Ahoy Ahoy dear wanderer!

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What is Maquis in a nutshell? A travel agency that combines travel and gastronomy, based on a direct sourcing model? Travelling without relying on middlemen? A hedonistic concept? A love letter to Humanism and Rabelais?

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Maquis gives voice to a genuine, and often ignored, France. A cheerful France, which loves good wine, which pampers know-how, sings and lives joyfully. A France that sits down, takes time around a table. The luxury, in my opinion, is to give time to time, and to observe this slow infusion which offers at each moment, in each place, something warm, lighthearted, carefree and singular. Enchantment is not an artificial, calculable or controllable notion.

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As a chef, I travel the regions, discuss with the craftsmen, with the living actors of a territory. Our exchanges are above all the fruit of a common passion, a common language: know-how, respect for craftsmanship, and love for . This deep and lively culture is a cultural marker that I wish to share today through Maquis.

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In the past, in restaurants, I brought this memory to the plate. Today, I invite you to the root of the meal: the meeting, in the noble sense. No timer. No visit-tasting in places already ready to welcome tourist coaches, and sell soulless products. With Maquis, you will be warmly welcomed, like friends. We will eat serious food, sometimes from plastic plates, standing on barrels. We will experience emotions without calculation. We will take this door, and will turn right rather than left because the smell will have challenged us.

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In short, as in life, hazards can guide our steps. With Maquis, like a jazz musician, I create the score and improvise if necessary, because I know music theory. I can improvise because I know music theory, and because I know the terrain and the product that I develop for you.

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You will thus discover a France far from clichés. A France where chic and glamor are more vibrant in the cheese cellars of an Alpine shepherd than on the red carpet of the Croisette in Cannes. Where the real stars don't grace magazine covers, but have modesty as natural as their wine.

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I have the intimate conviction that a trip can be thought of as a meal. It takes rigor and knowledge. A huge professionalism. It is for this reason that I only take you to places that I master and know. I prefer to say "sorry" when I don't know. To cook properly, you also need poetry, a natural aesthetic approach, which goes without saying.

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The trip can thus be a creative work. Ephemeral like live music. Vibrant like a painting. Seriously deep and uproarious like our Lord Rabelais. And tasty like a meal.

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Vivez Joyeux !

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Paul Caussé,

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