Wine with Leslie: French wines to enjoy with a croque monsieur

— French wines from €10; and an easy cocktail to make with a new gin

Bon Appétit et Vive la France!

A recent spate of watching French movies and TV ( Spiral, Lupin, Call My Agent, Une Fille Facile etc.) sent me into my samples corner this week to see what I could find from la Belle France. In addition, Lidl have their annual ‘Taste of France’ promotion in store this week and I’ll be stocking up on Normandy Cider, Saucisson Sec, Breton Butter Biscuits and of course my guilty pleasure — Croque Monsieur sandwiches.

The Croque Monsieur is admittedly best consumed in a dive bar with a bottle of Stella Artois and a Pernod chaser but it seems unlikely I’ll get to do that this year. France is easily the country I’ve spent the most time in besides Ireland and 2020 was the first year I didn’t get to visit since around 1993 — I miss it.