[upbeat music] Bienvenue en France.

That's "welcome to France" to you and me.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): I'm traveling throughout this beautiful country to explore the very best in French cuisine.

Bon appetit.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): It's a personal journey.

It's where I learned to cook.

Magical times.

Magical times.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): 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.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): So join me as I rediscover the food destination that has it all.

This is really, really delicious.

Mm-mm.

Mm.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ JAMES (VOICEOVER): Today, my French adventure has lured me to a region that is not only the country's largest wine producer, but also home to one of France's most famous dishes.

Welcome to the Languedoc.

Now, some people call this the heart of authentic France.

It's not showy, it's not touristy.

But what it has got is some amazing food.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): The Languedoc has 130 miles of glorious coastline, fringing vast fertile plains, cooled by breezes from the Mediterranean Sea and the Pyrenean Mountains, stretching from the Rhone Valley in the east to the Spanish border in the southwest.

It's an agricultural haven.

So my producer tells me.

[soft music] Oh!

JAMES (VOICEOVER): 20 miles from the coast, somewhere on the road to Carcassonne, it's proper hot.

But I found a fellow traveler.

And like me, he's a bit lost.

It's about 15 miles from anywhere.

I think he's OK.

He's all right.

Just chilling out.

That's how he rolls.

I know just how he feels.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): Now, it may seem like the middle of nowhere and, to be honest, this is, but thanks to the region's 11,000 hectares of farmland, you're never far away from fresh ingredients.

And in amongst the vines and potholes, there's a little pick-your-own-place that sells something far more elaborate than strawberries and raspberries.

And slightly bigger.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): And when you're in France, you drive past these little places all the time, but they're really worth a proper look.

And it turns out this one is run by a couple of Brits.

- Well, guys.

- Hello.

Hello.

How long have you been here then?

Erm, it's been 11 years now.

2005 we came over.

JAMES: Right.

SARAH: So, uh-- Not in this, by the looks of things?

No, that was a year later.

JAMES: So tell me about the farm.

JIM: So we're 75 acres of, erm, fruit, mainly trees.

Uh, and we sell everything through pick-your-own.

Why-- why farm in France?

What-- Uh, well, I couldn't afford one in England.

Er-- That is the reason why?

Yeah.

We'd always wanted a farm.

And, erm, once we got married, we decided to look in France.

And why this particular area then?

Er, It-- it was more luck than good judgment.

But it's particularly good for growing fruit.

So for peaches, nectarines, apricots, it's a perfect climate.

What's-- what's in season at the moment then?

Because I see you've got amazing onions.

Tell me about these.

Er, the onions-- that's an onion de Lézignan.

And it's a local sweet onion.

So it's ideal for salads.

And we buy the plants off, erm, a chap who saves his own seed like his father did and his grandfather did.

So it's his own variety from a town that's famous for its onions.

And I take it you can't get these in the UK then.

JIM: No.

SARAH: No.

And they're sweet.

They're genuinely sweet.

Now, tell me about these.

These look-- these look pretty impressive.

SARAH: It's end of season for melons at the moment.

JAMES: Yeah.

But you can tell when a melon is ripe because the tail there is coming away from it.

JAMES: OK.

So that's very important.

It mustn't be smooth.

If it's smooth, it's no good.

Yeah.

Don't pick it.

Erm, and the smell, it has to smell good.

It smells good, yeah.

I've got to take two of those, haven't I really?

So give me two of those.

I want to create like, a salad, I'm thinking.

Maybe a salad with some fish.

So which-- which-- should I go for these peaches or-- Poof.

White-- white peaches.

JAMES: White peaches.

Yeah.

Give us about-- I think probably give us about eight-- eight peaches.

JIM: Eight or 10 of those?

JAMES (VOICEOVER): Nearly 50% of France's peaches are produced in this region, so they're perfect for adding extra local flavor to my first dish.

And they're quite cheap, too.

Is that all it is?

Eight euros?

It's hard being a farmer.

No, I'm going to give you-- keep the change.

Have a drink on me.

I'm very glad I found you.

Very, very glad I found you.

Thank you.

What a fantastic find.

There you go.

You've got to come here now.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): I think I can hear the crew's bellies rumbling.

Well, not to worry, because just down the road, I found a lovely old hotel courtyard to whip up a little lunch.

Do you know what?

All credit to Sarah and Jim.

I really admire them.

And they've got amazing produce in there.

And let's face it, it's dotted all around France.

You can find those little places where you can pull in, grab a little bit of fresh fruit.

And these are superb.

These wonderful melons, lovely little peaches.

And I thought I'd do a nice little warm salad.

And I'm going to use prawns.

And I'm going to serve this with some deep fried onion rings.

I don't know whether it's going to work together, but we'll see.

The salad, I definitely know works because it uses these amazing melons.

Now, what you have to do, really, for this is just cut them in half first of all, and just scoop out the insides.

Just get rid of the seeds first of all.

So another one.

What I'm going to do is I'm going to do a nice little dish with this, using one of these things.

This is called a Parisienne scoop.

Those people who live outside of the M25 like myself, it's otherwise known as a melon baller.

OK?

And all we do with this is just scoop out the melon like that.

Now, this is very retro.

Look at that.

When you get them really fresh like this, literally picked-- look at the water in there, that lovely juice-- I'm going to use that to make our little vinaigrette to go with it.

It's just a simple little salad, this.

Little scoop this out.

Got a decent amount of this melon.

Now, what I'm going to do with this is grab some of this juice.

I'm going to make a dressing out of this as well.

So give it a good squeeze.

You don't want to waste any of it.

Like that.

So I'm going to use raspberry vinegar.

Keep the fruitiness sort of theme to this.

A little bit of oil, always three to one again.

So the vinegar one part, the oil three parts.

And you've got that nice melon flavor in there as well.

And then what I'm going to do is grab some of this tarragon.

Really unusual to put tarragon in this, but it works amazing with fish.

Right.

We've got our nice little dressing I've got my lovely melon, really simple.

Now, I'm going to serve this with some prawns because I'm trying to educate our crew, you know?

Trying being the operative word.

But I've got some beautiful prawns.

Just look at these crevettes.

And what we're going to do is just peel these.

Now, the easiest way to peel a prawn-- remove the head first.

That's gone.

Then start at the top, the thick end, and peel off the top bit.

Get about halfway and then squeeze the bottom part of the tail.

Done.

Now, this is kind of like a warm salad.

So you get the pan really hot for this, a little bit of oil.

And I say it's a warm salad because when you cook melon, it takes it to a different level.

It's really unusual.

But just put the melon in the pan.

Now, leave it alone.

You want it to char at the same time.

So while that's happening, we can throw in our prawns like that, because we want these to warm through.

A little bit of these little fellas.

[sizzling] These are little crayfish.

Freshwater crayfish.

So often in the UK we get these pickled in little jars.

They're delicious.

There's millions of these little fellas in our rivers.

Catch them and eat them.

Like that.

Just warm this through ever so slightly.

You're not cooking it, just warming it through.

As soon as it's done, take it off.

That melon just starts to color a little bit like that.

Now, at the same time, I can add my lovely dressing.

So finally, a little bit of seasoning.

Black pepper, touch of salt.

And while the salad is still warm, in we go with the dressing.

Now, what I couldn't resist using-- these beautiful peaches.

Absolutely delicious.

I had one of these on my way here.

They're just fantastic.

It was dripping all over my shirt.

But just look at-- just look at this.

This is why I get excited about food, you know?

This.

Just this.

The crew just live on pizzas and drive-throughs.

Grab your peaches in there, and they just mix this together.

The tarragon and everything else just goes through it.

Take the entire lot.

So to me, this is a thing of beauty, you see.

I would just eat this just as it is, with a nice glass of wine.

That's all I need.

Just like that.

But the team here said they don't want fancy fish, they want food.

So I'm going to do deep fried onion rings.

Just keeps them happy.

You know what I mean?

I'm here to serve.

Look, flour.

You like this, though.

Bit of flower.

Gin.

Just a little measure of gin.

And then we grab some tonic.

Now, it's the tonic and the gin that works perfectly for our batter.

You just mix this together.

Now, I know what you're thinking at home.

You're looking forward to seeing these when they come out of the deep fat fryer.

Not this crew, I tell you.

They're just thinking it's a waste of gin.

Simple as that.

Look.

Then-- look at these.

Look at that beautiful onion.

It's just a stunning onion.

And then I'm going to do with this, is just create onion rings.

So slice it through.

I mean, boys, look at that.

[laughs] It's a proper onion ring, innit?

Get the pan nice and hot.

And then you dip these in the gin and tonic batter.

We pop these in.

[sizzling] This will keep them happy, you see.

Mm.

This really is a good batter, though.

You don't have to use gin.

Vodka and tonic works brilliantly.

Then we lift out our onion rings.

Cut these.

These are better than the ones you get in a little brown bag.

There you go.

Proper onion rings.

Look at these.

Look, there's different colors, but, you know, who cares?

They don't mind.

It doesn't even touch the sides with this lot, food.

But then I know what you're thinking.

You can't just leave it there, James.

Oh, no.

Those people who were north of Leeds would just not invite me back into the county if I didn't do this.

Scraps.

You can't have fish without scraps.

These used to be free.

Now they're 40p a bag in my local chip shop, the robbing lot.

Do you know what?

I'll just leave those there.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): And there you have it.

My refreshing prawn and melon salad with gin and tonic battered onion rings.

Perfect on a scorching day like today.

Enjoy that.

[upbeat music] JAMES (VOICEOVER): Leave some for me, guys.

♪ ♪ Fair enough.

[french music] My quest for the true taste of the Languedoc has brought me from the back of beyond to the bustling streets of Carcassonne.

A walled town with ancient origins, It's home to a distinctly medieval dish.

If you visit France, you have to try one dish in particular.

And I've been told this is the best place to do it.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): The place is La Compte Roger, and the dish is cassoulet.

The recipe has peasant roots, but thanks to this fellow, chef Pierre Mesa, it's been elevated to fine cuisine.

A rich, slow-cooked stew, cassoulet contains mainly white haricot beans and meat, typically Toulouse sausage, duck confit, and if you're really jammy, a pig's trotter.

[upbeat music] Traditionally all cooked up together.

But at this place, Pierre cooks each element separately, only uniting them at the very end of the cooking process.

OK, you need a few more pans on the go, but it means each ingredient retains its own distinct flavor.

After 24 hours in the fridge, it's reheated to enhance that famous taste, and I can't wait to get stuck in.

[speaking french] JAMES (VOICEOVER): Chef Pierre serves each ingredient individually in much the same way he cooks them.

[speaking french] So how's vinegar?

This is quite unusual.

I've never had cassoulet with-- with vinegar over the top.

Just a-- [speaking french] So this is his own vinegar.

And he says that this is the best way to serve it.

I've never had cassoulet with vinegar before, but we'll give it a go.

This is really, really delicious.

It is very, very good.

Everything is quite buttery and the vinegar just cuts through that.

So it's a great idea.

And I like the idea that you need to leave it for 24 hours in the fridge and then reheat it.

It's like-- those people who have had sort of a beef stew will know that when you reheat it the second time, it actually tastes better than the first time.

[french music] Look at him at the door.

One happy guy.

♪ ♪ [speaking french] He's modest.

He knows it's good.

[chuckles] ♪ ♪ JAMES (VOICEOVER): And they're a generous bunch here.

Chef asked the crew if they were hungry.

Stupid question, really.

This lot are always hungry.

What a place and what a meal.

♪ ♪ And it's given me an idea about how you can celebrate hearty, rustic French cookery in your own kitchen.

Now, what we didn't see Pierre do was at the heart of a cassoulet is confit of duck.

And it's actually quite straightforward to do.

You can buy it if you can find it.

It comes in a can.

Duck legs as well in a can, but basically it's salted and slowly cooked duck legs.

It's really simple.

You can confit any type of meat, but it all starts with duck legs.

What you have to do is weigh them first.

It's 15 grams of salt per kilo of duck.

So I've got some nice little duck legs here.

Now, what you need to do is salt these.

So use table salt if you want.

You can use sea salt if you need to.

But table salt is fine.

A little bit of fresh thyme.

It's entirely up to you whether you put this in really.

It's optional.

You can just-- basically just use the salt, some garlic, just cut straight in half through the skins and throw them in as well.

Now, a little bit of bay leaf, just a touch.

Bay leaves have got a wonderful sort of flavor.

And then what you need to do is basically just cover that, stick it in the fridge, leave it at least for overnight.

Alternatively 24 hours.

The longer you leave it, the more salty the duck legs will become.

Now, to cook them, what you do is get yourself a pan and what you need to do is wash the duck legs.

So just under the tap, cold water like that.

This just gets rid of any excess salt.

Once you know how to do this, this so, so simple, this dish to make.

It's like one of those dishes you just put it in the oven and forget about, really.

But the taste is fantastic.

And you can turn this into all manner of different dishes.

Use some of the bay leaves, some of the garlic.

Now it's all about the fat because this is the stage where we need to cook this.

And I'm going to use this.

This is goose fat.

It became famous in the UK about eight, 10 years ago on TV when chefs started to use it.

And this is the prime example of what my mother has done over the years.

So 20 years ago, she used to be obsessed with using dripping, but then having watched a certain chef on TV, she decided to use good old goose fat.

And ever since then she's made amazing roast potatoes.

That chef, it was Nigella.

Thanks, Nigella.

Look, you've got a decent amount of goose fat.

That's what you want.

Now, you can always keep this.

This is the great thing with this.

You buy plenty of it and you can reuse it.

So you're not using it and throwing it away because what the duck legs need is plenty of goose fat.

Because that's where duck confit would originate from.

It's a way of preserving the meat.

Now we can pop the lid on, set the oven quite low-- about 130, 140 degrees centigrade-- and then pop this in the oven for about two and a half to three hours.

Now, after that stage, what we end up with once it's cooled is the duck legs like you have in here.

It sort of just ever so slightly starts to break up.

Now, this is where we can transfer it into all manner of different dishes.

But for this one, what we're going to do is roast it in the oven.

Now, this is kind of how Pierre did it, really, I suppose.

I'm going to serve it with a nice little instant bean cassoulet.

But this is so, so easy to make.

Keep this fat as well, because you can reuse it for your roast potatoes.

And then you take some honey.

Just normal honey over the top.

Now this really, to me, is the epitome of French food.

It's-- it's not worrying about your waistline or anything else like that.

It's just food.

Just enjoy food for once, will you?

Take the entire lot.

Throw it in the oven.

Quite hot oven for about 20 minutes.

Now, meanwhile, we're going to make my version of a cassoulet.

So over here, we've got some onion, got a bit of garlic, got some tomato puree.

It's entirely up to you what beans you use.

I've got some white beans, borlotti beans, parsley, a nice little bit of tinned tomato and a few mushrooms, really.

First of all, start off with onions.

So we're going to chop the onions nice and fine.

What we can do is grab a little bit of butter like that in the pan, start cooking our onions.

[sizzling] But for me, garlic is a must.

Don't be frightened with garlic with this.

So I'm going to put three cloves of garlic in this.

Cassoulet is like a long slot of slow-cooked stew.

So you start off with the onions and garlic.

Plenty of garlic in this, really.

And get that cooking away nicely.

Now in here, as we start to get a bit of color on it-- probably cook that a little bit longer.

Gives it enough time to maybe have a sneaky glass.

It was really good, that cassoulet, I have to say, that Pierre did.

By adding vinegar to it, it actually cuts through the fattiness.

And it was really nice.

Anyway, we got our onions.

It's starting to color a little bit.

Now we add the tomato puree.

Now, it's important to cook out the tomato puree.

So often, this can be quite raw in flavor, quite intense.

So you need to cook it out.

Now, it's what my lecturer used to say at college-- don't ask me what it means, it just means cook it out.

So you cook it out for about 30 seconds.

Now we start to add our beans, nice little bit of mushrooms, a few bits of mushrooms which we can cut into quarters, throw them in, and start to add everything.

Careful with the tomato puree that it doesn't catch.

So just maybe turn this down a little bit.

It's entirely up to you what flavors you add to this.

It can be mushrooms, anything you want.

Bit of broccoli.

But the basis of this really is the beans and the tomatoes.

So add the beans.

Then go in.

And then we've got some tinned tomatoes.

You can use passata if you want.

But tinned tomatoes, it's kind of perfect for this.

It smells amazing.

I'll tell you what.

We'll add a little bit of fresh thyme to this.

Just a tiny bit.

And we'll gently simmer this for about five minutes.

Meanwhile, I'm going to chop this massive bunch of parsley.

See you in a minute.

[soft music] ♪ ♪ There you go.

Now, to finish off this sort of cassoulet, this bean stew, add a little bit of butter just to finish it, some salt and pepper, a good amount of black pepper in there as well.

And then finally bucket loads of parsley.

Now, you can serve this just on its own.

To be brutally honest with you, it's just a wonderful dish in its own right.

If you want to glamorize this up, you could put some bacon through it, some sausages, that kind of stuff.

But that looks pretty good to me.

But it's all about what's in this oven.

And that's the duck confit.

This has been in for about sort of 20 minutes.

♪ ♪ Look at that.

And then you can glaze this with the honey and everything else that's in this pan.

Just delicious.

Now, I can serve it with these beans.

And just put on the side.

Lift it up like a nice duck leg.

And now it's about the taste.

What you've got is this amazing meat.

Look, just falls apart.

But eat the fat.

Look, this is good.

Don't waste any of this bit.

♪ ♪ Mm!

Look at the duck.

Look at this.

This-- this is-- this is.

It's just the best duck ever.

♪ ♪ JAMES (VOICEOVER): My journey has brought me to the Languedoc in the southwest corner of France.

And as we've discovered, it's a region blessed with a rich culinary heritage.

But a flagging crew needs more than good grub to keep them happy.

Now, one of the hardest things to get right about traveling abroad is where to stay.

Do you stay in B&Bs, hotels, campsites?

That's no different in France, but I've heard of a little place that's run by two expats that's pretty good-- so good, in fact, I'm staying there with all the crew.

♪ ♪ And here are our hosts, Mike and Val, in front of their lovingly restored 18th-century coach house in the heart of Pépieux Village.

These two said au revoir to Englishness a decade ago, to embrace la vie Languedoc.

Val has become a valued member of the town council, and as part of her duties, even helps run an arts and crafts group for local children.

We wanted to be in a working village.

We wanted to integrate into life here, and I think we've achieved it.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): She's a proper pillar of the community.

But what makes these two really special is the delicious local cuisine they cook up every day for their guests.

And tonight that's us.

Now, besides keeping the crew away from takeaway pizzas, the real point of this is that all the ingredients you see here, tomatoes, herbs and salad leaves, are all locally sourced.

Even the olive oil for Mike's marinade is pressed just down the road.

That's the real secret to the Languedoc.

And using local seasonal produce like this has inspired Val and Mike's cooking.

Cheers, everybody.

Cheers, everybody.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): And mine too.

And what says Languedoc more than juicy, sun-ripened fruit transformed into a simple dessert for any time of the day.

Now, this dish is quite interesting because while I was there, Mike actually served it.

And it's-- it's classically called a clafouti, but it starts off life as a Yorkshire pudding batter, or kind of, with the addition of cream instead of full milk and a little bit of sugar.

But the first thing we're going to do is make our batter for this, which is using just some plain flour.

But it's a dish that traditionally would be done with cherries from the Limousin region of France, where it originates from, about 200 miles further north than where Mike was.

But it's a fantastic dish, this.

But the whole lot just gets thrown into a bowl.

So I've got some flour, I've got sugar, I've got double cream, proper double cream.

I hunted all over France for decent cream.

I only found it in one place and they call it Mountain Cream.

I don't know why, when France has so much great food, their cream is just rubbish.

It is rubbish.

So use double cream.

Some medium eggs, two of those.

And then, like Yorkshire pudding batter, we mix this by hand.

If you put it in a machine, it tends to strengthen the flour too much and toughen everything up.

So mixing by hand is much better.

Leave it to rest for a little bit.

Meanwhile, we can fire up our pan and turn our attention to a filling.

Mike actually served this with just peaches.

Now, peaches are one of those fruit that when they're bang in season, they're found all over France, by the side of the road, like what we found, in supermarkets, in shops.

You can't get enough of them, really, but they are delicious.

You can be fancy and remove the skin.

To do that, you need to roast them in the oven or use a blowtorch.

But it's much easier just to chuck the whole lot in, to be brutally honest with you.

But just remove the stone now.

So often with clafouti when I've had it, it actually keeps the stone in the fruit, particularly when it comes to the classic way with cherries, because cherry stones almost taste like almonds.

There's an oil that comes out of a cherry stone as it cooks.

And you get this distinct flavor with it.

So a tiny little bit of butter, first of all, in the pan, and we'll soften the peaches first.

Otherwise, they don't cook nicely.

So give them a couple of minutes in the pan.

[sizzling] Now, what you find with doing this is sort of a sweet Yorkshire pudding, as the French call it, but it isn't.

You'll find that so often the fruit doesn't cook properly inside, so it's a bit like when you're making a spot of toad in the hole, is you've got to cook the sausages almost all the way through really, before you make the Yorkshire pudding mixture, because generally sometimes they're not cooked in the center.

Well, this is the same thing with these peaches.

Just gradually start to cook them first.

Now what you want to do with this is just figure out where you want to put everything, particularly if you've got anything like figs you want to make with-- make it look pretty first.

Turn them upside down, make them look nice.

Because when you take the batter this stuff and pour it on, there's no going back.

Now, it's a good idea to do this in a non-stick frying pan because it's easier to take out afterwards.

Preheat the oven, quite hot oven, 220 degrees centigrade.

That's about 450 Fahrenheit, gas mark 7 or 8.

And pop this in the middle of the oven and cook this for about 15 minutes.

[upbeat music] Now, you can serve this with pouring cream, bit of creme fraiche, but I actually like a little bit of Chantilly cream with this.

And for that, this is the key.

Just a touch of vanilla with some double cream.

♪ ♪ This vanilla bean paste is brilliant because it's actually quite sweet.

They make it out of a sugary syrup, and all you've got to do is whisk it up, and it sweetens the cream as well as flavors it.

Grab your little pot.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ And just take this out.

But what you end up with is this beautiful little sponge.

Now, you can serve this hot or cold.

It's entirely up to you, but a lot of people would do it, in France, at room temperature.

You can carefully lift this out onto there like that.

You've got the cream, but always with clafouti, ice and sugar over the top.

And there you have it.

It's simple, but it tastes absolutely delicious.

And it is not Yorkshire pudding.

[jaunty music] Now, I know what you're thinking.

Why on Earth is he driving one of these?

Because it's got history and particularly one person's history.

The hat gives it away because this car was owned by a legend, not the Rolling Stones, that kind of stuff, but a TV cookery legend, because this was actually Keith Floyd's very own car.

It's got nicks, it's got marks, it's got scratches.

This is a 2CV 6 club.

A proper bit of kit.

Proper suspension.

Look at that.

And when I had the idea of this program and I thought about it, and I thought about the journey and going back to my childhood, going back to the places where I used to work, but also celebrating all this amazing country has to offer in terms of food and drink, I could think of no other better car to do it in than this.

The fact that it's Keith Floyd's car in France, it's back home.

It's back where it belongs.

Just look at it.

It's a French classic, isn't it?

♪ ♪ JAMES (VOICEOVER): And she's looked after me well, on my culinary adventure in the Languedoc.

Once known as a poor man's Provence, for me, it's rich with delicious, locally sourced ingredients and top-notch hospitality.

What more could you want?

Cheers, everybody.

Cheers, everybody.

[soft music] ♪ ♪ Everywhere where you go in France, when you drive up in one of these, it makes people smile.

And it's got its faults.

Gearbox is not great.

It's marked, it's dented.

But it's Keith Floyd's car.

And I'm in France, having a whale of a time.

We're rammed in here like sardines, to be honest.

I haven't got a clue where I'm going because there's no SATNAV.

That's the air conditioning.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): And you can tell the crew are used to a more luxurious mode of transport.

CREW: Let's do one more, James.

Had a few, uh-- few bumps and things on the camera there.

A few bumps?

CREW: Yeah, a few bumps.

Have you seen the bloody road?

Have you seen the bloody road that we've stuck on?

[laughter] ♪ ♪ JAMES (VOICEOVER): Now I have one more dish to cook here in the Languedoc.

But before that, my lovely crew have arranged a little surprise for me.

Now, dotted amongst the vineyards, mangroves and oyster beds around this area, it's a little museum that celebrates all that's best about the 2CV.

So I can't wait to have a look.

Here we are.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): Woo-hoo!

I'm looking forward to this.

[jazz music] I'll be honest, this isn't what I was expecting.

A 2CV museum with only one 2CV.

Still, if it's fascinating facts you're after-- It was 1935 when the 2CV was invented.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): --you won't get them here.

Nice toy cars, though.

♪ ♪ You see, this is quite interesting.

1990, they invented a new chassis for the 2CV.

You see, mine's got drum brakes, but this one's got disk brakes.

And these are all the body panels as well.

♪ ♪ Shoes are a bit random, but-- JAMES (VOICEOVER): After all I've done for this crew, battered onion rings, melon balls, put them up in a lovely B&B-- Phew-- JAMES (VOICEOVER): Well, I suppose it's educational.

I know what you're thinking.

Yes!

A 1949 type A. JAMES (VOICEOVER): Well, what an absolute treat.

But back to gastronomy, and for my final dish, I'm heading to the hottest place on Earth, near a lakeside barbecue spot just outside Pépieux.

Now, you might have noticed there's lots of vineyards in these parts.

The Languedoc grows 80% of France's wine grapes.

But for my final dish, it's not the grapes I'm interested in.

I'm going to use these.

These are the vine prunings.

And I've cooked with these before.

They impart a really unique sort of flavor.

[french music] JAMES (VOICEOVER): And this time, it's not just us I'm cooking for.

I've invited Val and Mike from the B&B, plus a few of their friends as a little thank you for looking after us.

[chatter, laughter] Now, I thought I'd do a wonderful little entrecote dish with this using the vine prunings.

So I've got them started in here.

They take about 30 minutes to really die down, and you cook them in the white ash underneath.

And then I'm going to serve this with a lovely blue cheese salad.

But firstly, it's all about the dressing for this and the meat.

But the dressing, first of all, is we're going to make this with egg yolk.

A couple of those in here.

Now, it is actually so simple to make your own mayonnaise.

So you need some mustard, French mustard, of course.

And then gradually you pour on oil.

Most mayonnaise is are made with veg oil.

That's why it's white.

You can use the rapeseed oil, which is lovely in yellow.

And gradually it'll get thicker.

You see that, Rob?

Look.

Dive in there.

It'll get thicker and thicker.

So much easier to do it by machine in an air conditioned kitchen, because currently outside I reckon it's about 36 degrees, and stood here next to this barbecue, this stone radiating the heat off, it's in the 40s, I reckon.

Now, look, you end up with mayonnaise.

Look.

Look at that.

Easy as that.

Now, to turn this into a dressing, we use the addition of creme fraiche.

Like that.

Little dollop of creme fraiche.

And then I'm going to use some blue cheese.

You can use any blue cheese you want, really.

Just break this up.

Stilton would work really well with this at home.

And then two flavorings brought from home.

A little bit of Worcester sauce, a touch of Tabasco, black pepper, and a good pinch of salt.

And mix this together.

But that is your cream dressing.

It's one of the nicest dressings that I've tasted.

I'm going to serve it with some amazing steak and a nice sort of crouton and salad.

So for our croutons, just take a nice big baguette, slice this through.

Like that.

So you take a little drizzle of oil.

The difference between this and charcoal, this is really hot.

So I'm going to stand by and keep my eye on this one.

But we'll char this up nicely.

Now, with your big chunky croutons what you do with these-- to turn it into garlic croutons is this, grab a whole piece of garlic, cut it straight in half.

I'm going to use this whole.

But what you can do is just use a small individual clove and just rub it over the top.

That's as much garlic as you want in here.

This is French garlic bread.

Not English garlic bread.

It's French garlic bread, lightly brushed over.

And then I'm going to leave that to one side.

And now I'm going to turn my attention to the steak, really.

We've got this entrecote, fantastic piece of meat.

Now, normally I'll explain where this comes from.

However, we've got another cameraman here today.

Guy, come here.

The reason I'm bringing him out the front is he's the good-looking one of the crew, you see.

Look at that.

Ladies, look.

This is Guy.

Now, Guy, he's now going to pretend to be a beast in a field.

So bend over, put your arms down.

That's it.

So basically your steaks, you have this area here, which is your ribeye, which I've got in here, your nice rib steak.

This is where your full rib of beef comes from.

This area here, this is where your sirloin comes from.

This is where your rump steak comes from.

You fill it, comes from underneath there.

Thank you, Guy.

[applause] He gets round of applause for that?

I'm cooking in 60-degree heat.

You know what I mean?

Look, now, this is a fabulous piece of entrecote.

You can see the marbling of fat in there.

Beautiful piece of meat.

Nice and thick chunk as well.

You want a decent-sized piece.

Too often people do burgers and stuff like that on a barbecue, which is fine, don't get me wrong.

But when you get a piece of meat like this, just look at that.

Cooked on vine prunings.

Mm, delicious.

A little bit of oil.

Just a touch.

And then, just for an unusual topping for this, I'm actually going to use black treacle.

You take a couple of tablespoons of black treacle, a little bit of oil, touch your fresh thyme like that, over the top.

We mix this together to create a glaze.

Now I'm going to put this on while it cooks.

If it's on too early, it's going to burn.

So what we're going to do with this is grab our steaks and stick them on our barbie.

[sizzling] And the sound man, because he can't be bothered to move, he wants the sound of a sizzling steak.

[sizzling intensifies] Happy?

He's happy.

So what we do is just brush the treacle over the top of the steak, and we want it to char.

We want to get that sort of nice flavor, but we don't want to be doing a stereotypical Brit on a barbecue.

Men.

Burnt burgers and sausages.

So what we do is we turn that over and then just brush the other side.

Rob, just look at this.

Just get in there.

Look at that one.

See that?

Just brush the top with the black treacle.

Fabulous.

Now, look.

Rob, check out that.

Just get a close up of that.

Go on, get it in focus.

Right in tight.

Lovely.

Perfect.

Treacle glazed beef.

Now, for the health conscious, I'm going to take some spring onions.

And these are wonderful.

Just look at those spring onions.

These are from a supermarket over here.

Just look.

Beautiful.

Take the spring onions.

I might chop that off.

And stick these on the barbie.

Just get a little bit of oil.

And now, for our salad, we've got some little gem lettuce, and I've got some of these, dandelions.

Look at those.

Beautiful.

Just chop up the croutons.

Now, what I'm going to do with this is just rip everything up.

[soft music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ You see, this is my kind of food.

Food for sharing, you know.

You just chuck it all in the center and everybody dives in.

Mm.

Now, dress this with some of your salad dressing.

And it is dressed salad.

It's not basically swimming salad.

And then of course, before we finish, before our spring onions are ready, we take our wonderful entrecote.

We slice this into pieces, so it's charred on the outside but nicely cooked in the middle.

♪ ♪ Our beef just over the top.

We grab our spring onions.

And just put a few of these over it as well.

This is the food that I like to cook.

Rustic, fantastic food.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you steak salad with a blue cheese dressing, char-grilled onions, and some nice char-grilled garlic bread.

Now, I'm trying to explain the camera crew the importance of French cooking.

So I'm going to express to them, in the spirit of dance, what that tastes like.

[dynamic music] Oh!

Whoa!

JAMES (VOICEOVER): Now, I know what you're thinking.

[record scratch] But it's not the dancing they're applauding.

Wow.

Wow.

[speaking french] JAMES (VOICEOVER): There you go.

My experience in Languedoc, grilled and popped onto a plate.

But what will these guys make of my culinary tribute to their home?

Fabulous.

Fabulous.

Absolutely delicious.

[speaking french] [french] is fabulous in French.

[speaking french] James Martin, thank you very much indeed.

- Thank you, James.

- Santé.

ALL: Santé.

Well, what a wonderful time I've had here in the Languedoc.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): It's a paradise for fruit and veg lovers.

It's just a stunning onion.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): A place where French classics are reinvented with clever cooking.

He's modest.

He knows it's good.

[chuckles] JAMES (VOICEOVER): And it's home to some truly inspiring people.

I think that's a bunch of happy customers.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): Right.

Time to move on.

Now, where's that map?

[theme music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ JAMES (VOICEOVER): Leave some for me, guys.

♪ ♪ Fair enough.

Still to come on my French adventure here in the Languedoc, I ditch the entourage to savor the region's signature dish in peace.

This is really, really delicious.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): And back in my home kitchen, I'll be cooking my own take on the local cuisine.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [french music] My quest for the true taste-- [soft music] JAMES (VOICEOVER): Coming up on my French adventure here in the Languedoc, the crew and I have cooked a fantastic feast in a 200-year-old bed and breakfast.

Cheers, everybody.

Cheers, everybody.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): And I take home an idea from my stay here to rustle up one of my favorite puds.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ My journey has brought me to the Languedoc.

And it is not Yorkshire pudding.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): Still to come on my French adventure in the Languedoc-- - Here we are.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): --I visit a virtual shrine to Floyd's beloved Deux Chevaux.

That's a 2CV, by the way.

Yes!

JAMES (VOICEOVER): And I barbecue up a beefy feast with a vineyard twist for Val and Mike.

Fabulous.

Fabulous.

Absolutely delicious.

[theme music] ♪ ♪ [soft music] Now, I know what you're thinking.

Why on Earth is he driving one of these?