Food and drink in Cambrai

The Bêtise de Cambrai

No visit to Cambrai is complete without tasting a Bêtise de Cambrai. It is a boiled-sugar sweet of elongated shape, pearly white in colour and crossed by a fine stripe of golden caramel. Inseparable from the city it is named after, the Bêtise is both an everyday confection and the emblematic souvenir that visitors carry home, presented in illustrated metal tins that have themselves become collectors' items.

The origin and the legend

The story of the Bêtise belongs to Cambrai's oral tradition, passed down from generation to generation, and several houses claim its heritage. The most widely told account places its birth in Cambrai in the course of the 19th century. A young confectioner's apprentice is said to have made a blunder while preparing sweets — hence the name "bêtise", which in French means a small mistake. According to the legend, he had spilled mint essence into a batch of boiling sweets; rather than throw the batch away, he reworked it, stretching the sugar paste and drawing a stripe of caramel along each sweet. Against all expectation, customers loved the refreshing flavour and the unusual striped look, and they came back for more. The recipe was kept and perfected, and the name stuck. As is often the case with regional specialities, the anecdote is as much legend as documented history — but above all it shows how fondly the people of Cambrai have adopted, with both self-mockery and pride, a sweet that carries the name of their town.

What it tastes like and its flavours

The original and best-known version is mint. The taste is clean and fresh without being aggressive: mint leads on the palate, then gives way to the sweetness of the sugar, while the caramel stripe adds a gentle rounded note at the finish. The sweet is not as hard as a classic boiled sweet — its paste, worked to incorporate air, is lighter and more crumbly, crunchy at first then melting without sticking to the teeth. Over time the confectioners have developed other flavours that build on the same pulled-and-striped sugar base:

• Mint — the historic recipe, fresh and thirst-quenching.
• Poppy — delicately floral, a nod to the fields of the Cambrésis.
• Violet — sweet and very floral.
• Fruit — apple, lemon and orange, with a sharper acidity.
• Bolder flavours — liquorice, coffee and chocolate, sometimes offered as limited editions.

The exact range varies from one house to another and with the seasons; the best way to discover them all is to step into a confectioner's shop in Cambrai.

How they are made

The craft of the Bêtise rests on traditional boiled-sugar know-how. The sugar is brought to a high temperature and then worked while hot on a marble slab. The confectioners pull the paste by hand several times: this gesture incorporates air and gives the sweet its pearly white colour and its characteristic airy texture. The flavouring — mint or another — is added while the paste is being worked. The famous stripe is obtained by laying a thread of caramelised sugar along the paste before it is stretched and cut into individual sweets. Each house keeps its own settings for cooking, flavouring and cutting, which is why the taste and texture differ subtly from one confectioner to another. Some workshops can be visited; the tourist office has details of the visits offered through the season.

Where to buy them

To buy Bêtises, visitors have several options: the shops of Cambrai's confectioners in the heart of the town centre, which keep the craft alive; the delicatessens and food shops of Cambrai and the Cambrésis; and the tourist office, which often offers a selection of local produce. Several houses also sell online and ship their sweets. As names, addresses and conditions change over time, we prefer to point you to the Cambrai tourist office and the makers themselves rather than list addresses that may move.

Northern French specialities

Beyond the Bêtise, Cambrai shares fully in the rich, hearty cooking of the North. These are the savoury dishes you are most likely to find on an estaminet menu:

• Flamiche au maroilles — a puff-pastry or brioche tart filled with Maroilles (the strong local PDO cheese), cream and sometimes onions, served warm with a green salad and an amber beer.
• Carbonnade flamande — beef slowly braised in brown beer with onions, gingerbread and brown sugar, until the meat is tender in a smooth, gently sweet-and-savoury sauce, traditionally served with home-made chips.
• Welsh — a British dish adopted in the North: toasted bread under a thick sauce of melted cheddar, beer and mustard, grilled in the oven and often topped with ham and a fried egg.
• Potjevleesch — a terrine of several white meats (rabbit, pork, veal, chicken) cooked in a beer broth and set in jelly, eaten cold with chips or country bread.
• Maroilles cheese — often called the king of the North's cheeses, a soft cheese with an orange washed rind and a powerful taste, made in the Avesnois–Thiérache–Cambrésis triangle since the Middle Ages.

For something sweet, look out for gaufres fourrées (thin crisp waffles filled with caramelised brown sugar or vergeoise), tarte au sucre (a soft raised tart filled with cream and brown sugar, sometimes flavoured with chicory) and spiced spéculoos biscuits.

Beers, genièvre and chicory

The North has a strong brewing tradition. Blond, amber, brown and "de garde" beers, often around 6 to 8 degrees, go naturally with the local dishes, while lighter white beers are popular as an aperitif; several craft breweries in the region offer tastings at the farm or in their shop. Genièvre, a grain spirit flavoured with juniper berries and an ancestor of gin, is distilled in the North and drunk as a digestif or used in cocktails; some estaminets serve their own house version. Chicory, long cultivated in the North, gives a caffeine-free drink close to coffee from its roasted root — it is often blended with coffee to soften the bitterness, or drunk on its own as an infusion.

Estaminets and the art of the table

The estaminet is the soul of the North's popular table. Half café, half brasserie and half inn, it serves regional dishes in a setting that is often crowded with character: exposed beams, old wood, antique crockery and traditional games. You eat to share, you drink locally brewed beer, and you discover the famous "northern" conviviality the region is so proud of. Cambrai and the surrounding villages have several estaminets and traditional brasseries. A few useful customs: it is wise to book at weekends and during big events; many estaminets close one or two days a week, often Monday or Tuesday; beer is part of the meal, so ask the server to pair a dish with a local brew; and portions are generous — a flamiche as a main course is often a full meal in itself.

Local markets and producers

The centre of Cambrai hosts several weekly markets bringing together farmhouse cheesemakers, market gardeners of the Cambrésis, charcutiers, bakers and beekeepers; precise times vary with the season and are posted at the tourist office and the town hall. Around Cambrai, farm shops selling directly, farmhouse dairies and craft breweries are plentiful, and regional quality marks (PDO, PGI, Saveurs en'Or) help to identify producers committed to local, traditional production.

Continue your visit

• Things to see and do in Cambrai — monuments, museums and itineraries.
• What's on in Cambrai — festivals, markets and seasonal highlights.
• Plan your visit — getting there, how long to stay, accessibility.