Isn’t the ultimate treat getting your hands on some restaurant-quality ingredients for your home-cooked meal? That’s now possible thanks to Olivier Velut, the Indiana Jones of top-tier meat. In the past, he used to provide his sourcing talents exclusively to fine dining restaurants in the South of France (La Mirande in Avignon, Le Chabanais in Nîmes, Mouné and even Regain in Marseille), but when the pandemic struck, he began selling his exceptional cuts of meats to the general public. He decided to keep serving this dual clientele once the lockdown orders were lifted, delighting talented professional chefs and home cooks alike in his tiled shop, which he runs with his partner Lili. Come for the delicate Aveyron pork filet mignon, the flavor-packed dry-aged Aubrac sirloin steak, and the chickens, guinea fowls and fatty ducks from the Hérault breeder Valérie Aubagnac during the holiday season. Not to mention the homemade charcuterie and cheeses that fill the window display, or the fine foods corner. // Megan Linar

THE HIDDEN GEM: The sublime Mangalitza pork chop raised by Astrid Barthomeuf in the Ardèche (€36.50/kg), which you can glaze with another rarity that’s available in the shop, a Fin Graz du Mézenc beef and hay syrup (€6 for 500 ml).