It is not for nothing that France is the most visited country on earth. Provence is a large part of that allure. Apart from the history, the buildings, the food, the wine, the beauty and the quirky people, and just when you thought that you had seen everything, Provence keeps popping up with something unique and memorable.

Truffle-hunting!

Tuber melanosporm. The Black Diamond. Le truffle noire.

It all looks a bit non-descript but at the bottom of those oak trees, lies hidden treasure.

Stories about truffles and the intrigue around their harvesting and marketing are legion. Books and books have been written about it and pop into a Provençal bar and ask one of the weather-beaten locals for his favourite truffle story and you will be entranced, amazed and sometimes shocked at the depth of passion.

So it was with a great degree of excitement and curiosity that we headed off to the Cadenet area (35km from Aix-en-Provence) and the Pepins’ 11ha farm. Tucked up on the slopes of a small hill, Johann and Lisa combine a busy week work schedule with farming development over the weekend and offer truffle-hunting tours each weekend during the winter truffle season (January to March), and the summer truffle season (May to September).

They take groups of 4-8 people (winter) and 4-12 (summer) and Johann, speaking impeccable English, hosts the tour. Your first task is to be introduced to the truffle hunter, an old school friend Jean-Marc and his two truffle dogs – Pupuce and Mirabelle.

Pupuce and Mirabelle are not your idea of truffle dogs. Expecting lean, nimble fighting machines, we were delighted that they were two small fluffy dogs of dubious parentage – the kind who are more at home on your lap in front of the fire than charging through the trees and muddy earth in search of truffles.

The dogs have found truffles! Much excitement and they are rewarded with treats from Jean-Marc.

Our guides, Jean-Marc (left) and Johann examine the merchandise.

Jean-Marc allows them to charge ahead and, keeping a respectful distance, we watched in amazement that after only 20 metres, the two dogs started to scrabble furiously in the dirt. Jean-Marc calls them to stand back, he digs in the earth and voila!, he lifts out a largish truffle. The dogs are awarded with treats and charge off again.

At €1,200 per kilogram, this is serious business.

Johann’s commentary is entertaining and informative. He mixes the technical with the flavor of scandalous stories of theft, murder and chicanery of days gone by (and some quite recent too), as people try to get their hands on the elusive but lucrative fungus. 80% of France’s truffles come from the South East France, with the Provençal Departments of Vaucluse, Drome and Alpes de Haute Provence the most prolific, he tells us, making the area the centre of the world’s truffle trade.

He told us of the ‘witches circle’ – a bare patch of earth around a truffle oak which is caused by the truffles taking the oxygen out of the earth and thus deriving the undergrowth of life. The earth looks desolate and barren but hides the treasure.

Mirabelle heads towards the Watches’ Circle

The reward – a truffle. Real truffles are noticeable by their pitted appearance after cleaning.
Chinese derivatives do not have the stipples.

After an hour of walking, chatting, explanations from Johann and sheer amazement at the simplicity but enormous skill in finding the truffles, we have been party to finding 28.9g of truffles (that’s €346.80 for the morning’s work). These are dispatched to the kitchen for lunch, while Johann takes us around the farm exploring new truffle oak plants, bee hives (still tended by his 90 year old grandfather), and vines.

Our truffle haul

We arrive back at the farmhouse tired but thirsty. Family produced Champagne (the real thing from the Real Region) washes down pieces of baguette liberally spread with salt butter and truffle slices. Lisa is a more than accomplished cook and after a short truffle- and olive oil tasting, as well as a tour of some local reds, she serves a choice of Truffle Burger with frites (an absolute hit with the boys in our group!) or a Mushroom and Truffle Risotto, accompanied by a truffle oil salad. This is finished off with a panettone dessert, expresso coffee and as much wine as the Gendarmerie will permit (and probably more).

Tours are €85 each and must be pre-booked in advance. They only happen on a Saturday and Sunday, and during the truffle seasons – January to March (winter truffles and summer truffles from May to September).

For more information, click here.

THE AUTHOR: Apart from his hugely successful Luberon Valley guide, entitled ‘Footsteps’ (available on Amazon here), Simon also publishes livingstylishlywell.com – a living chronicle of his and his wife Lovonne’s enchanting and often hilarious life in Provence. Check it out and see parts 2 and 3 of the truffle hunt!