Discovering France’s Mushroom Festivals in October 2026

France takes its mushrooms seriously enough to build entire festivals around them, and once autumn arrives, that shows up everywhere from mountain markets to guided forest walks. If you’re the type who likes to actually forage rather than just eat, October is genuinely one of the best months to be here.

Where the mushrooms are: Périgord, Auvergne, and beyond

Périgord has long been nicknamed “the land of chestnuts and ceps,” and it lives up to it. Villefranche-du-Périgord runs an annual Chestnut and Cep Festival at the end of October, with foraging tours often on offer alongside the mushroom-based dishes. Through late summer and into autumn, dedicated cep markets pop up in Monpazier, Mussidan, Saint-Saud Lacoussière, Brive, Périgueux, and Sarlat. Nearby, Chancelade typically holds its “Salon du champignon” in November, with hundreds of mushroom species on display, mycologists on hand for identification, and hands-on cooking workshops.

Further east, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region is just as strong a draw. Saint-Bonnet-le-Froid in Haute-Loire holds a well-known mushroom fair every year the weekend after All Saints’ Day (early November), with a dried-mushroom market, local producers, a mycological exhibition, and cooking demonstrations from regional chefs. In Megève, the Toquicimes food festival runs every October and puts mushrooms front and center alongside other autumn dishes. Other festivals worth knowing about include Villefranche-de-Conflent in the Pyrénées-Orientales (typically the first weekend of October), Mende in Lozère with its Mushroom and Bee Feast (early October), and Eguisheim in Alsace (usually the last weekend of October), all of which draw a serious crowd of mycologists and curious visitors alike.

If you’d rather forage yourself

Guided mushroom hunts are widely available if you want to actually get into the woods. In Provence, tours around Avignon, the Luberon, and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence take small groups out looking for chanterelles, cèpes (porcini), and black trumpets, usually with equipment provided, an identification lesson, and often a proper country breakfast worked in. The Vosges region offers multi-day wild food trips for anyone wanting to go deeper, and even Paris gets in on it, “Chemin de la Nature” runs urban foraging walks through the city’s green spaces if a full countryside trip isn’t in the cards.

Identification matters here, mushroom foraging isn’t something to wing. Mycological societies like the Société Mycologique de France and the Mycological Society of Alès in Gard run identification meetings, seminars, and field trips throughout the season. One detail that surprises a lot of visitors: French pharmacists are actually trained in mushroom identification and serve as a genuine local resource, especially in rural areas, so if you’re ever unsure about something you’ve picked, a pharmacy is a legitimate place to ask. For something more structured, the Mushroom Identification Workshop at Tucker House offers hands-on sessions with bilingual mycologists.

Markets and eating well

Even if foraging isn’t your thing, the markets alone are worth the trip. You’ll find fresh wild fungi everywhere from the readily available ceps of the Dordogne Valley to more unusual varieties at specialty stalls in Carcassonne. Suppliers like Champiland in Landes de Gascogne, Paris Saveurs at the Rungis International Market, Les Champignons du Brionnais, and Champignonnière de La Marianne near Paris keep both cultivated and wild mushrooms, oyster, shiitake, morels, and truffles among them, in supply well beyond the festival season.

Festivals like Saint-Bonnet-le-Froid, Mende, and Chancelade all lean heavily into tasting and cooking demonstrations, with regional chefs showing off everything from hearty mushroom soups to traditional omelettes. Plenty of restaurants in these host towns also run mushroom-themed menus for the duration. If you want to go further, gastronomic tours combining truffles and mushrooms are available in both Périgord and Provence, pairing the fungi with local wines and cuisine.

France’s mushroom festivals are a genuinely good excuse to slow down, get outside, and eat well, whether you’re identifying your first cep or just working your way through a market stall. If a trip around this kind of autumn food culture appeals to you, Exoticca’s France tours can help you plan a route through it.