Rick Stein's French Odyssey (DVD)

Rick Stein is returning to a Marseille restaurant where he claims to have had "one of the best seafood lunches imaginable"; but the celebrated cook is in no hurry. He is travelling by barge through the waterways of Southern France and is intent on sampling the local culinary delights on the way.

Rick leaves Cornwall for the mouth of the mighty Girdone river in Bordeaux, where he boards the Anjodi - an eighty-year-old, hundred foot long barge - and meets the captain, Bernard, a man who, fortunately, knows the best bars, wine producers and restaurants along the 800 kilometre journey.

For Rick, this is a journey of inspiration and discovery. In each step of his trip, he delights in the local products and techniques and demonstrates how to make traditional recipes from the artichoke salads of Brittany to the traditional Agen dish of rabbit with prunes; from the famous sausages of Toulouse to the cassoulet of Castelnaudry; and from John Dorey cooked in the vermouth of Marseille to a Carmargue speciality of roast bass and fennel.

A feast for the senses, Rick Stein's French Odyssey is a souvenir of an unusual and idyllic journey through rural France and a celebration of a rich gastronomic tradition.