Escargots à la Provence

Throughout France snail hunting, la chasse aux escargots, is one of the children’s favorite pastimes.* Snails are gathered right after a rainfall in wire baskets and kept there or in cages for two weeks, and are fed only flour or chaff so that their systems are purged of all the unpleasant slime. Before cooking they are rinsed in vinegar or water. In Marseilles entire meals of snails, caracolades, are served, and in marketplaces cooked sn