Robert Schuman at the table

In Lorraine, and even more so for a man as sober as Schuman, the meal follows a simple, peasant order: first the foundational soup that opens and nourishes, then a single dish from the vegetable garden, the pig, and the farm eggs, and finally a sweet treat or fruit from the orchard. No bourgeois starter-main-dessert sequence: you eat what the land and season provide, without waste, with a glass of Moselle wine. Frugality is a virtue, almost a discipline.

A small golden plum, sweet and fragrant, the mirabelle is the absolute emblem of the orchards of Moselle and Meurthe. Eaten fresh in August, it is also used in tarts, jams, and eaux-de-vie to last through winter. For a child of the region like Schuman, it is the very taste of Lorraine.