Our only task of the day was to eat the first serious meal of our trip — lunch at Chez Hugon, an old-fashioned bouchon. Something I had been looking forward to since I last paid the check at the very same restaurant 4 years prior.

A daube is a slow-cooked stew you will find simmering at a grandmotherly pace in kitchens all across France, though the best known come from southern France.

Choucroute is one of the world’s great celebratory meals that, like bouillabaisse, is impossible to cook solely for only a handful of people. If you have never eaten one you may be surprised, no, overwhelmed, by the sheer volume of food served. Traditionally it is made with at least 3 different sausages, smoked pork loin, and pork belly all slowly simmered in sauerkraut surrounded by a legion of potatoes.