Returning: My France with Manu

A third season of My France with Manu begins on Seven next week.

The MKR judge returns in his travel series 7:30pm Thursday April 7th, visiting locations from Paris to Strasbourg.

“I’m excited to be taking Australian audiences on another tour of my homeland. We’ve mapped out some beautiful parts of the country and we’ve met some fascinating people along the way,” he said.

From a visit to the esteemed House of Bollinger in the Champagne-Ardennes to sampling France’s smelliest cheese in Muster, Manu Feildel returns with a third series of his ‘must-do/must see’ French travel experiences.

My France with Manu takes viewers on a picturesque and entertaining journey through chef Manu Feildel’s beautiful homeland, France.

Starting his journey in Paris, Manu shows us how the Parisian’s enjoy their city, revealing a Paris most tourists don’t get to experience.

Leaving Paris, Manu heads towards the Rhine. But first he must travel through the Champagne-Ardennes. Here Manu stops to taste the gold liquid from the House of Bollinger. The Champagne region also hosts hundreds of small artisan food and wine producers. Manu heads to the vineyards to meet a group of women champagne makers who each run their own wine business.

The journey continues to Alsace-Lorraine, on the west bank of the Rhine border with Germany. Lorraine is famous for its quiche. Using ingredients from a little farm garden, Manu combines the simple, rustic Quiche Lorraine with a salad that looks good enough to paint.

In the small town of Sainte-Menehould, Manu is invited to learn to cook pigs trotters in the traditional way. But to learn its secrets he must first be initiated into the Brotherhood of the Pigs Trotters.

Manu takes time to visit the largest military cemetery in France in Lorraine, where 10500 American soldiers are buried. In Strasbourg, Manu recollects his time spent in the Army National Service when he was just a teen. His memory of singing the French National Anthem, La Marseillaise, comes to life on the streets of Strasbourg, where it was written more than 200 years ago.

He then travels to Strasbourg through the Alsatian vineyards that were established in Roman times. Along the Route des Vins he tastes traditional sauerkraut and pate, culminating in the formidable Choucroute, a feast of meat, piled high. With some fine pinot gris to complement the meal, a group of Alsatian Folk Dancers arrive just in time to help him work off the lunch.

Then in Munster, the lure of France’s smelliest cheese and the mating dance of the Alsatian Storks prove too much to ignore!