Houtkerke

The border village of Houtkerke is a place of pilgrimage for Picon enthusiasts. The cafe Au Saint Eloi is certainly known for it. The road to here is even called the Route du Picon. Curiously, Picon is linked to this region, but Picon has its roots in Marseille and in Camporosso in Italy. There on the Ligurian coast, Gaétan Picon was born in 1809. At the age of six he moved with his parents to Marseille. Gaétan took part in the military conquest of Algeria in 1832. Many soldiers there fell prey to malaria or less severe fevers. Picon was a student of botany and knew of herbal antipyretic potions that monks had been brewing for centuries. He made his own brew based on the zest of oranges and the extracts of cinchona tree and gentian. That was very successful very quickly. 'Amer Africain' caught on, with production in Marseille and in Algerian Philippeville (today Skikda) and Picon gave it its own name over time.

Pascal Brackman