When someone brings up “French cuisine”, you might first think of duck or foie gras…maybe escargots? I know when I dreamed of moving to France years ago, images of crepes with nutella and cheese fondue pots often came to mind. But did you know that pizza is super common in southern France?

I know that pizza is popular all over the world, but it surprised me that you can find pizza joints in pretty much every Southern French village- even the super tiny towns with only 1 cafe and no grocery store. In some areas of Provence, people have to drive 40 minutes to another village to do their shopping, but they can always find pizza just down the road from their house.

I’m guessing this has something to do with Provence’s proximity to Italy, and that parts of Southern France actually used to belong to Italy until pretty recently- for example, Nice just became a part of France in 1860! Before that it was under Italian dominion. So there’s a bit of Italian flair along the French Riviera.

Katherine and I were enjoying some pizza in town for dinner a while ago and the white pizza was very tasty. It was sweeter- more like a dessert pizza. I think it’d be hard to find this combination of fresh GOAT CHEESE with caramelized onions, honey, and creme fraiche on a pizza in California or Texas! And to be truly French in your dining experience, it’s necessary to pair a little wine with the meal. When it comes to pizza, we recommend either a rosé in the summer, or a nice red which goes perfectly with a heavy, cheesy, pizza. Bon appetit!