Wild Food Foraging Trip in the Alps

A visit from musician and BBC broadcaster Cerys Matthews was one of the inspirations behind this trip. Find out how and why Cerys Matthews came to be a major influencer for this holiday! 

Wild Goodies in the Alps

As the summer heat cools off and before the snow covers the Alps in a blanket of white, nature indulges us with a multitude of delicious goodies, if you know where to look!

Trees and bushes are laden with nuts and berries: walnuts, beechnuts, blackberries, blueberries, argousier, elderberries, rosehip and more, all waiting to be picked.

Although spring is best known for new green shoots and flowers to fill and garnish our salads and vegetable dishes, there are lots to be found in autumn and certainly enough to make a protein and vitamin rich soup or dish to pump up your immune system ready for winter!

Autumn of course is also famous for mushrooms and in France this is serious business. French mushroom hunters guard their favourite mushroom spots with fierce passion only sharing with their nearest and dearest and even! Some of the more precious and difficult to find fungi like truffles can fetch seriously high sums on the market so there is a reason for this protectionism! However, the woods and fields are open to all and there are many species of mushrooms easily discovered. Many of these are of course toxic so it is very important to know what you are looking for!

Holiday Details

This holiday is a three day trip where we will go with a local expert each day to forage in the Alpine fields, woods and pastures to discover the goodies available.  Each day will have a different theme: mushrooms, herbs and plants and nuts and berries. We will spend the mornings walking, discovering, learning, smelling, tasting and picking.

Local chef and specialist in wild food cooking, Stephan Bertrand Pellison, will share his foraging, preparation and cooking tips with cooking workshops using the ingredients you find and turning them into gourmet dishes. Stephan contributed to the book Cuillette Sauvage (Wild Food Foraging) and has his own wild foods company producing ice creams, jams and confitures from wild ingredients.

For mushrooms, which is a particular speciality, a local pharmacist and passionate mushroom hunter will share his precious knowledge with you to find and choose a range of different mushrooms for a true fungi fest!

Every evening you will be treated to a delicious meal in line with the theme of the trip using some of the ingredients you have picked and prepared. Meg, your host at your accommodation has developed a strong reputation locally for her creative approach to local Alpine cooking with an Eastern influence creating truly mouth watering dishes. She will be accompanying you on the foraging days and turning your findings into gourmet experiences!

Itinerary

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You need to get to Gap for this holiday, which is the main town in the Hautes Alpes department of France on the edge of the Ecrins National park. We will collect you from here on your first day and drop you off on your last day.

BY TRAIN:

Gap is on the SNCF train service which has links from Paris (via an overnight sleeper), Valence, Grenoble, Aix-en-Provence or Marseilles TGV fast train services.

You can use the OUI SNCF website to plan your journey to Gap from any major European city  

BY PLANE:

The nearest airports are Grenoble (1,5 hour), Marseilles (2h) and Lyon (2h). The most convenient is Marseilles, as there are 4 daily shuttles you can take to go from the airport all the way to Gap (count 3 hours). Have a look at Marseille airport website for shuttle details

BY CAR:

If you want to drive to get here, we have all the local knowledge to help you plan your journey! If you want to hire a car, check out our partner's hire car rates.  

We can accommodate flight / train delays of up to 1 hour, but any transfers requested outside of the scheduled transfer times will be at your charge and no refund will be given for your place on the missed transfer.