“He was a wise man who invented beer,” the great philosopher Plato once said. (Or at least beer lovers like to think so.) While that belief is not so widely shared in wine-loving France, there is indeed a Paris institution to help curious epicureans to see the foamy light.

L’Académie de la Bière is a charming pub and restaurant like those found in Belgium and northern France, with a cozy wood-paneled interior and a large covered terrace outside. A refuge for beer lovers since it opened in the 1960s, L’Académie offers the kind of hearty fare that has no better partner than a pint of serious suds, including some of the best moules-frites in town. The mussels are delivered fresh daily, prepared in all the classic ways—marinières, à la crème, au Roquefort, and à l’indienne (curried)—and served with perfect, steaming hot French fries. Mussels cooked in Gueuze beer are a standout, as are other examples of cuisine à la bière, like carbonnade—think rich but beery beef bourguignon. The lengthy beer menu includes an impressive roster of artisan brews from around the world and a fine selection of regional microbrews that exemplify France’s burgeoning beer culture, from the Ardennes microbrew Oubliette, a hoppy, triple-fermented delight, to Grain d’Orge, made near Lille, with its nose of caramel, citrus and spice.

88 bis blvd de Port Royal, 5th

01.43.54.66.65

www.academie-biere.com

To take your brewsing to the next level, head to the nearby Brewberry. This cave à bière was opened in 2010 by Cécile Delorme Thomas, who caught the beer bug herself during a stint working at l’Académie de la Bière. Now an expert taster, she has assembled a collection of 450 references, including dozens from small French brewers. The focus here is on what’s in the glass, and food is limited to small but tasty snacks— charcuterie, Alsatian-style soft pretzels, cheese from the beer-brewing Trappist monks of Chimay. Ask for a Telenn Du, a delicious buckwheat beer from Brittany with coffee and dark chocolate notes; or an Ardèche brew like Bourganel Myrtille, made with blueberries. For a genuinely extraordinary cuvée, choose a Bulles de Vignes from the southwestern brewery Brasserie des Vignes. Aged six months in an oak barrel formerly used for Médoc wine, this vinous beer, with notes of red fruit and bracing, grapefruit-like acidity, is beer like you’ve never tasted. Try one—you’ll feel the wiser for it.

18 rue du Pot de Fer, Paris 5th

01.43.36.53.92

Départements: Aude, Gard, Hérault, Lozère, Pyrénées-Orientales Principal cities: Carcassonne, Montpellier, Nîmes, Perpignan

Sweeping along the Mediterranean coast from the west bank of the Rhône River to the peaks of the Pyrenees, surprising Languedoc-Roussillon encompasses the vineyards of Minervois and Corbières, the highlands of the Cévennes and the mysterious Grands Causses—wild, windy and arid plateaus studded with strange rock formations.

The Romans arrived in the 2nd century BC, leaving behind at Nîmes the exquisite, perfectly intact temple now called the Maison Carrée and a splendid amphitheater still in use today. The nearby Pont du Gard aqueduct, a masterpiece of ancient Roman engineering, was built to carry water to Nîmes from springs near Uzès, a wonderful small town that was once the “premier duchy of France”.

Assailed by Crusaders, the heretical sect called the Cathars, or Albigensians, held out until the mid-13th century in the magnificent double-walled city of Carcassonne and the mountaintop castles of Peyrepertuse, Puilaurens, Lastours, Puivert, Quéribus and Montségur.

Annexed to France in the 17th century, Roussillon and its capital Perpignan still fly the red-and-yellow striped Catalan flag beside the French tricolor; the Catalan language is still spoken, and it’s not unusual to see local residents forming an impromptu circle to dance a traditional sardane.

Regional specialties: Roquefort cheese, made in Roquefort-sur-Soulzon; fresh anchovies from Collioure; oysters from Bouzigues; Corbières, Minervois and sweet Banyuls wines; Noilly Prat, vermouth made in Marseillan; and Byrrh, a wine and quinine aperitif.

Come out and take a self-guided trip to as many of the 32 participating Hill Country wineries as you can during this picturesque trail - taking in the beauty of the Texas Hill Country while enjoying yummy, award-winning Texas wines.  Enjoy a minimum of one and up to three complimentary tastes from each winery and a 15% discount on 3 bottle purchases.  Pickup your packet of wildflower seeds from designated winery of your choice and you can bring the beauty of the Hill Country home with you.  Tickets are limited and must be purchased online. 

During regular winery hours.  $25 per person or $40 per couple.

The gastronomy here resembles the terroir: it gets right down to basics. The region’s products are so elemental that their simplicity becomes their richness; there’s no way to cheat here. Rice, beef, salt, wild fish and the tiny shellfish called tellines are the stars; among processed foods, the saucisson d’Arles made by the Maison Genin leads the way, closely followed by the beef sausage of Diego Gimenez, the tapenade of Jean Martin and the fougasse of Aigues-Mortes— especially those made by Alain Olmeda and Laurent Poitavin.

Camargue rice IGP

Camargue rice was granted the status of IGP (Indication Géographique Protégée) a dozen years ago, the first time the official label was granted to a grain. It has a strictly limited geographic territory, and a very precise list of regulations governs, among other things, mandatory leveling of the soil, irrigation and drainage. Irrigation water must be pumped from the Rhône and only used once, and crop rotation is obligatory every two or three years, mainly alternating with wheat and potatoes. This mosaic pattern of agriculture around the Vaccarès pond, combined with livestock and other crops, served fora long time as a natural corrective for soil laden with salt. It was originally an idea of the Duc de Sully, minister of Henri IV. Initially the rice served only as a curative for the soil—it wasn’t edible, because varieties suited to the region had not yet been found.

In the early 20th century, farmers were inspired by the example of Italian rice growers, and finally, during the Marshall Plan period after WWII, rice cultivation really boomed—but only after a largely unknown and not very glorious incident. During the Nazi Occupation, Indochinese workers were forced by the Vichy government to work in the rice fields. Their know-how helped to improve production, a fact that was never mentioned until 2009, when the mayor of Arles finally gave them long-overdue credit. Today the entire Camargue is classified as a Natura 2000 site, and it’s on the official Tentative List to be named a UNESCO World Heritage site. That means the territory is bound by strict, non-negotiable regulations— and the environmental constraints are enormous. Some 250 rice growers in the Camargue now produce 110,000 tons of rice a year, in fields spread over nearly 50,000 acres, about 6 percent of which is devoted to organic agriculture. Research onrice varieties is ongoing and 40 varieties are currently grown. White, brown, red, black, perfumed, long, very long or round, Camargue rice is mostly grown on small parcels of land and accounts for 30 percent of France’s rice consumption. Every Saturday morning a colorful Camargue character named Robert Bon can be found at the famed outdoor market in Arles, where he sets up his immense rice cooker and urges passing shoppers to sample his newest recipe du jour. He’s so convincing it’s almost impossible not to buy his organic rice. If you have the time, go ahead and tackle him in conversation—he’s unstoppable once he starts expounding on the subject of Camarguais rice.