Part of this healthy relationship with food arises in France because of something called terroir, a word related to the French word for land (la terre). Terroir refers to a close relationship between people, their land and climate, and their food. So terroir might mean drinking apple cider and eating oysters in Brittany, eating Roquefort or drinking rosé in southern France, or eating moose meat and maple syrup in Canada. French people have strong affinities for local foods—there are many cheeses, for example, that are hard to find outside their home terroir.
