My top three favorite savory souvenirs to bring home from France

We’ve eaten goodies all over the country and these are our favorite savory picks to travel home with.

I remember the first time Andy had good olives. What are good olives, you may ask, or, if you’ve traveled around the Med, you already know, smiling at the thought of the little oily spheres. You may even be thinking back to the first time you had good olives and your reaction may have been very similar to his.

We were wandering around Stari Grad, a little port town in Croatia, as dusk was setting in and the family-run specialty shops were beginning to shutter for the evening. As we wound down a side street, I couldn’t help but be stopped in my tracks by the warm glow radiating through the window of a shop, illuminating barrels upon barrels of brined goodies. There were artichokes, pearled onions, and olives, so many olives. One barrel had green olives tossed with citrus peels, adding little pops of yellow and orange. Another had large, purple olives marinated with whole cloves of pearly-white garlic, while yet another barrel brimmed with a mix of the two olives engulfed in fragrant stocks of vibrant green fresh rosemary. Behind the barrels sat walls of exquisitely displayed bottles of small-batch balsamics and olive oils, each label carefully handwritten. My hand reached for the doorknob. 

“What are you doing?” Andy asked, “they close in five minutes.”

“This will only take three,” I said, slipping through the door with a mischievous smile. A little chime alerted the owner of my arrival as I went straight for the barrels that were so tall, they were almost up to my chest. She sauntered up next to me as Andy sofly clicked the door closed behind him and entered the tiny space. 

“These are from my family farm,” she said, wrapping her hands around the lip of a barrel. “If you have any questions, let me know and I can help guide you.” 

I nodded, grabbing a small, plastic sack and picking up a small, metal shovel. 

“You’re getting a bag of olives?” Andy asked. To be fair, I hadn’t really eaten olives regularly around him, so the fact that I beelined it into the store specifically for them was probably a bit random to him. Up into that point, however, we had never been in a place known for the olives, so I had never felt the need to go out of my way to buy them. I scooped a couple from each barrel, shoveling them into my plastic bag and twisted the sack closed as I made my way to the register. 

When we finally got outside, Andy was a bit hesitant to try one. “Olives are just eh,” he said with a shrug. “You are right,” I agreed. “The olives we grew up with from a can are totally eh…or, one may say, even a bit meh..” I joked. “Humor me,” I said, sticking the bag out in front of him. “What’s the worst that could happen? You don’t like it?”

Leaning over to get a good look inside the bag, he slowly selected a large, green, glistening olive that had orange peel stuck to it. I pulled the bag back towards me to inspect my next selection and when I looked up, Andy’s whole expression had changed.

“Oh my god,” he said, completely caught off guard. “Oh my god,” he repeated, unable to get past his utter shock. “These taste nothing like any other olive I’ve ever had,” he said, grabbing the sack out of hands.

Even all these years later, Andy still stuffs his suitcase full of “good” olives before returning back to Pittsburgh. Usually among his stash are a few gifts for friends and family, which they are always appreciative of receiving. Last week, I talked about the first category of items we bring home as souvenirs for family and friends, the sweets! Before deciding if an item is the perfect thing to bring home, we always think about a few criteria first. Is it something they can’t easily get back at home? Will it easily travel with minimal leaking or breaking? Is it something that can appeal to a large group of people? Is it very French?  Our first list included sweets that check all of those boxes and when it comes to the savories, it isn’t any different. I’ve compiled a list of our three favorite savory items to bring home to family and friends that are easy to pack in your luggage and will wow any loved one. I’m sure from my little story above, you already can guess the first one! 

Photo: Moulin Ramade

My first pick is probably the easiest to travel with and is quintessential Provence. At number one is olives! 

A handful of the olive producers at our market have jars of olives for sale at their booth. These are nice gifts, but I don’t like traveling with glass, especially if the contents are oily and would ruin the items in my suitcase if it happened to break. If you keep a lookout, some of the vendors actually have the same olives, but in a vacuum sealed pouch. The pouches are thin, which makes them so easy to pack. They also have an incredible shelf life and are just as delicious as the jarred olives. They usually come in a few flavors, like herbs de provence or simply plain, and I usually bring home a mix of the two so that people can pick and choose which flavor speaks to their taste buds. Coming in at around 9 euros, it’s one of the quintessential souvenirs from Provence. It’s also very fun to set out a bowl of the olives when hosting a get together and watch people who haven’t tried that type of olives reaction. It’s usually one first of confusion, since the olive doesn’t taste how they were expecting it to, and then complete excitement as they dig in for another one. 

For number two, I found myself for the longest time going between bringing home herbs de provence, which always just seemed expected, and Camargue salt. Being someone who loves to cook, these two items are things I use on a weekly basis whether I am in Provence or in Pittsburgh. For those of you unfamiliar with Camargue salt, it is a salt that is hand-harvested only a few weeks a year. The flaky, textured kernels of salt differ from generic table salt as they have more mineral complexity and a grayish, pink color.

Fun fact, the name fleur de sel derives from the faint smell of violets that can be detected as the salt dries. While I love to rotate the herbs and the salt when it comes to gifts to bring home, I hadn’t really found one in particular that I was 100% sold on. I’m a firm believer in my gifts looking just as beautiful as they taste and so the standard container of Camargue salt, which can be found on most bistro tables throughout the south, just didn’t feel special. It’s iconic, for sure, but it didn’t really have a “wow” factor I was looking for. This summer, however, we found ourselves in Nîmes for a concert and the closest to Camargue that we’d ever been. This prompted me to do some research and find salt pretty enough to give as a gift.

Enter Maison Brémond, where I had gotten the beautifully wrapped pâte de fruit from last week’s entry. Created in 1830 in Aix-en-Provence, Maison Brémond is the epitome of beautiful French things. It is definitely a place where, if you don’t watch yourself, you could very easily get carried away. I, however, made sure to go in with blinders on, knowing exactly what I was looking for. The épicerie has the most beautiful jars of different salt infusions, including ones with herbs de provence or even truffle. They are small enough to pack so that they don’t take up too much space and are between six fifty and eight euros each. 

For the third and final savory item that I love to bring home from France, is hands down the Moutarde à l’Ancienne from Maille. Starting out as a vinegar maker, Antoine-Claude Maille opened his first store in Paris in 1747. The brand only has two shops, one in Dijon and the other in Paris, but, if you are in those areas and are looking for incredibly unique gifts, they do offer different styles of mustards that friends and family have gone crazy for when I’ve brought them home.

One of their favorite flavors being the crème de cassis de Dijon. As for the Moutarde à l’Ancienne, you can easily find this in most super marchés. I bought mine for under five euros at our Intermarché. As much as I don’t love packing jars of messy items in my suitcase, as mentioned above, I do pack these small jars into zip lock bags incase of an accident. I know you can get whole-grain mustard back in the U.S., but to me, the French version tastes so different and has become such an anticipated gift that it’s a must to come home with. The packaging is beautiful, the price is right and the size of the jars are compact enough that they are easy to find a spot in the suitcase for. 

Photo: signorinitartufi

An honorable mention goes to an item that admin Janice Wang had mentioned from the Facebook Group “Club Camembert.” In response to my first post, she had given a list of her favorite items to bring home and mentioned a truffle grinder, which is something you couldn’t easily come across in the U.S.

When some people started asking where to find one of these, another member added that they had a store devoted to nothing but truffle products: 

It’s a little pricer than the other items I have listed so far, but it is incredibly unique and something that many people would love to receive as a gift. It is also incredibly easy to pack and bring home with you!

What are your favorite items to bring when you travel home from France?

Are any from my list your favorites too? Leave a comment below to share your favorite items to gift!

Have a savory Sunday! -R