A green olive shaped like a crescent moon, pointed at one end, with firm buttery flesh and almost no bitterness. It is picked young, cured in brine and eaten as an aperitif rather than pressed for oil.
Where to eat it: 3 restaurants across 1 city.
The Lucques is grown almost entirely in the Hérault and the Aude and takes its name, most sources agree, from the Italian city of Lucca. It has AOP status as Lucques du Languedoc. The curve is natural rather than a processing artefact, and the stone lifts cleanly out, which is why it is the olive of choice for a table bowl. Picking happens in September and October and the fruit is cured quickly in weak brine so the flesh stays pale green and the flavour stays sweet. In Montpellier it turns up automatically with a glass of Picpoul, salted almonds alongside, before anyone has ordered anything.
The Marché des Arceaux lines Montpellier's Saint-Clément aqueduct on Tuesday and Saturday, up to 80 producers selling organic vegetables, cheese and flowers.
Tip: This is where the city's chefs shop; arrive by 09:00 on Saturday before the best producer stalls sell through.
The Plan Cabanes market fills Cours Gambetta in Montpellier six mornings a week, more than twenty traders serving the Figuerolles side of the old town.
Tip: Combine it with the surrounding Cours Gambetta grocers and pastry shops for mint, olives and msemen in one sweep.
Halles Castellane is Montpellier's iron-and-glass central market on Rue de la Loge, 25 stalls of cheese, oysters and produce a minute from the Comédie.
Tip: Several stalls shuck Bouzigues oysters to eat on the spot with a glass of Picpoul; go before noon for the full spread.
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