Passions: The Hampden Park of cast iron cookware lies in Fresnoy-le-Grand

Our collection of Le Creuset has expanded since a casserole dish as a wedding present. Picture: Will Slater

Having grown up in a household in which holidays were punctuated by cliff or hill walks, visits to museums, cathedrals and other buildings of interest (to a grown up) and anything else my parents thought interesting or important to see, it seemed only reasonable that we inflict something similar on our lot.

So it was that we found ourselves many years ago piling our three into the car on a hot day and driving for 90 minutes in Northern France to go to the village of Fresnoy-le-Grand.

Earlier in the holiday we had already stood by a roadside in light drizzle for several hours to watch the Tour de France. I think the peloton took about a minute to whizz past. And we were on the wrong side of the road to pick up the goodies thrown out from the cavalcade of support and sponsor vehicles that trundle along the route the hour or two before the riders.

We had also walked some of the Maginot Line, or what remains of it, getting spectacularly lost in a forest somewhere and taking rather longer than we planned to get back to the car.

And why, after two such successful family outings, did we choose Fresnoy-le Grand? Well it doesn't have a spectacular cathedral or cave paintings or musuems. It does have a temple of sorts, though, the foundry where all of Le Creuset's cast iron enamalware is made.

The sad thing is there wasn't even a factory tour. We just thought it might be worth a look. And it was, for the outlet store. I know there is one in Livingston, but it's not quite the same. So our collection of Le Creuset, which began with a small orange cast iron casserole we got as a wedding present, expanded a bit that day.

There was a bargain and very beautiful tagine, a cast iron tarte tatin dish, a huge crepe pan we don't use very often, a grill pan and one or two other things.

We now have a serious Le Creuset habit, which the French company feeds by creating dozens of products, from pastry brushes, spoon rests and ovenware to dipping bowls, frying pans and those stoneware mugs available in 25 different colours .

The trip to Fresnoy-le-Grand, meanwhile, is part of the family folklore, as fondly remembered as the time we rented a house with no wi-fi.

Will Slater is a sub editor at The Scotsman