The Fassy family have run the bakery in Maillane in a direct line for 6 generations, and, they tell me in all seriousness, that they are truly from the neighboring town of Nove, and it was after the revolution that a great great grandfather took over the bakery of his uncle, so if we were to count all those in the indirect line...

Jean-Marie and Jean-Pascal, who make breads of many different blends, flours and forms are the self-appointed masters of the Fougasse, the savory and sweet pastry of Provence. For those of you who are more familiar with Italian breads, the word fougasse resembles that of foccacia, and yes, they're from the same etymological origin and are the flat breads of their respective regions. Rabelais wrote of the Fouasse, and there are likely other variants on the word elsewhere in the Mediterranean. Here in Provence you instantly recognize a fougasse by its special cut-ladder shape. Each baker has his manner of cutting a fougasse, and the Fassys have devised all sorts of other cuts and forms to distinguish amongst their many flavors.

In Provence, the Fougasse has 5 traditional flavors : the Pompe à l'huile which is brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with powdered sugar and is amongst the 13 desserts of the Provençal Christmas table; the fougasse aux gratillons, which is the fougasse with pork cracklings; the fougasse aux olives noires, with black olives; the fougasse à l'anchois, with anchovy paste; and the fougasse aux fromage, with gruyère cheese. But at the Fassys' bakery, you've over 25 different varieties to choose from.

Amongst those 25 are savory hot sausage, red bell pepper, roquefort cheese, aubergine/eggplant... and amongst the sweet are chocolate orange zest, caramelized apples and cinnamon, lavender honey and rosemary, fig and walnut, mint and ginger... and don't forget the traditional varieties. The Fougasse are all made with yeast doughs, and olive oil, but the multitude of different flavors each require a different kneading, and treatment.

For our students, Jean-Pascal prepares a number of small portions of dough, and after demonstrating the cutting technique, he lets us loose on the dough to shape our own fougasses. Some students prove to be naturals, and are queried as to whether they'd like to come back the next day at 4 AM to help out at the bakery... (always looking for competent help in this area). But, even if they reply no, we're still allowed to take all our creations with us to enjoy on our picnic. A very special aspect of our visit to the Fassys is that we are also permitted to watch as they move incredibly quickly to accomplish the many tasks of the day. We've observed them make the special almond tuile cookies, ice cream cakes, croissants, feuilleté pastries, the vol au vent pastry shells, many a loaf of bread, and much more. Fasicinating is the baguette corner. A key element in every French bakery as still in this day of new and artisanal breads, the baguette is the one most French buy. The baguette is price-controlled by the French government to always be under 4 francs. The Fassys make over 500 a day, and mostly with a series of machines that do the kneading, the separating and weighing of the dough, the resting, and the rolling out. The finishing touches are always by hand. This is in sharp contrast to the whole wheat, multi-grain, rustic, country breads that are all kneaded and formed by hand.

When at last we drag ourselves away from the bakery, on to our next appointment (our most important picnic lunch!) we find ourselves loaded down with a half a dozen breads, bags of fougasses, and likely a dessert for that evening's class meal. Generosity is overflowing at the Fassys and with luck, they'll join us for a meal later in the week.

*Frédéric Mistral was born in Maillane and lived most of his life in Arles. He is in many ways the guiding spirit of the folklore groups of Provence. He wrote his Nobel Literature prize poetry in the language of Provençal and contributed to its codification as a written language. He also spearheaded its revival through his literary group the Felibrige. With his Nobel prize money he established an important collection of costumes, furniture, toys, tools, paintings and more to celebrate the Provençal way of life from the 17th through 19th centuries. You can see this collection at the Museon Arlatan in Arles which occupies Mistral's Arles home, an elegant building on the rue de la République.

Fougasse a l'huile

• 500 grams (2 and 1/4 cups) all purpose flour
• 50 grams (1/4 cup) granulated sugar
• 50 grams bakers' yeast in cubes (not a packet)
• 10 grams salt (1/2 teaspoon)
• 200 grams water (1 cup)
• 150 grams olive oil (2/3 cup)

Put your dough aside for 10-15 minutes to rest, ideally beside your oven or even in an oven that has cooled to warm. Once the dough has rested, roll it into a 2 inch in diameter length, and cut your sections. roll out the sections into squares, triangles or circles as you prefer, make your cuts, stretch out the cut dough, place on a prepared cookie sheet, and let rise again for 15 minutes till only gently filled out.