Paris is lovely, but this chef's heart belongs to Provence

When I convinced my husband to take me to the movie Julie & Julia, I fully expected to find myself sympathizing with the blogger character Julie as she spends a year online blogging about cooking. After all, we seem to share an interest in that department. In reality though, the real character I connected with was that of Julia Child, as she followed her true passions in life, cooking and her husband, wherever they would take her.

As an avid cook and enthusiast of French cuisine, it’s hard not to have a soft spot for the woman who tried to teach the average North American housewife to embrace a style of cooking that requires not only patience but a deep passion for food. But I must admit that there is one point on which we differ..

While Julia calls Paris her "favourite place on earth," I can’t imagine how any chef who has spent time in Provence would prefer Paris. And the French Riviera with its markets loaded down with fresh olives, figs and herbs, to say nothing of it’s near tropical climate, is the place for me.

A market in the French Riviera

Influenced by the cuisine of Italy, being so close to the border, and flush with fresh-from-the sea dishes, la Cote d’Azur has some of the country’s best food. It was in the throes of August’s warmest days when I last visited Nice and yet I insisted I needed to find a restaurant with bouillabaise. A regional dish of the French Riviera, this fish stew is hearty and filling, and not what one would expect to be eating on a hot summer night. Like Julia, I was on the hunt for an authentic French experience and so I found myself walking the strip of restaurants close to the Mediterranean sea as restaurateurs called out to us trying to lure us in with their Special du jour and always offering a little something extra.

Delicious bouillabaise on a hot summer night!

Bouillabaisse is one of those dishes that differ from kitchen to kitchen, but all good ones have the taste of Provence, which Julia explains in her book My Life in France comes from "garlic, onions, tomatoes, olive oil, fennel, saffron, thyme, bay and usually a bit of dried orange peel." And while the debate over which version of bouillabaisse is "authentic" with anyone from the region could land you in hot water, Julia’s version is pretty tasty looking.