Montreuil-sur-Mer, France’s Best-Kept Foodie Secret

“This is an institution,” raves Martine Ligier, pointing right, left and centre at virtually every butcher, baker and candlestick-maker in Montreuil-sur-Mer’s market square.

Sensing my growing dismay – “institutions” as far the eye can see, my foot, the cynic in me pipes up – the tourist rep reins in the enthusiasm. Following our noses to the Fromagerie Caseus across the street, she lets an involuntary, “It’s an insti…” slip, catching herself mid-word, the “tution” petering out into a choked whisper.

Pushing through the sinuous queue, past stacks of the region’s prize stinkers – top of the crop the Boulette d’Avesnes, a devilish but oh-so moreish cone-shaped chunk of Maroilles sprinkled with fiery paprika for that extra throat-scratching oomph – I swallow my words. By the counter, owner and one-woman assembly line Ludivine Lefrançois is snatching wheel after wheel from the groaning shelves, doling out gooey morsels to peckish customers at record speed.

“It really is an institution,” Martine says with renewed confidence, vindicated by the uninterrupted flow of customers. “We’re really a gastronomic destination. It’s no empty brag.”

The statistics speak for themselves. With 29 restaurants, hotels (chief among them the iconic Château de Montreuil, helmed by Roux alumnus Christian Germain), delicatessens and wine bars dotted across town – one eatery per 79 inhabitants! – Montreuil-sur-Mer has earned its crown as the Côte d’Opale’s premier foodie destination fair and square.

Despite the word’s old-fangled connotation, “institution” doesn’t equal “outdated” or frozen in time – not in this northern nook anyway. There is nothing faded about the cheesemonger’s slick backlit counters, nor the nearby La Cave de Montreuil’s bang-on-trend premises and shiny new tasting area. So new, in fact, (it’s barely been open a week) it still has that freshly-laid parquet smell. Their vin mystère experience, which invites amateurs and connoisseurs alike to blind taste hand-picked local vintages served in black tinted glasses is the talk of the town, I’m told.

Its neighbour, Vinophilie, which has kept Montreuillois’ cellars stocked since 1987, is also enjoying a new lease of life under the headship of long-time employee turned owner (two weeks ago and counting) Jean-Benoît Leclercq. “Institution or not, you can’t rest on your laurels,” he says firmly. “You have to move forward and Montreuil has always been great at doing that. It’s a unique town, one that knows how to evolve.”