Honey and jam producers Provence-Alpes-Côte D'Azur

"We don't spread our jam, we eat it with a spoon". At Maison Octave, jams are made the old-fashioned way, in large copper cauldrons. A know-how that earned José-Christophe Fernandez the title of best jam maker in France. No less than fifteen varieties are offered, including the famous pink apricot of Provence. You can also taste sublime orange-lemon marmalades, and candied apricots during the festive season, at Christmas and Easter. And beware, the shop closes at 5pm, it would be a shame to find the door closed.

Just an hour from Nice, head for the medieval village of Beuil les Launes. Before or after your visit to the honey house, take the opportunity to walk around and try to see marmots. In the store next to the extraction and transformation workshops, you can taste the different kinds of honey (mountain, Provence, lavender, bramble, thyme...) as well as the derived specialties: nougats, gingerbread or beeswax candles. Products to be found on the market of Valberg all year long.

Established in 1983, Jean-Philippe Mandard handed over the keys to the hive in 2022 to Jean, who continues the work of his mentor (who is never far away). Little has changed in the artisanal production, which is as rich as ever, with 3 Label Rouge varieties: lavender, fine lavender and Provence all-flower. In all, 13 honeys, the quality of which is the culmination of artisanal know-how handed down through several generations of beekeepers. The website is fascinating, with images showing the different stages in the production process.

Virginie and Patrice Bonnant's boutique, created 35 years ago, is a tempting Ali Baba's cave for gourmets. Presented in their pretty traditional jars, more than 450 varieties of jams are made every day in the small laboratory adjoining the shop, by hand, in a natural and artisanal way, to guarantee perfect quality and consistency of taste, with healthy, perfectly ripe fruit and vegetables, bought on the local markets, and sugar, all cooked in copper cauldrons.

This master house is on the square of the church. It has become an ESAT (Workplace Service Facility) and hosts thirty mentally handicapped people who, according to traditional methods, are mitting exquisite jams with the fruits of the region. The jams (more than 70 fragrances and a small low for the one with the onions and dried grapes) benefit from the name Jam Extra, mostly made with a proportion of 65% of the minimum fruit, meticulous sorting, small quantities adapted to each fruit, without coloring or preservatives. A biological range has just been created. You can also buy biscuits (orange flower shuttles, almond crackers), honey and milk jam. This is the right place to make a real good action! Tasting offered and free.

Here, we have been professional beekeepers since 1999. Several hundred thousand bees are kept in 350 hives, each of which "shelter" 50 to 80,000 bees. All the products are organic: honeys (lavender, rosemary, all flowers...) but also white nougat with lavender honey (with organic almonds from Provence), gingerbread or "saucimiel", a home-made product in the form of milk or dark chocolate sausage with dried fruit. A beautiful panoply.

Do not leave Menton without discovering the sweetness of the Herbin house. During your visit, you will discover the secrets of the manufacture of artisanal jams and will appreciate particularly those with astonishing mixtures because the establishment is unceasingly in the search of new associations of tastes, for the greatest pleasure of the most faithful customers and the curious ones. You can go to the shop without visiting the jam factory by going directly to n°2 rue du vieux collège in Menton.

In this family farm, the welcome is warm. 400 hives and nearly 20 varieties of honey (lavender, thyme, savory, rosemary, pine, chestnut ...) are waiting for you for a tasting. The shop installed on the farm offers all kinds of products derived from the activity of bees. Free visits are organized during July and August, with a description of the life of the bees thanks to a glass hive allowing the observation inside, as well as the discovery of the honey extraction room.

Welcome to L'Abeille Savonneuse, artisanal soap maker and beekeeper. We offer gourmet and cosmetic products that make excellent gift ideas. Everything you will find in this Alibaba cave of a thousand fragrances is made from organic raw materials and according to environmentally friendly manufacturing processes. Thanks to its 350 colonies of bees, it offers you honeys from exceptional floral varieties. L'Abeille Savonneuse is also a family business of passionate beekeepers, father and son.

On the road to Saint-Amour, a stop is required in this beautiful wooden chalet where we are offered to sell, and to tasting above all, the good honey of the Queyras. It should be said that honey is the speciality of the Allaix family for four generations. The bees who drink the flowers of our mountains offer us honey with incomparable taste and flavours, while pollen and royal jelly revive us for the winter. Other delicacies with honey candy, honey honey or homemade nougats.

Without any doubt, here is a place where the gourmets can go with closed eyes and without hesitation. Marcelle Baux is an artisan jam maker and offers you to discover a range of original and varied jams, made in copper cauldrons from fresh local products and flavours from the past, but also various regional products from the artisanal manufacture of jams to accompany your meals, flavoured vinegars, chutneys, black and green olive jam, pepper jam...

Lovers of quality honeys from the region, this gourmet shop is a Gordoise tradition. The family produces acacia, chestnut, oak, lavender, pine, apple, rosemary, all flowers... They have no less than 1,200 hives scattered in the hills. In autumn, tourists make way for the people of the village. The welcome is enjoyable and smiling. And if you are interested, we will be happy to share with you all the secrets of this beautiful profession.

During the visit to the miellerie of explanations you will be provided on the work of the hive.

Ugo Bondil is a passionate beekeeper-breeder, an agricultural engineer by training. Based in this small village of Trévaresse, near Aix, Ugo spreads his 400 hives in the south of France according to the seasons. The result is several varieties of honey, all organic: lavender honey, garrigue honey, chestnut honey. The traceability is guaranteed by the location of the hives, the dates of production and the quantities produced. Ugo also sells swarms if you want to start beekeeping and he shares his passion for bees by giving conferences here and there.

Honey, royal jelly, pollen... Norbert and Enca Maudoigt, and their daughter Clélia, who have been living in the village for many years, offer natural products from their hives, which they move according to the type of honey they want to produce: to the Valensole plateau for lavender honey, to Tain (Drôme) for fir tree honey and to the Alpilles for garrigue and rosemary honey. They have a particular technique of brewing to keep the smoothness of the precious nectar. An online shop has recently been created.

Jérôme Blochet produces a honey that you will tell us about. It must be said that this beekeeper offers a varied range of products to satisfy all tastes: those who like strong honeys as well as those who like milder honeys. If Jérôme Blochet takes his hives to Haute-Ardèche and Tain-l'Hermitage, he can find enough to make sublime rosemary and Alpilles flower honeys. For his lavender honey, the bees go to the violet flowers of Drôme Provençale, and for the sunflower honey, the great suns of Lauragais.

To taste Gérard Jourdan's honeys and bee products - pollen, propolis, mead, candies, honey vinegar - you'll have to go and meet him! No intermediaries, no distance selling, just direct, short-distance sales. Visit the markets of Provence or the honey house in Auriol. Some fifteen different honeys are on offer (lavender, arbutus, fir, Camargue...), some of them Label Rouge; he's the only honey producer in Marseille whose trademark is registered with the INPI. His son Sébastien has joined him in the business.

A family honey house established here in 1972 by Eliane and Jean-Louis Paxé, and managed today by Olivier, the son and his wife Virginie. Passionate beekeepers, they share with their visitors their love of bees, hives, and their delicious profession. Ask for information if you wish to visit their farm; in the meantime, their shop sells honey, fresh pollen and royal jelly, pastries and sweets, candles, soaps, honey vinegar and lots of ideas for 100% local gifts. A beautiful gourmet address!