No doubt, this was French week, gastronomically speaking that is. It started with a meal in the Druid's Glen Marriott, which is doing a rather lavish Languedoc 'Wine and Dine' season composed of food and wine from the south of France. This menu has been designed by Jean Michel Pericou who lives in the south of France near Narbonne, where he is Chef Patron of his own traditional French Restaurant.

The Marriott comes as a surprise; hidden in a Wicklow glen it's not the chintzy coaching house that we're used to in Wicklow, but rather brashly smart - all marble, glass and shiny surfaces. The Druid's Glen has been well discovered by golfers, but the hotel's intent on making its culinary mark, which is why it's running 'wine and dine' evenings over the course of the summer. The Taste of Languedoc is the first one and there are others planned throughout the coming summer.

The dining room is spacious and overlooks an inner courtyard, which is where the smokers are to be found. The Languedoc menu comprises four courses; it begins with grilled fillet of red mullet St. Tropezienne accompanied by Nuit Blanche, then cassoulet of vegetables with Toulouse sausage accompanied by La Garrique, then an assiette of poussin accompanied by La Pinacle Syrah, and lastly a hot chocolate mousse accompanied by Banyuls, an excellent dessert wine from close to the Pyrenees. The marriage of the food and the wines has been well organised, and I particularly enjoyed the red mullet St. Tropezienne. The Languedoc dinners are on Fridays and Saturdays and run to the end of March. The cost, including the wines, is €75 per person.

The St. Tropezienne mullet was timely, the following day I was off the French Riviera for a little wining and dining. I was staying near Monaco, which is a long drive from St. Tropez, but within a radius of a few miles there are many excellent restaurants to enjoy. My first night was spent in La Reserve in Beaulieu, which is one of the Riviera's grand old hotels, much beloved by Michael Winner. The dining room, which holds a Michelin star, is a long room one wall of which is glass. The most memorable part of any visit to La Reserve is meeting Jean-Louis Valla, the imposing sommelier, who moves through the room as stately as a galleon. He's the guardian of the wine list, a book the size of a family bible with wines whose prices would make your eyes water - all the way up €15,000. The food is wonderful, the service excellent and the cost high. Don't expect much change from €300 for dinner for two.

Being on the cusp of January and February - truffle season - a trip to Nice to eat in Terre des Truffes was obligatory. Two things have changed here since my last visit, the menu has grown in size and choices offered, and it's grown in price as well. Every dish on offer comes at two prices: one price with Perigord truffle, which apart from the white truffle is the most expensive, and the price with the summer truffle, a much cheaper beast altogether. They're listed on the menu as melanosporum and aestivum respectively. I started with a summer truffle salad, light and delicious at €19, and followed it with a brouillade, which is scrambled eggs with summer truffles priced at €29. I'm coming to the conclusion that truffles and eggs is the finest combination of all, they marry together into a dish of extraordinary flavours. You can buy truffles to take away, and their truffle flavoured olive oil is good value. If you enjoy truffles at all, Terre des Truffes is an absolute must. You'll find it at 11, Rue St. Francois de Paule, which is the street where the Opera is, telephone 04 93 62 07 68.

Place Garibaldi is named after Nice's most famous son. Garibaldi was the man responsible for re-uniting Italy, and indirectly for ceding Nice to France. Here you can find the Cafe de Turin, which has a wonderfully fin de siecle décor and specialises in seafood. Outside, on the pavement, the Cafe displays a huge array of oysters of all grades, from Oleron and from Belon. There's no better place for a feast of oysters.

You do get an Italianate feel in Nice, not altogether surprising since it was Italy until the second half of the nineteenth century. The architecture is Ligurian in style, the local dialect, Nissarda, can be seen on all the street signs. This Italian heritage means that the coffee is good. At the market in Beaulieu you can find French and Italian speaking stalls, selling fruit and vegetables at prices that seem really cheap after Ireland. The Gran Caffe, right next to market makes terrific coffee and it's bilingual, both French and Italian is spoken with equal fluency.

My last meal was in the wonderful Hostellerie Jerome in La Turbie, which holds two Michelin stars. It's as excellent as ever, but I was intrigued by a new-comer, Le Provence in St. Jean Cap Ferrat, of which more another day.