The mercury, which continues to climb, melts the people of Nîmes. As soon as they open, the ice cream parlors on the Place du Marché receive customers in search of freshness. Vanilla, cotton candy, jar or cone, ice cream remains essential in summer.
“Would you rather like it in a cone or in a jar?”, asks her client, the employee of the Glacier, nestled in the Place du Marché. A single desire obsesses the family: to relieve themselves of the 36°C which has made them sweat from 11 am. In search of novelty, it will be served: the managers of the ice cream parlor, Céline and Xavier Donadio, can pride themselves on offering a palette of forty-three flavors. The bestsellers? The pink biscuit from Reims, olive oil, pepper, fougasse from Aigues-Mortes and even ginger-lemon. Their clientele has a taste for risk and loves these atypical perfumes. And everyone loves the vegan cone, the house’s signature.
A stone’s throw away, La Dolcezza is all the rage with its gourmet Gard gold medal vanilla ice cream. This fragrance, which seems standard, was in fact infused with Madagascar pods for twelve hours. Simon Vilaret, the creator, also has a special recipe known to the people of Nîmes: the Romaine. With its caramelized fig coulis and orange zest, the daring even appeals to tourists. On the side of Amorino, the star remains the essential (and Instagrammable) cone in the shape of a flower.
For specialists in this frozen pastry, Italian ice cream no longer seems to be in vogue. “People think it’s industrial ice cream”, explains Céline Donadio. Originality is therefore the watchword in the mouths of all ice cream parlors.
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