Each year, the French consume approximately 4,000 tons of frog legs. However, almost all of the amphibian legs that arrive on French plates come from abroad, as the collection of protected animals is practically prohibited and their breeding is strictly controlled.
One of the few French frog breeders, Patrice Francois, supplies the kitchens of Michelin-starred restaurants and local bistros with frog legs.
But the 100,000 animals raised in his aquariums in Pierrelatte, in southeastern France, still represent only a small part of the demand for this delicacy that earned the French the nickname “frogs” in the English-speaking world.
“Raising frogs is difficult!” Francois told AFP amid a deafening chorus of croaks coming from dozens of ponds teeming with marsh frogs, the specialty of his farm.
“It’s starting to work, but I don’t live off it yet,” said this man in his fifties who founded the first frog farm in France ten years ago.
To make ends meet, he also runs a fish shop in Roanne, about 230 kilometers to the north.