Jules Ferry at the table

At the table of a provincial notable transplanted to Paris under the Third Republic, the meal follows the classic French service of the era: starting with the soup (the evening soup, steaming), followed by the main dish (a savory course, often a tart or roast), then a sweet entremets, and finally coffee. But in Ferry's household, the Vosgian, each course retains the accent of his homeland: smoked bacon, golden mirabelle plums, country bread. It is a sober, structured cuisine that speaks both to an attachment to Lorraine roots and the rigor of a statesman.

A small golden plum, sweet and slightly tart, emblem of Ferry's homeland. Harvested in August in the orchards of the Vosges and the Lorraine plain, it is eaten fresh, made into jam for winter, used to garnish tarts, and distilled into brandy for special occasions. For a child of the Vosges who became a minister, it is the very taste of the native soil, a stone's throw from the lost Alsace.