Author: Sharon

Pays Basque

It’s been two years since we were last in France, and future travel is uncertain with Americans currently being banned in Europe and most of the world, so our pretend tour de France is back on!

When we last “visited” France, we were in the historic and magnificent region of Aquitaine, now called Nouvelle-Aquitaine, in the southwest. Because this region is so large and diverse, we divided our tour into three parts: Bordeaux and the Dordogne, Gascony, and the Basque country. The latter is all that remains for our tour of Aquitaine.

Many of us are feeling isolated in these days of social distancing. The Basque know something about that, although not because of viruses. The Basque language is an isolate, meaning it has no known relationship with any other language. Perhaps that is one reason some Basque people have sought independence from both Spain and France.

The bulk of the Basque region lies within the border of Spain. The French part is in the southwestern corner of the country, along the Atlantic coast and the Pyrenees.

Basque country. © Zorion, CC-BY-SA, Wikimedia Commons

A good base for exploring the Pays basque français is the lovely small city of Bayonne. It’s easily accessible by the high-speed TGV train from Paris, and le gare, like most train stations in Europe, is centrally located for accommodations, restaurants and touring Bayonne and its surrounds.

We stayed in an AirBnB in the old town and enjoyed two and a half days of walking the cobblestoned streets, taking in the sights, sounds and tastes of the historic city. We did not visit the famous nearby resort of Biarritz, mostly because the weather was cool and rainy, not tempting us to the beach. Also, Bayonne had enough attractions to keep us occupied.

A view of the old town from one of Bayonne’s many bridges.

We were delighted to learn that Bayonne considers itself the capital of chocolate in France. The Spanish brought cacao back from their pillages in the Americas, but they initially kept it to themselves. Jewish refugees fleeing from the Spanish inquisition in the 17th century made chocolate in Bayonne, and soon their Basque neighbors took up the craft and excluded their teachers from practicing it.

Eventually, chocolate-making expanded throughout France, Europe and the world. Bayonne may not be home to the most famous chocolatiers in France, but a visit to the old city is a sweet ritual beloved by many in the southwest. We enjoyed a cup of the famous hot chocolate at Cazenave, on the Rue Port Neuf, in the company of a mother and daughter from Pau; la mère told us she had made a yearly pilgrimage to the small chocolate café with her parents and was continuing the tradition with her daughter.

My daughter perhaps starting a tradition of a chocolat chaud at Cazenave. It was served with toast.

A chocolate artisan on the Rue Port Neuf, Bayonne’s famous chocolate street.

One can’t live on chocolate alone, although Bayonne might tempt you to try. Fortunately, the city can satisfy savory meal demands equally well. Ham, or jambon, is a Basque country staple, and visitors to Bayonne will find it as ubiquitous on menus as is duck in other parts of the southwest. Bayonne even has a museum of ham.

Typical charcuterie board served at a Bayonne wine bar.

Bayonne is about an hour by bus or car from San Sebastian, which claims to have a higher concentration of Michelin stars than any city in the world. Alas, we didn’t cross the border to Spain, but that means we’ll need to return and have a more extensive tour of Basque country.

Meanwhile, we’re reliving our Basque experience with a couple of iconic dishes. Chicken with tomatoes and peppers is, aside from thinly-sliced jambon, among the most popular menu items in Basque country. Many recipes exist for this dish. I chose one from French chef Daniel Boulud, mostly because I just finished reading Bill Buford’s delightful memoir of his cooking life in Lyon, Dirt, and Boulud was frequently mentioned.

Basque chicken

I served this over slices of French sesame peasant bread from our excellent local bakery, Common Good. But I also had a hankering for Sarlat potatoes, which are not Basque but from the neighboring Dordogne region. I shared the recipe in the Bordeaux segment. It’s currently my favorite way to cook potatoes.

Sarlat potatoes

Finally, I spent most of the day working on a Gateau Basque. Many, many recipes exist for this delicious pastry cake. I used Paula Wolfert’s from her Cooking of Southwest France (sadly, out of print), and it’s definitely more involved than most recipes available online. It required early-in-the-day preparation of three components: Basque Aromatics made from steeping lemon peel in Armagnac and other liquids, pastry cream, and dough. The cream and dough were flavored with the aromatic liqueur and chilled for a few hours. Then I rolled out the dough into two rounds, spreading the cream between the layers and baking it for about 45 minutes. It was lovely and delicious!

Gateau basque.
Basque chicken and potatoes Sarlat.

Our time in Bayonne and Pays Basque was much too short, but we’ll be back!

Leaving Bayonne via the drawbridge across the moat outside the city walls.

Proust Project Update

My original deadline for attempting to read Du côté de chez Swann en français has passed. But this is my project and my rules, so I’m extending the deadline for a year. I’m making progress in learning French; I’m currently on a 107-day Duolingo streak. I also practice every time I get a chance to go to my local French conversation group. And I have France24 streaming in the background at home for at least an hour a day so I can absorb the language while multi-tasking.

The time requirement of making a weekly video caused a huge delay on the tour when other work demands, summer distractions and fall travels, pinched my time. Plus, I discovered that film-making can be a fun change of pace, but writing remains my preferred form of communication. As I resume, I hope to continue the videos, with Leah’s help, on a sporadic basis, but the main “tour” will take place here.

Onward! Next week: French Basque country.

La cuisine de Gascogne

Gascony, like most of southwest France, is the land of duck. Among the duck-related menu terms encountered in the southwest are magret de canard (duck breast), confit de canard (usually duck legs cooked in their own fat and preserved in a jar under a layer of that fat), and the most famed of all, foie gras (fattened liver of duck or goose). Duck fat is also liberally used in cooking.

In the book I mentioned last time, Duck Season: Eating, Drinking, and Other Misadventures in Gascony, France’s Last Best Place, author David McAninch writes that Gascony is the ultimate French paradox — the life expectancy in the region is the highest in France despite the rich diet of fatty duck.

I can personally vouch for the deliciousness of Gascon cuisine. During our visit to the region last year, we enjoyed the best meal of our trip -indeed, one of the best meals of our lives – at Le Cadet de Gascogne in St. Justin. Considering that the three of us had three courses, including wine and aperitifs, for less than $100 total, it was also a fantastic bargain.

Leah’s duck at Le Cadet d Gascogne

To celebrate Gascony at home, I splurged on duck breasts and turned again to  Paula Wolfert’s masterpiece, The Cooking of Southwest France: Recipes from France’s Magnificent Rustic Cuisine. The following two recipes are not difficult to prepare; however, you will not find the moutarde violette at your neighborhood grocery. I had despaired of procuring a jar until I found it on Zingerman‘s website – and included in the summer sale! So I bought a case of 6 and now need more recipes using it since I can’t afford duck breasts very often. Fortunately, Paula Wolfert suggests adding it to a salad vinaigrette, another delicious option. I’ve also added it to homemade mayonnaise.

Moutarde violette is an ancient condiment from southwest France that had been nearly forgotten until a French family reintroduced it to the market in 1990. The mustard is enhanced with freshly pressed red or black grapes, a byproduct of wine-making. And it is fabulous with duck, of course!

Duck Breasts with Moutarde Violette

Adapted from The Cooking of Southwest France by Paula Wolfert

  • 2 boneless duck breast halves, 1 to 1 1/4 lbs each
  • 1.5 tablespoons minced shallots
  • 1 tablespoon rendered duck fat
  • 3/4 cup red wine
  • pinch of fresh thyme leaves
  • 1 tablespoon moutarde violette
  • 1 tablespoon heavy cream
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper
  1. About 1 hour before serving, use a thin long-bladed knife to shave off the thinnest layer from the skin to remove the little bumps from the duck breast (if your breasts have them — mine didn’t, at least not that I could see), then make very small crosshatch marks at a 45-degree angle all over the skin side. Peel away the tendon underneath and reserve for some other purpose. Wipe the breast dry; sprinkle with salt and pepper.
  2. Heat a large heavy skillet over moderate heat. Add the duck breasts, skin side down, and immediately reduce the heat to moderately low. Sauté the breasts until crisp and brown, about 8 to 10 minutes, tilting the skillet and spooning off the fat 3 or 4 times. Flip the duck breasts over, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and finish cooking for 3 to 5 minutes to brown the flesh side and crisp the skin. With your thumb and middle finger, pinch the meat under the skin side to test for doneness. If it springs back quickly, the meat is rare; if there is some give, it is medium. Remove to a caring board, and let it rest for at least 10 minutes.
  3. Meanwhile, add the shallots and duck fat to the skillet and cook over moderately low heat, stirring, about 2 minutes. Add the wine and herbs to the skillet and heat until reduced by half. Turn off the heat and stir in the mustard and heavy cream. Adjust the seasoning.
  4. Thinly slice the meat crosswise on the diagonal and arrange overlapping on a serving platter. Spoon the sauce over the slices and serve immediately.

Cèpes in the Style of Gascony

  • 1 ounce dried French cèpes or Italian porcini
  • 1/2 cup French olive oil or a light Italian olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh garlic
  • 2 tablespoons prosciutto
  • 1 pound fresh button mushrooms, quartered or sliced
  • salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 1.5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
  1. Soak the dried mushrooms in 2 cups lukewarm water for 30 minutes. Drain by lifting them out of the liquid. Rinse under cool running water and drain well by pressing on them lightly. Ladle the soaking liquid through a paper coffee or several layers of cheesecloth.
  2. In a large nonreactive skillet, heat the olive oil over high heat. Add the drained mushrooms, then reduce the heat to moderately high. Add the garlic and prosciutto; cook, stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes, until the garlic begins to color slightly. Immediately add all the strained soaking liquid and bring to a boil. Slowly cook down to a glaze, about 15 minutes.
  3. Add the fresh mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with the lemon juice. Sauté, tossing over moderately high heat, until all the moisture in the pan has evaporated, about 7 minutes. Serve hot with a sprinkling of parsley.
Dinner à la gascogne

Gascony

Finally, our virtual tour takes us to a region we have visited in reality. We were fortunate and delighted to spend a couple of days in Gascony, le Gascogne, in May 2018. We are eager to return for a longer visit.

A quiet village in Gascony.

Gascony is the home of d’Artagnan, the young hero of Alexandre Dumas’ marvelous adventure novel, The Three Musketeers. The fictional d’Artagnan was inspired by the life of a real 17th century Gascon, and both legends are amply honored throughout the region.

Dumas was one of the best storytellers ever to take pen to page, and The Three Musketeers has endured for its entertaining blend of swashbuckling adventure, romance, villainy, friendship, palace intrigue and history. Read it for all of that, but you won’t learn much about Gascony as the young d’Artagnan leaves his home at the beginning of the tale.

For a very good book about contemporary Gascony, its history and food, check out Duck Season: Eating, Drinking, and Other Misadventures in Gascony, France’s Last Best Place by David McAninch. The Chicago-based travel writer took his family to a village in Gascony for eight months, immersing themselves in local culture. If you don’t want to read the book, I’ll refer you to the travel piece he wrote for the New York Times.

Joanne Harris’ novel, Chocolat, was also set in the region, although the film version starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp used a Burgundy village for its exterior scenes.

Gascony is not well-defined as a region, and although some visitors describe it as the “most French” part of France, that’s probably due more to the relative sparsity of tourism (even Rick Steves hasn’t found its back door) that makes “unspoiled” seem synonymous with “authentic.” Indeed, Gascony is quintessentially French in the sense that the nation of France was formed from many kingdoms and duchies that had their own culture, language and identity. McAninch writes in Duck Season: “As was the case with much of southern France, rural Gascony and its subregions were essentially countries unto themselves almost until the twentieth century: loose assemblages of isolated and self-sustaining peasant communities conducting their daily life almost completely outside the purview of the French national identity.”

The Gascons and the neighboring Basque people share a heritage. In pre-Roman times, the inhabitants spoke a language related to modern Basque, which is an isolate unrelated to any other known living tongue. Wars and invasions of the Early Middle Ages split this part of southwestern France and northern Spain into separate identities of Basque and Gascon. From the Middle Ages until well into the 20th century, the Gascons spoke a dialect of Occitan with many regional variations.

Our first foray into Gascony last May was on the wind-swept Atlantic coast. We rented a car in Bayonne and drove north into Armagnac country, stopping for lunch at a seaside restaurant near Ondres.

On the beach near Ondres, France. A blustery day on the Atlantic coast.
Domaine de Paguy

By evening we arrived at le Domaine de Paguy, an ancient estate nestled among the vineyards in the Landes area near the village of Betbezer. Our hostess, the charming and generous Myriam, operates her family’s Armagnac distillery as well as the bed and breakfast accommodations. We highly recommend this accommodation if you’re ever in the area. We enjoyed a tasting of the full range of Bas-Armagnac produced by the domaine, comparing the spirit at 5 years of age, 10 years, 20 years, and so on. Armagnac can be difficult to find outside of France as very little of it is exported, but those who love it will seek it out even if they have to special order it or ask their son to bring a bottle up from Chicago.

We were most enchanted by a local fortified wine which we had not even known existed prior to our arrival at Domaine de Paguy. Myriam poured us a taste of Floc de Gascogne, which she said translates from the Occitan language as “flowers of Gascony.” It’s made from a blend of grape juice and Armagnac, and when I tasted it, I knew I would be checking bags on the return flight. We purchased three bottles, and only one remains. I’ve been hoarding it for a special occasion, and that will be our dinner à la gascogne next week.

  • Breakfast at Domaine de Paguy
  • Aviary at Domaine de Paguy
  • Le Cadet de Gascogne, St. Justin, France
  • Le Cadet de Gascogne dining room, a bit of a modern Scandinavian vibe
  • Lamb
  • Strawberries in thyme sauce

Our stay at the Domaine de Paguy was peaceful, delicious and beautiful. We had the best meal of our entire trip at the restaurant Le Cadet de Gascogne (a reference to the famous musketeers in the nearby village of St. Justin.

La jeune femme (Leah) at le Domaine de Paguy

The Gascon countryside has its share of beautiful bastide villages, Roman ruins, vineyards, market towns and a peaceful ambiance. We explored the medieval village of Labastide d’Armagnac and just east of there stopped at Notre Dame des Cyclistes, a 12th century Knights Templar chapel that now houses a small museum honoring bicyclists and Tour de France champions.

Notre Dame des Cyclistes

Labastide d’Armagnac

Join us next week for a Gascon feast of canard (duck) and accompaniments, and, hopefully, a video episode.

Bordeaux, du vin

So summer sidetracked the project a bit, but let’s get back to it.

This week’s video.

As I mentioned last time, the northern part of the Aquitaine region is probably best known for Bordeaux, France’s most celebrated wine. Indeed, its global fame helps keep the premier cru out of the price range of ordinary mortals. For a fascinating film on this subject, check out Red Obsession, a 2013 documentary about the nouveau riche in China paying insane prices for the Bordeaux luxury brands.

Happily, all is not lost for the budget-minded wine enthusiast. Bordeaux has thousands of wineries and most of them are ignored by the Chinese. Not all of them produce excellent wine, but a good wine merchant can steer you to the values. My neighborhood wine shop stocks multiple wines we have enjoyed from Bordeaux for less than $20/bottle; for some vintages, such as 2015, he tells me that even mediocre producers had great success.

Most Bordeaux is red wine blended from several grapes, and the region is divided by the river Garonne, which creates the “Left Bank” and “Right Bank” subcategories of Bordeaux. Books have been written on the breadth and diversity of Bordeaux wine classifications, and I won’t attempt to write another one here. For a good, concise primer, check out these 10 essential facts from Vincarta. Easy! Now off to the wine shop.

The city of Bordeaux, which is supposedly the second most visited city in France after Paris, is a must stop for anyone wanting to explore the region’s viniculture in person. In 2016, the world’s most eye-popping wine museum opened in Bordeaux. La Cité du Vin is likely to be a premier cru destination for the wine tourist.

La Cité du Vin. Alice Veaux [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

Bordeaux is also a hub for booking tours to the area chateaux. Expect to be set back about $90 per person for a half-day tour.

If you take my advice and get into the Bruno books, you’ll undoubtedly want to explore the neighboring wines of Bergerac. These share roughly the same climate and soil as Bordeaux, but not the same prices. You may need to go to France to try some, however. They aren’t easy to find in the United States. Here’s a funny story about Bruno and Bergerac from California. My neighborhood wine shop, which specializes in French wine, had nary a bottle from Bergerac at my last visit.

In France, wine is an integral part of a meal and rarely consumed without food. In southwestern France, we have entered the land of duck, or le canard. Duck is to this region as lobster is to Maine. The most iconic dishes are duck confit and foie gras, but the French have probably prepared le canard in every imaginable manner.

Duck can be harder to find in the United States, and here in northern Michigan, it is expensive. We’ll splurge for duck when we explore Gascony. For our northern Aquitaine menu, we made chicken and potatoes.

I’m fortunate to own a copy of Paula Wolfert’s masterpiece, The Cooking of Southwest France: Recipes from France’s Magnificent Rustic Cuisine. Unfortunately, it’s out of print, so if you want your own (and if you have more than a passing interest in le sud-ouest, you should!), you’ll need to find one in the used book market, and I recommend doing it quickly as this classic is likely to become more elusive and expensive the longer it remains out of print.

For our meal from the upper Aquitaine, I prepared two recipes from the book, and I’ll share my edited version here. Both were simple and received effusive praise from our guests.

The chicken dish specified sour green grapes, which is a thing one can get in the Dordogne but not in northern Michigan, so I used green table grapes. However, Black Star Farms in northern Michigan sometimes makes verjus. And, if you’re in Traverse City, Maxbauer has duck fat.

Sarlat potatoes on left, chicken à la dordogne on right.

Chicken Legs with Sour Grape Sauce in the Style of the Dordogne

  • 4 lbs chicken legs, at room temperature
  • salt and pepper
  • 4.5 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 12 plump unpeeled garlic cloves
  • 1/3 cup dry white wine
  • 6 to 7 tbsp verjus
  • 3 cups unsalted chicken stock, reduced to 1 cup (I used goose stock because I had it)
  • 3 dozen sour green grapes
  • 1.5 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
  1. Trim away excess fat from the chicken legs. Dry well and rub with salt and pepper.
  2. Set a large, deep skillet over moderately high heat. Add 2.5 tbsp of the butter, then the chicken, skin side down, and the garlic cloves. Brown for 1 minute each side, shaking the skillet to keep the chicken and garlic from sticking.
  3. Reduce the heat to low, cover the skillet tightly, and cook for 10 minutes. Uncover the skillet, tilt, and skim the fat off the pan juices. Turn the chicken over. Add the white wine; cover again, and cook slowly for another 10 minutes.
  4. Uncover the skillet; add 5 tbsps of the verjus and quickly cover the pan so that chicken pieces absorb all the aroma and flavor. Cook slowly for 5 more minutes.
  5. Add 3/4 cup of the stock and cook for 5 minutes. Raise the heat; add the butter and the remaining stock and verjus. Swirl over heat to combine. Add the grapes and just warm through. Season the sauce with salt and pepper to taste.
  6. Arrange the chicken, garlic and grapes on a warm platter. Pour the sauce over the chicken. Sprinkle with the parsley and serve hot.

Sarlat Potatoes

  • 2 pounds red potatoes (waxy potatoes are best)
  • 3 tbsps rendered duck or goose fat, or fat scraped from duck confit
  • 2 tsps finely minced fresh garlic
  • 1.5 tbsps minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
  • salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions:

  1. About 30 minutes before serving, peel and rinse the potatoes. Using a mandoline or food processor, cut into 1/8-inch slices. Do not wash the slices.
  2. Heat the fat in a well-seasoned, 10-inch cast-iron skillet over moderately high heat. Add the potatoes and let them brown for an instant. Cook, turning with a spatula to coat well with the fat and avoid sticking, for about 2 minutes. Reduce the heat to moderate. When some of the slices begin to brown, press down on the potatoes with a spatula to form a flat round cake. Reduce the heat to moderately low, cover the skillet with a tight-fitting lid, and cook for 7 minutes.
  3. Raise the lid to allow steam to escape. Wipe away any moisture on the lid. Toss the potatoes gently so the crisp bottom pieces mix with the rest of the potato slices. Gently press down again with the spatula; cover and cook for 7 more minutes, shaking the skillet to keep the potatoes from sticking.
  4. Repeat #3. Then remove from the heat and let stand without uncovering for 30 seconds. Remove the cover quickly so the moisture doesn’t fall onto the potatoes. Wipe the inside of the cover dry. Tilt the skillet and spoon off and reserve any excess fat.
  5. Cover the skillet with a plate and invert to unmold the potato cake. Return the reserved fat to the skillet and set over moderate heat. Slide the potatoes back into the skillet and cook, uncovered, until the second side crisps, about 3 minutes. The potatoes should look somewhat like a cake and be puffy, crisp and golden. Transfer to a heated serving platter and sprinkle with the garlic and parsley. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

s.

Bordeaux and the Dordogne

I could start by writing about the famous wine region and the world heritage city often called “Petit Paris.”

But this is my space and I’m most eager to tell you about Bruno.

For the uninitiated, Bruno is Benoît Courrèges, and he doesn’t really exist. Bruno is the chief of police of the fictional village of St. Denis in the lovely Dordogne Valley area of France. He’s Andy Griffith with a French accent, and he never lets solving the crime get in the way of a good meal.

Bruno is the creation of Martin Walker, a retired journalist turned mystery novelist. Mr. Walker and I shared the same employer (United Press International), although not at the same time. He is an Englishman who has a holiday home in the Dordogne and, according to a New York Times profile, modeled his hero after a real local police chief.

I’ve been so enthralled with Bruno and his lovely country that I had pegged the Dordogne as our main destination on our family trip to France last year. But then April happened in Michigan, with unrelenting blizzards (yes, really), just as we were making reservations, and we had a family consensus that we needed to go as far south as possible. The Mediterranean won out over the Dordogne.

In my part-time bookseller gig, I often recommend the Bruno books to fans of Louise Penny, who also writes a mystery series with recurring characters and a village setting. I don’t know which charming town has a higher murder rate, Louise Penny’s Three Pines or Martin Walker’s St. Denis, but I would happily take my chances as a resident of either, if they existed.

For those who want to visit Bruno-land, sometimes called Dordogneshire for its popularity among the British, Mr. Walker proposes a seven-day itinerary on his website.

This week’s video

The relationship between England and this region of France, also known as Le Périgord, is a long one. Several centuries long. The English had claims to the land from Alienor d’Aquitaine (remember her from two weeks ago?), and it was a bone of contention during the medieval Hundred Years’ War. The legacy of this period of conflict is the stunning, picturesque landscape known as the Valley of 1000 Castles.

Beynac Chateau. BY KRZYSZTOF GOLIK – OWN WORK, CC BY-SA 4.0, HTTPS://COMMONS.WIKIMEDIA.ORG/W/INDEX.PHP?CURID=65604631

Another prime attraction of the region predates castles and feuding monarchs by many millennia. Paleolithic humans left a substantial legacy. The Vézère Valley in the Dordogne region has 147 prehistoric sites and 25 decorated caves that are a UNESCO World Heritage site. The most famous are the Lascaux cave paintings, which had to be closed to tourists to prevent damage; a replica site nearby is open to the public.

I also must mention that one of our favorite movies was filmed in the Dordogne. Ever After, a feminist retelling of the Cinderella story starring Drew Barrymore, is a fun way to get a look at the place from afar.

Finally, Bordeaux. The sixth-largest city in France, affectionately nicknamed “Little Paris,” boasts a stunning center of historic architecture that is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It’s also a port of entry for exploring the famous wine region, which we will do next week.

Cognac and cake

Last week, we obsessed a little about Eleanor of Aquitaine (Alienor d’Aquitaine) and mostly ignored any other attraction of Poitou-Charentes. With Eleanor dead for some eight centuries now, some updating of the region’s charms may be in order.

Mais alors, non. Even the Wiki travel page for Poitiers notes “there isn’t a lot to do” in this pleasant, small city. It is the opposite of the tourist town lament, “a great place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.” Poitiers and other towns in Poitou-Charentes, such as La Rochelle, may be great places to live, but they don’t attract many tourists.

If one lived there, what would one eat? What did Eleanor eat? Likely she dined on some of the same delicacies still served in the region today. With a long Atlantic coastline, the Poitevins have long relied on les fruits de mer for sustenance. Oysters, mussels cooked in wine or cream, fish, eels and cuisses de grenouilles (frogs’ legs). The region also is rich in agriculture, so animal meats, cheeses and produce are fresh and plentiful.

This week’s video

Poitou-Charentes’ most celebrated contributed to world gastronomy is cognac, the exquisite brandy made from white grapes. It is not an ancient spirit; Eleanor almost certainly did not know it. Although wine historians say cognac may have been produced and consumed locally in the early 15th century, it didn’t really get going until the 16th century when Dutch merchants sought a better method of preserving wine for their long journeys home. Enter distillation, then later a double distillation, and the discovery that the resulting product was quite delicious before being diluted with water as the Dutch had intended.

Cognac is aged in oak barrels from the Limousin province directly to the east of Poitou-Charentes. Both Poitou-Charentes and Limousin are now part of the administrative region called Nouvelle Aquitaine, and as I think we’re unlikely to revisit Limousin on this tour, we’ll make a brief mention now. Limousin is a forested region renowned for timber, beef cattle and chestnuts. It also gets promoted frequently to British people as a cheaper alternative to the neighboring Dordogne region, sometimes called Dordogneshire due to its popularity for cross-channel second homes. The English have been in this region for centuries, ever since Eleanor’s days!

Back to cognac. Victor Hugo called it “the liquor of the gods.” Napoleon liked it, too. We have a bottle of Courvoisier, which claims to have been the emperor’s favorite.

Today, cognac is enjoyed worldwide, mostly in China where it is a symbol of luxury, and also by American rappers. According to a recent e-magazine feature, cognac is currently experience a resurgence of popularity – perhaps thanks to Jay-Z and P. Diddy – although not in France. The French protect it with an appellation d’origine contrôlée but only keep about 3 percent for their own consumption, unlike armagnac, a brandy from the Gascogne which is hard to find outside of France. (We have a bottle of armagnac, but we’ll get to that in a few weeks.)

As I have always thought of cognac as an after dinner drink, I decided to pair it with a cheesecake specialty from Poitou-Charentes. It worked well together! The cake, called tourteau fromagé, is quite simple to make, although mine did not achieve the traditional burnt crust, perhaps because I have a gas oven which is notoriously hostile to browning.

One of my favorite food writers, Clotilde of the Paris-based Chocolate & Zucchini blog, describes the history and significance of this dessert, along with a photo of what it is supposed to look like. And here is mine:

tourteau fromagé, unburnt

Despite its unburnt crust, it was delicious, and as my husband said, the lack of burning gave us more to eat.

I used a fresh local chèvre, or goat cheese, that was already quite dry and did not need to be further drained. I followed this recipe. Also, I did not have the proper mold, so I improvised with a small springform pan (for the one pictured above) and my English pudding steamer for the second one. They were equally good.

I’m also too lazy to trim my pastry crust to look pretty.

With a small glass of cognac, this was an excellent treat!

Next week: Bordeaux.

Poitou-Charentes

After another delay caused by real-world work, we’re delighted to resume our pretend tour de France. We last visited the chateaux and vineyards of the Loire Valley, one of the most popular destinations in the most touristed country in the world, and now we’re dipping slightly south to a region that gets far less attention.

This week’s video

Poitou-Charentes officially no longer exists. It was a defined region of France from 1956 to 2015, when France reorganized administratively and made it part of Nouvelle Aquitaine.

This area in central France borders the Atlantic Ocean and is mostly rural. Its two largest cities are the university town of Poitiers and the port of La Rochelle. For tourists, the chief attractions will be along the coast, particularly the Isles de Ré and Oléron. Another hotspot is the Futuroscope theme park north of Poitiers.

Eleanor of Aquitaine

We will linger in Poitiers because it is the birthplace of one of my favorite women of history, Eleanor of Aquitaine. This medieval queen of France and England continues to fascinate us centuries after her death. Her literary and artistic “Court of Love” in Poitiers during the mid-1100s is legendary for establishing the ideas of chivalry in the culture of Europe.

Eleanor was born around 1122 into an interesting family. Her grandfather, William IX, was the earliest troubadour whose work survived. He was a lyric poet in the Occitan language; he had a reputation for seducing women, and his verses tell of this prowess. One of his conquests was Dangereuse, Viscountess of Châttellerault, the wife of a vassal. His own wife, Philippa, was not pleased to have another woman installed in her home but could find no one to assist her in evicting her husband’s mistress. The church excommunicated William, but he continued to live with Dangereuse and Philippa finally retired to the Abbey of Fontevrault. The son of William and the daughter of Dangereuse, step-siblings, married and became Eleanor’s parents, so both Dangereuse and Philippa were her grandmothers.

On the death of her father, Eleanor became the duchess of Aquitaine, one of the largest and wealthiest realms in the kingdom of France. The teenager was wed almost immediately to King Louis VII of France, but the marriage was never happy. The beautiful, free-spirited granddaughter of William IX and Dangereuse was ill-suited for the plain, pious Louis. But she did have some grand adventures of Queen of France. She and her ladies-in-waiting, often dressed in full armor, shocked Europe when they joined the Second Crusade. Eleanor was furious with Louis’ refusal to heed her military advice, a strategy that many historians view as superior to Louis’ own disastrous path. The defeated Louis returned to France without his wife, who denounced him and appealed for an annulment to the marriage, which she received in 1152. Her vast estates in Aquitaine were returned to her.

Within a year of the annulment, Eleanor married the duke of Normandy, who soon became Henry II, King of England. She had eight children with Henry, including three sons who became kings. She was the mother of Richard the Lionheart and King John, the hapless villain of the Robin Hood tales. Eleanor supported her sons in revolt against their father, and for this he imprisoned her for 16 years. The 1968 film, The Lion in Winter, won Katherine Hepburn an Oscar for her portrayal of the formidable Eleanor.

Well, I could write all day about this incredible woman, but many others already have, in historical accounts and in fictionalized versions of her life., beginning with Shakespeare’s King John. Modern novels featuring Eleanor include Elizabeth Chadwick’s three-volume series.

Eleanor died in 1204 and was buried at Fontevrault Abbey near Chinon.

Fontevraud Abbey. By Pierre Mairé, PixAile.com – www.pixAile.com, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1356886

Eleanor’s home in Poitiers, le Palais de justice de Poitiers, can be visited today. One can also visit the cathedral where Eleanor attended services.

Not just Eleanor

A few other notes of interest from Poitou-Charentes:

  • Charles Martel, grandfather of Charlemagne, defeated Muslim invaders from Spain at the Battle of Poitiers in 732.
  • Poitiers has been the home of many notables, including René Descartes, who studied law at the university, chef Joël Robuchon, and mystery novelist Georges Simenon.
  • The Acadian and Cajun populations of North America originated in Poitou.
  • The local dialect/language, Poitevin, has some interesting characteristics as a bridge between the langues d’oïl and the langues d’oc, and also to Acadian French.

Next week, we hope to resume our normal every-Monday schedule with a look at the gastronomy of Poitou-Charentes.

Smart Commuting

A year ago on this day we had just returned from nearly three weeks in France. One of the first cultural readjustments I had in coming home was noise. Even in the heart of Paris, France was quieter. In the cities of the south, we could hear the birds sing. At home in northern Michigan, on my “quiet” residential street, this is the current situation (and it gets far worse when lawn equipment is in operation):

It doesn’t have to be this bad, and next week is the 25th anniversary of the event that encourages folks to consider other options. Smart Commute Week was started as Bike to Work Week by my terrific neighbor to celebrate and encourage folks to think outside the metal box. Car-centered transportation is damanging our personal health and the planet. We desperately need to dial it down.

This is usually the point in the conversation where people chime in with their reasons for driving. I get it. Some of you have no alternatives, due to your job requirements or locations. Smart Commute provides a nudge for those who do have some flexibility. In my neighborhood, those who work downtown could probably walk there in less time than it takes to drive and find a parking spot. And next week, they can even get a free breakfast!

I’m excited because I’ve been participating for 20 years and this is the first time I’ve had a work team for the Smart Commute Challenge. I persuaded the crew at Brilliant Books to join me, and everyone who could reasonably do it gladly accepted. My coworkers care as much about this beautiful place we’re fortunate to call home as they care about books, and those who will be taking the bus also know that’s a great place to read. Those who aren’t in a position to ditch the car are our cheerleaders, and our boss (who likes to ride the bus) is so supportive he’s already talking about doing more next year. What a fabulous team! They’re Brilliant!

To everyone out there, no matter how you get around, my wish is that you’ll graciously share the road. We’re all human, prone to mistakes, and maybe sometimes we stray from our lane or don’t yield the right of way. Everyone wants to get there safely. Can’t we figure out how to make that happen?

Wine and Food in the Loire Valley

First, apologies for the two-week delay in bringing you part two of the Centre-Val de Loire region. Real work forced this project to the sidelines. But now we can relax with a glass of very good wine.

This week’s video.

France is, by many assessments, the greatest wine producing country in the world, and the Loire Valley is one of its most lauded regions. It may not have quite the fame of Bordeaux or Burgundy, but that may have more to do with its diversity of viniculture. (No one says, “I’ll have a bottle of Loire.”)

This mind-boggling diversity makes me want to throw up my hands and acknowledge that the only possible way to get to know Loire wines is to go there for a very long time and tour the vineyards. Preferably on a bicycle. And there are many tour companies that will take you there.

I’m a wine drinker, not a wine expert. I’m still learning about wine, and I’ll undoubtedly say that 50 years from now, if I live that long. Is it possible to stop learning about wine? Just dipping one’s toe into this region of France makes the pleasurable task of wine exploration seem like a journey that will never end.

Wine is not a ladder to climb, as we’re so often taught. Not even close. Wine is a maze, a labyrinth, one we gladly enter, embracing the fact that we don’t know where it will take us and that we’ll never likely find our way out.

Jason Wilson, in Godforsaken Grapes: A Slightly Tipsy Journey Through the World of Strange, Obscure, and Underappreciated Wine

One area in which I do have expertise is research (former research director -not of anything wine-related, but skills are skills). And I can recommend an excellent, user-friendly and comprehensive guide in English to the wonders of Loire Valley grapes. If you want to learn more about wine, you will not regret bookmarking the Wine Folly site. The book is also nice to have on hand.

Now, shall we open a bottle and find something to eat with it?

Fortunately, my neighborhood wine shop – which specializes in French wines and is a mere two blocks walk from my house – has a nice selection from the Loire Valley. An entire shelving unit is devoted to the region, nearly the same amount of store real estate given to Burgundy.

The Loire Valley section at Bon Vin

This past weekend’s free tasting included this delicious sauvignon blanc, which came home with me.

Val de Loire Sauvignon Blanc

And one of my favorites at last week’s mega-testing was a red Loire Valley wine.

What might you eat with one of these excellent wines if you were in the Loire Valley. Recall that this region is known as “the garden of France.” Apple and pear orchards are plentiful, as well as market gardens. Hunting was the lure that drew the French aristocracy to the valley, and game is still on the menu.

I was intrigued by a recipe for eggs poached in an herbed red wine sauce, mostly because of its name. Oeufs à la couille d’âne translates to “eggs with donkey’s balls.” I can’t explain. It has something to do with the color of the finished dish. No donkey parts of any kind are present.

Another simple recipe featuring something cooked in an herb-infused liquid- this time milk – comes from Patricia Wells in her Bistro Cooking.

Enjoy!

Pommes de Terre Solognotes

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups milk
  • 1/2 cup minced fresh herbs (tarragon, thyme, parsley, chives)
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 5 whole black peppercorns
  • 2 pounds baking potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 garlic clove, halved
  • 1/2 cup crème fraîche or heavy cream
  • 1 tsp fresh thyme or 1/2 tsp dried
  • 1 cup freshly grated French or Swiss gruyère cheese

Directions:

1.Preheat the oven to 375F.
2. Combine the milk, the mixed herbs, bay leaves, and peppercorns in a saucepan. Cover and scald over medium-high heat. Remove from the heat and let steep, covered, for 10 minutes. Strain the milk into a large saucepan, discarding the herbs and peppercorns.
3. Add the potatoes to the strained milk. Cover and cook until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste; set aside.
4. Rub the inside of an oval porcelain gratin dish with the garlic. Spoon the potato mixture into the dish. Dot with the crème fraîche and sprinkle with the thyme.
5. Bake until the gratin is golden, about 45 minutes. Remove the gratin dish from the oven, and sprinkle with the grated cheese. Return to the oven and bake until the top is very crisp and golden, about 15 more minutes. Serve immediately.

Pommes de terre solognotes