The cellier, or cold-storage pantry

Our relatively modern house (1960s vintage) doesn't have a cellar or basement, but it has a cellier on the ground floor. A cellier is a pantry or larder — a storeroom for food and wine — and this one has a dirt (sand, actually) floor. It's on the north side of the house, so it stays fairly cool in there except in the hottest part of summer. It's not heated, and it's windowless. A cellier can also be called a garde-manger.

Two photos of our cellier or pantry/larder

What we call a cellar in English is called « une cave » in French. It's an underground storage space, usually under a house or other building. It's an ideal place for storing wine or cider, because the temperature in a cave remains constant year-round. I wish we had one under our house, but we don't.

Larder, garde-manger, cellier, pantry, storeroom...

Meanwhile, the cellier or cold-storage pantry/larder will have to do. We of course keep wine down there, but much more besides. Having a good-size pantry sort of makes up for having a small kitchen with only minimal storage space in it. And it means we run up and down the stairs many times every day. That's called "exercise."

The duck confit I made recently is in the big dish on
the right, on top of the deep-fat fryer (la friteuse)
which is full of peanut oil.

Since we buy wine in bulk and bottle it ourselves, we keep a lot of both empty and full wine bottles in the pantry. They drain and dry on the red bottle rack before being put away. We also keep a lot of jars for putting up jams, jellies, etc. — not to mention bags and other containers of spices, condiments, and dried herbs. Sugar, flour, noodles, glasses... un peu de tout, quoi.