cooking for those people.

I'm cooking for me.

It just happens to be with a film crew watching, but this is the kind of stuff that I like to eat.

Right, very nice and soft.

We can crank up the heat a bit, and then I'm going to throw in the clams.

A little bit of white wine, just a touch.

And then we've got this fantastic almost ready-made stock.

Throw that in.

I'm just going to put the lid on this.

And we're going to boil these for about two or three minutes.

But in the meantime, we can prepare our tomatoes.

Now, you could use tomato concasse for this, which is deseeded and de-skinned.

But I'm just going to grab my tomatoes while they're cooking.

It basically just means you get the flavor of the tomatoes without it altering the sauce.

Otherwise, if you add the tomato pulp, the inside of the tomatoes to it, it's going to turn the whole lot pink and taste the tomatoes.

You want it to taste the clams and you want it to taste of cream.

OK, things are nearly happening now.

Clams are just starting to open up so we can grab our samphire.

Samphire is a fantastic ingredient.

It's often called sea asparagus, but it's actually not grown in the sea like seaweed.

But it uses the spray from the ocean to grow, and it can be often found in clumps all around the UK.

Turn the heat down a little bit.

Pop the lid on.

Another minute.

Meanwhile, we'll prep our tomatoes.

Quite a simple dish this.

But the great thing about seafood that it should be nice and simple.

It should taste of the food.

You know, you're not trying to cover anything up.

You're just trying to complement everything.

Samphire looks good.

So, now we can throw in our razor clam meat.

Start to stir everything through.

Crank up.

You can see the clam starting to open up now.

It's a little bit of double cream in there.

Now, we can throw in the tomatoes.

And then finally a selection of herbs-- I've got some chervil and some chives which we can roughly chop.

Not too much-- we don't want to overpower the flavor of the seafood.

You just throw them in.

Salt and pepper.

Just look at that.

That's kind of it.

It's good enough to serve in a pot, really.

But seeing as we've got the shells, I basically like to serve it like this.

Like that.

Pleased with that.

My French adventure has brought me to the Canal du Midi, a genuine marvel of 17th century engineering.

It's also given me a chance to sample some delicious local cuisine.

And this crew are always hungry, so it's time to whip up some dinner.

There is, however, a problem.

We seem to have got off the boat on the wrong side of the water, and that guy over there is our assistant producer waving from the correct side.

Was it you that organized this?

You see, on his CV, he said that he spoke fluent French.

I reckon it was Greek Oh, well, it looks like Guy's powers of persuasion have actually paid off.

Guy will work again.

Guy will get fan letters.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ Yeah.

This is going to be like the Isle of Wight ferry, isn't it.

100 euros for this trip.

♪ ♪ Merci, monsieur.

Au revoir.

You lot, three mile walk.

I'm only kidding.

It's about two miles.

Right.

Whilst we find a spot to cook our final dish, here's a little introduction to its star ingredient.

♪ ♪ As well as oysters, the L'Etang de Thau is famous for its mussels.

Around 3,000 tons of these little fellas are farmed here every year, and I just can't resist using them to cook up a quintessentially French dish.

How beautiful does that look out there?

You've got the oyster beds and the mussel beds floating around.

And I finally made it across the river to this amazing location.

I love it here, and I thought I'd create a real classic French dish, moules mariniere.

Now, I was thinking to do something slightly differently, but I spotted these amazing mussels out there and I've got to use them.

So these are just beautiful.

And I think a lot of people in the UK are put off by these because they don't know how to prepare them.

It's really simple.

With the mussels, they're produced on ropes really.

They're grown on ropes out there in the distance.

They're produce all over the UK, really, mainly in river streams.

So, the water's moving and that's what they feed on.

They feed on all the rubbish in the water.

But the mussels themselves are produced on ropes.

And what they do is they impregnate the ropes with a little spore, the mussel spore, and it grows.

And if you want bigger mussels, what they do is lift off the rope, lift it out of the water.

And sometimes it can weigh two or three tons of mussels, kick off the mussels.

And the ones underneath grow bigger.

And what we have in here are the mussels themselves.

Now this is how to prepare them, really simple.

Remove the beard first of all.

This is its beard, which attaches itself to the rope.

So you just basically pull that out, get rid of that.

And the easiest way to do this is to pull it towards the base of the mussel.

That way, it basically just cuts it off.

I like to do this in some water really, so you can make sure these are all closed.

Because what you need to do is make sure they're still alive, nice and fresh.

You don't want any dead ones.

If there's any that stay open, get rid of them at this point.

Likewise, when they're cooked, if there's any that are still closed, get rid of those as well.

But you do need quite a few of them.

There's about 1 and 1/2, nearly two kilos in here.

Just take a little while to prepare these, but it's worth it in the end.

I think you remember the first time you've tried mussels, like the first time you try an oyster.

It's that venture into the unknown, isn't it really?

But once you taste them, you realize what all the fuss is about.

They taste so much of the sea and they've got to be fresh like these.

I remember cooking this for the very first time in France, and the recipe doesn't change.

You can change the herbs, bits and pieces, but it's such a simple dish, simple, pure dish.

That's why it will always stand the test of time.

You've almost got two dishes.

You've got the mussels themselves, and then you've got this amazing liquor underneath.

Nice of course, with the bowl of chips, but I'm going to do mine with a bit of French bread.

So, lose that out of the way.

And now for our dish itself, so a little bit of onion.

Now the secret is with a good moules mariniere, this is how I was taught, actually, in Paris, of all places, by a chef, is to make sure the onions are finely diced.

Because he said, you don't cook it for so long, so you want all the flavor of the onion to come out first of all.

So, make sure you cut them quite small.

The garlic is really important with this.

So, we want a few cloves of garlic-- for this amount of mussels, probably three.

Now, likewise with the garlic, you need to make sure this is quite small as well.

So the best way to do that is chop it first of all, nice and fine.

And then take some salt, just a little bit of salt over the top.

And then using your knife, just press it so you're almost creating crushed garlic.

So you get it nicely crushed.

Now, you almost got everything ready now because this is quite quick to cook.

Now, this is why I love France, this and a few other things as well.

But 1 kilo pack of butter, we have to cook this in butter.

So we want a little wedge, just a little wedge like that a butter.

You get this in the pan.

Now, at the same time in with the garlic.

In with the onion.

Quickly mix this around.

We don't want to color this.

So, at this moment in time, we can put our aromatics, some bay leaf, a little bit of fresh thyme.

That will cut some of this.

And then deglaze this with some white wine.

Touch of white wine and then cream.

Now, at home you're best off using double cream for this, not single, because it can split.

I'm doing it this way because this is the way that I was taught, is to cook this for a couple of minutes before we add our mussels.

It just gets the flavor out of all the bay leaf and the thyme.

So just bring that to the boil and just let that gently simmer for a couple of minutes.

On all my trips around France, I've been secretly looking for a little holiday hideaway, to be honest with you.

And I think I found it right here.

It's got everything that I need, really.

You've got the mussel beds, the oyster beds, the beautiful view.

Over there, you've got the houses which are worth millions of pounds.

However, right here, this is it.

I found the place.

This is it.

And it's empty.

I reckon I could put an offer in for this.

Look at that for a view.

You get a free boat as well.

Now, this has been cooking for a couple of minutes.

Different finger before you all start phoning up complaining.

Black pepper.

A nice pinch of salt.

And then it's just a matter of throwing in the mussels.

Give them a quick mix.

Now, once you put the lid on, cook this for about four to five minutes until the mussels open.

Whilst they're cooking, plenty of parsley.

Chop this up.

Finally, all you've got to do really, is serve it with a big pile of crusty French bread.

[french music] ♪ ♪ Throw in some parsley, plenty of chopped parsley.

Give it a stir.

When we've got mussels this fresh from right behind me, I think this is probably the perfect dish.

My moules mariniere with onion, garlic, herbs, crusty French bread and of course, L'Etang de Thau's magnificent muscles.

Bon appetit.

And that brings my time on the canal to an end.

What an amazing place this is.

I've traveled along a remarkable piece of French history.

There's something so relaxing about this.

Being cooked a delicious local delicacy in a kitchen so tiny you could barely swing a prawn in it.

That's the kitchen.

That's it.

And I've taken inspiration from this beautiful and bountiful coast and served up a seafood treat.

I'm off to see if there's any of those mussels left.

And knowing this crew, I very much doubt it.

[theme music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ JAMES: Stunning local veg.

Tasty that.

Coming up on my French adventure, the crew and I start our journey down the canal to the coast.

OK, Captain.

And the boat's chef turns up the heat in the kitchen.

So sure.

What?

It's hot in here.

I think your leg will shake.

Coming up on my French adventure down the Canal du Midi, we'll be seeing why the area has become so famous for its delicious oysters.

And I get selfish with my shellfish.

Well, I'm cooking for me.

Still JAMES: To come on my French adventure along the Canal du Midi, the crew and I suffer a minor communication problem.

You see, on his CV, he said that he spoke fluent French.

And I rustle up a mouth-watering moules mariniere.

The perfect dish.

Right on the coast.