The truffle is riddled with mystery and the proportion of what we do know is nothing more than a few morsels in comparison to what eludes us. Perhaps this is better, since the history of the truffe noire, or black truffle (Tuber melanosporum), offers countless episodes. In Ancient times, Theophrastus, Pliny and Plutarch studied the miraculous tuber. Catherine de Medicis was served this ardent fungus first thing in the morning and savoured it "like the Romans", like sweets. Famous writers, like Molière, who was delighted with Madame de Sévigné’s tartufoli, and wrote his play Tartuffe; Balzac loved them; Colette enjoyed truffles for tea and Pierre Magnan, an author from the Alpes de Haute-Provence, made them a delectable character, central to his mystery novels (Death in the Truffle Wood)...

In Provence as in the hinterland and mountains of the French Riviera, the truffle, known as rabasse, offers its strong subtle aroma, black dress with brown highlights, black-brown inside and fine white veins: a black diamond at the foot of oak trees, in the hear of the brûlé, a parched magic circle where nothing else grows. It can be found in the South, on the markets of Aups, Carpentras and Richerenches, where the ritual between sellers and brokers has survived intact.