The best local producers Mercantour

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.

Christiane has become a beekeeper and harvester, by passion, on the heights of Colmar-les-Alpes. It is better to call her to be sure to find her. On the spot you will have the choice between a sweet mountain honey with floral and fruity flavours, and a lavender honey, one of the jewels in the crown of the range produced on this territory, known for its power and its bouquet. Both are harvested in the hives of the valley, and are a testimony to the richness of a preserved environment.

Specializing in phytotherapy (essential oils, medicinal plants), the Domaine de la Chapelle Saint-Jérôme naturally thought of including olive oil in its product range. Biodynamically cultivated, the 800 olive trees planted in the mountainous heart of a cirque adjacent to the Mercantour Natural Park produce a Nice PDO oil that is entirely handcrafted and packaged in stoneware bottles to protect the nectar from air and light.

The estate, in the family since 1974, included olive trees that had been abandoned. Through hard work, some two hundred hundred year old trees have been put back into production, and today they give one of the best oils of the region. The plantation has been densified, which brings us today to about 800 trees of the quail variety, cultivated in organic agriculture, on 4 ha of a terraced land, at 600 m of altitude. Let us add to this production some 150 centenary olive trees taken in rent by the operators on the commune of Castillon. Two types of olive oil are produced at the Lucéram mill: the Amandine cru, PDO Nice, with ripe fruitiness and aromas of fresh almonds and hazelnuts, and the Annette cru, also PDO Nice, but with green to ripe fruitiness and aromas of artichoke and lemon zest. The oils are decanted and stored in stainless steel barrels, protected from light, and bottled as they are sold. The estate also produces PDO Nice olive paste, tapenade and olives in natural brine. Since 2004, Fréderic Soffiotti has given a new impulse to the company. He has developed the range of products, created a visual identity, built a jam laboratory, set up a sales store, organized visits and snacks... Nowadays, his oil is sold directly at the estate, but also in delicatessens, in the region and in Paris (Lafayette Gourmet), in a wine shop in Milan, and even in Japan!

Les Gaillardises de l'Ubaye is a delicatessen located on the Place de l'église in Uvernet-Fours BAYASSE. They offer a range of gourmet products based around jam, such as energy bars, syrups and tasting boxes. The jams are made by Béatrice Bellon, Master Jam Maker in Ubaye, and are renowned for their incomparable taste. Among the flavors on offer are Strawberry Coconut Lime Jam and Morello Cherry Elderflower, which won a silver medal in the vegetable jam competition. For lovers of jams and delicacies, this place is a real paradise.