Books

Rosé in Marseille

Nous sommes en France ! (We are in France).

Warning: a few tourist photos below. Otherwise, I’ll share with you my initial cultural observations–mostly ecological–of our first 24 hours in France after 5 years away.

The most arduous part of the travel is behind us. We flew direct from Raleigh to Paris, then took a connecting flight to Marseille. From the Marseille airport, we caught a bus to the central city and walked about half an hour to our hotel, where we gratefully unloaded our bags and set out to explore France’s oldest city before a very early bedtime.

And of course, we got wine.

Un pichet of rosé, or about 2/3 of a bottle, was 9.50 euros.

We are in Marseille for less than 48 hours, and nearly half of that may be spent sleeping (jet lag). I had hoped to visit the Chateau d’If, which fans of Alexandre Dumas’ masterpiece novel “The Count of Monte Cristo” will recognize as the fortress in which hero Edmond Dantes was wrongfully imprisoned. Unfortunately, the Chateau is closed due to a problem with its electricity, so I had to admire it from the old port of Marseille.

This is probably as close as I will get to Edmond Dantes, aside from walking the streets where he fictionally lived.

The moored “Edmond Dantes” ferry.

Maybe next time.

And we need to make sure we have a next time. Marseille is a gorgeous city full of history and fabulous Mediterranean breezes. Two days is not enough time to explore, especially for jet-lagged travelers.

It’s a tourist cliché to eat bouillabaisse in Marseille, but we are tourists.

Eco France

For me, the primary cultural amenity of France is the pleasure of being a pedestrian here. France has cars, of course. But the cars don’t dominate urban spaces the way they do in the United States.

Marseille’s main street — La Canebière — is a wide pedestrian boulevard. Many other streets in central Marseille also are pedestrian-only, perhaps because most cars would not fit, at least not with two-way traffic. Even where the cars are allowed, pedestrian safety is assisted with clear signage and motorists who seem to understand to yield. Bikes and scooters also are popular.

La Canebière.

We’ll be spending a month in Montpellier, a city we first visited five years ago. We loved its public transit and pedestrian city center. At the end of this year, Montpellier will make its excellent transit system free for all residents in an effort to reduce carbon emissions.

They turn the lights off more here. Lighting hallways “as needed’ rather than continuously is not a new thing in Europe. I remember on our first trip, in 1987, having to learn the locations of the hallway lights in our hotel in Germany. The corridors were kept in darkness except when in use, when we could turn on a timed light just long enough to reach our door. The corridor of our Marseille apartment hotel has a motion-detector light. Such a simple thing to save energy and it doesn’t result in any inconvenience.

Appliances don’t have to take up so much space. I’m enchanted with the stovetop-oven-dishwasher combo in our apartment. I won’t be here long enough to use it; perhaps the apartment in Montpellier where we’ll spend the next four weeks will have a similar arrangement. This all-in-one appliance has me rethinking my desire to enlarge my kitchen in Traverse City. Maybe I need less kitchen, not more.

Induction cooktop, big-enough oven and dishwasher.

The refrigerator, which we could call “dorm sized” in the States, is built into a cabinet. In a city where fresh food is just steps away, it’s also big enough.

Health warnings on television food advertisements. This is not what you may be thinking! We’re used to health warnings on U.S. commercials — mostly about all the ways the drug being advertised might kill or maim the user. Here, snack food ads have disclaimers at the bottom of the screen, warning people not to eat between meals and reminding them to eat at least five servings of fruit and veg each day. Curious, I looked up this practice, which has been a law in France since 2007. I don’t think I turned on the TV last time I was here so I didn’t notice.

Cell phone service is cheaper here. This isn’t an eco thing, just a perplexing thing. In the U.S., my Verizon plan is $150/month for three lines and 2G of shared data (the shared data plan is no longer offered; if I have to switch to unlimited, it will be at least $30/month more). Here, I bought an eSim card with 3G of data for a month for $10. Leah purchased a Sim card with 15G of data and a French phone number for $20. Is Verizon ripping me off? It sure feels like it.

That’s all for now. Tomorrow we go to Arles, the Van Gogh city, where we’ll meet up with our Michigan friend, Madeleine.

When in French

I recently finished a book that surprised and delighted me so much that I need to share.

For a couple of years, I’ve received New Yorker writer Lauren Collins’ e-mail newsletter and followed her on Twitter, but I never intended to read her book, When in French: Love in Second Language. I assumed (falsely) it would be a personal memoir about her love life, maybe a more realistic version of “Emily in Paris.” (I knew from Collins’ Twitter feed of her scorn for Emily.) A couple of weeks ago, stopping by the public library near my winter home, I saw a stack of these books on a table and picked it up on a whim. (One great thing about the library: if you don’t like a book, simply return it with no remorse.)

No one resembling the fictional Emily is in this tale and neither is Paris. The setting is primarily Geneva, where Collins relocates with her new husband and begins to learn his language. The couple met in London and fell in love in English. Although the relationship provides the raison d’être for the book, the story is primarily a deep dive into the role of language in our lives and culture.

Collins explores the mysteries of language and how it has fascinated philosophers, academics and some oddball characters through the centuries. She is particularly attuned to considering how language influences individual thought and behavior as well as the culture in which it is spoken. Although her direct experience is in English and French, she draws from a broad range of encounters, contemporary and historic, highlighting consequences from amusing to tragic that have occurred when languages collide.

Collins relates her personal experiences of French acquisition reshaping her relationships and interactions. Centrally, learning her husband’s language reduced their misunderstandings and provided a crucial window into his psyche. As she progresses in her French classes, she begins to pick out fragments of his conversation with others. One evening she is listening to him speak to his brother on the phone and notices his use of the word quoi to punctuate sentences. “Even as it dawns on me that I may have pledged lifelong devotion to a man who ends every sentence with the equivalent of ‘dude,’ I’m taken by an eerie joy. Four years after having met Olivier, I’m hearing his voice for the first time.”

Out in the wider world, Collins’ perceptions also change. For example, her American egalitarian background initially caused her to recoil at the French distinction between the familiar and the formal: “The necessity of classifying each person one came across as vous or tu, outsider or insider, potential foe or friend, seemed at best a pomposity and at worst an act of paranoia.” Eventually this dissonance reverses: “The correctness that French requires revealed itself as not vanity but courtesy, guaranteeing that every person, however weak or humble, commanded a measure of respect.” She relates hearing a Homeland Security officer address an older man ahead of her in line at arrivals in New York and that his “undifferentiated English ‘you’ hit me like a bludgeon.”

Cultural differences not related to language are also observed. One in particular will strike at the heart of American moms. Towards the end of the book, Collins gives birth to her first child. Her description of the standard services provided by the Swiss hospital are almost too much to bear for those accustomed to U.S. healthcare. The coup de grace: on the day after her daughter’s birth, an aesthetician arrives in her hospital room to offer her a pedicure, manicure, foot massage or hair style, a soin postnatal to which every new mother is entitled “to help her feel more like herself.”

Finally, one of my favorite tales in this book doesn’t involve language at all. Lauren and Olivier rent a house in Corsica for a week and bring their families together for a vacation. The American contingent doesn’t speak any French, and some of the French contingent doesn’t speak English. But they are all in, ready to embrace each other in their differences and commonalities. Olivier has informed his family that the Americans typically eat breakfast by grabbing leftovers from the fridge while standing in the kitchen. His French parents proceed to the kitchen, gamely prepared to try the American custom. Meanwhile, Lauren’s parents are on the patio, seated at the table and ready for petit dejeuner in the French manner. The French custom prevails as it has attracted converts and really, who wouldn’t prefer baguettes, coffee and conversation at table?

I’m reluctant to return this book to the library. (I will! I will! I can never be even one day late). But perhaps I’ll buy a copy so I can read it again, and again.

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

Trim away excess fat from the chicken legs. Dry well and rub with salt and pepper.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

French women: not so fat

A book I read and re-read every time I need a little inspiration to get myself properly aligned with the universe is French Women Don’t Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano. Thinking of it as a diet-advice book misses its usefulness as an exercise in practical philosophy. The book is really about breaking free of the “diet” trap and embracing the pleasure of a proper meal, accompanied with a glass of wine or champagne.

Guiliano is a French woman who has lived most of her adult life in the United States. Before writing the book, she was president and CEO of Cliquot, Inc., the U.S. branch of the renowned champagne house. In New York, she writes, “my business requires me to eat in restaurants about three hundred times a year.” She is well-positioned to contrast the French way of eating with the American one.

Of course, French women do get fat, but not nearly as much as American women. Obesity rates in France are about half of those in the United States. While I couldn’t find statistics, my personal observation is that morbid obesity is rare in France.

Previously I listed some of the French characteristics in a little slideshow. If you noticed, none of them involved carb-counting or fat-shunning or food bans of any sort. They all focus on style.

While Guiliano obviously endorses French dietary practices, she doesn’t chastise Americans for succumbing to snack foods and oversized portions. She’s been there, done that, and she recovered with the help of some sensible French advisors, notably a family physician she calls “Dr. Miracle.”

Guiliano is not a nutritionist and she doesn’t pretend to present a medically-endorsed health plan. Most of the book is about how to eat, how to savor food and find pleasure in mealtime, with modest portions. She emphasizes quality, which makes excessive quantity superfluous.

Aside from a few recipes , the only content that resembles a “plan” in the usual pattern of the diet book genre is a recommendation for a phase Guiliano calls “recasting.” That process begins with three weeks of journaling and then a weekend mini-fast, eating only boiled leeks and their cooking liquid. In this, my fourth reading of the book, I’m trying the “Magical Leek Soup” kick start for the first time. After a severe winter that derailed some of my good French practices, I need an extra boost. So this is what I’ve been eating all day, and continuing through tomorrow.

There is indeed something magical about it, and it goes to the heart of the French food philosophy. At breakfast, the boiled leek was decidedly inferior to my usual toast and egg. At midday, it was a remedy for hunger. But at dinner, every bite was delicious as my palate had attuned to the pure taste of a simple vegetable simply cooked.

Still, I’ll be happy to enjoy a more substantial dinner tomorrow, and a glass or two of wine this weekend.

Pays de la Loire, du vin

We began this virtual tour de France nearly three months ago, and for the first time on our journey, we have arrived in wine country.

That seems hard to believe considering the importance of French wine in the world market and, bien sûr, to the French. However, wine has not been commercially produced in every part of France, and the regions bordering the English Channel – the focus of our first three months – are those traditionally without a wine industry.

This week’s video.

The wine map of France is expanding, thanks to the European Union’s liberalization of French rules that previously restricted where vines could be planted. Still, the regions with wines likely to be exported and available in your local wine shop are those from the prominent regions, with Champagne being the most northern of those.

French_vineyards.svg: *France_blank.svg: Eric Gaba (Sting – fr:Sting)derivative work: Sdaubert (talk)derivative work: Furfur [CC BY-SA 2.5 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)]

The Loire Valley is the area in neon green on the map above, and it happens to produce some of the best wine in France. With dozens of appellations (legally defined wine-growing areas), the Loire Valley is one of France’s largest and most varied wine-production regions. Diverse styles of white wine dominate, but excellent reds – particularly from the cabernet franc grape – are produced as well. Other grapes grown in the area include cabernet sauvignon, chenin blanc, chardonnay, and sauvignon blanc.

DalGobboM¿!i? [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

Link to the map above, for zooming in.

This is a big region covering two stops on our tour de France. This week, we’re in the Pays de la Loire, the lower river valley closest to the Atlantic Ocean. I wanted to try a wine from Saumur, mostly because I’m a book nerd and I previously read Balzac’s Eugénie Grandet, which was set in Saumur. As it turned out, the wine I purchased was an excellent accompaniment for the fish I prepared to celebrate the Pays de Loire.

First up, the main course, or le plat principal. I wanted to highlight beurre blanc sauce, which is a butter sauce invented about a century ago by a chef near Nantes and is now a classic of French cuisine. I baked some whitefish in foil to serve as a base for the sauce. The wine’s acidity was the proper contrast with the richness of the butter. It was as if the wine and the sauce were made to go together, and perhaps they were! This is why we often choose a wine from the same region as the food.

Many, many variations of beurre blanc sauce exist, with recipes readily available on the internet. We are a household of three adults, so the following recipe – which I adapted from numerous sources – was just right, although it was so delicious we all could have stuffed ourselves senseless with it.

Poisson au beurre blanc

4 to 8 oz filets of whitefish per person
olive oil
sprigs of fresh herbs, such as rosemary
salt and pepper
foil or parchment paper
2 tsp minced shallots
1/4 cup white wine (I used the Saumur)
1 stick butter, chopped into about 1-inch cubes
1-2 Tbsp heavy cream

Beure blanc with some slightly overcooked shallots

Prepare all of your ingredients – mise en place (everything in its place). Heat the oven to 425F. Place each filet on a piece of foil large enough to fold into a packet. Brush or rub each piece of fish with olive oil, salt and pepper and a tablespoon or more of fresh herbs. Fold the foil or parchment over the fish and crimp the edges to seal, then place on a cookie sheet or roasting pan and bake for about 15 minutes. If it finishes before the sauce, keep it warm in the foil until ready to serve.

While the fish is baking, heat a little oil in a saucepan, low to medium heat, just enough to cook the shallots. Try not to let them brown too much, but if you get distracted like I did and nearly let them burn, don’t panic – the sauce will still be good. It has butter and wine in it, after all.

Add the wine to the shallots and let it cook down until almost completely evaporated. At this point, add the cream and cook a little more. Let it get thick but do not boil. Now turn off the heat and start whisking or stirring in the butter, little by little. You can put the pan back on the heat to help the butter, but you want to keep the sauce under 130F. Finally, add salt and pepper to taste, then enjoy over the fish.

Russian Salad

To accompany the fish, I made a salad that is definitely not traditional for France. But with all the references to Russia along the banks of the Loire from last week’s video, I felt inspired to make one of my favorite salads.

Again, many versions of this Russian salad are available. I used this one, with a bag of frozen peas (cooked in the microwave) instead of the canned.

And the finished meal is below. Trust me, it tastes much better than it looks. My food photography needs improvement.

Pays de la Loire

So, when we were planning this project of a year-long “visit” to all of the regions of France, we first had to define our regions. Would we use the administrative regions that have existed since 2016, or the regions from 1982 to 2016, or even the historic provinces? Ultimately, thinking of the project in culinary terms, we decided on a blend that made sense to us and worked for our schedule.

Some of our regions are old school, some are cultural and some – like Pays de la Loire -reflect the current administrative boundaries.

This region, along with the Centre-Val de Loire, is called the “Garden of France” and probably is most famous for its fabulous chateaux. During the Renaissance, the French royal court shifted to the Loire Valley, where kings and wealthy courtiers constructed these elaborate palaces that are now among the top tourist attractions in France.

Château de Saumur in Saumur, France. CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=375340

Last year, when we were planning a real visit to France, a cycling trip to the Loire Valley had been on our agenda. Then April in Michigan happened (more blizzards) and we decided to go as far south in France as possible, so most of our 2018 trip was spent along the Mediterranean. Cycling the Loire Valley remains an unrealized goal, and one we hope to accomplish on our next visit.

The most visited Loire chateaux are in the Centre-Val de Loire region, so we’ll take up this topic again when we “go” there in two weeks.

Meanwhile, the Pays de la Loire offers a transition from last week’s visit to Bretagne (Brittany) because part of it is historically and culturally Breton.

This week’s video

The capital of the region and the sixth-largest city in France, Nantes is culturally and historically part of Brittany. The Dukes of Brittany made it their primary residence, and their castle is one of the top attractions of the city.

By ChateauDesDucsDeBretagne20090906.jpeg: Plindenbaumderivative work: Paravane (talk) – ChateauDesDucsDeBretagne20090906.jpeg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15897849

Nantes was a major port for the slave trade in the 18th century. A meditative public park commemorates the victims of this disturbing time in French history and also highlights ongoing global struggles against slavery.

Nantes is now considered one of the best cities in France for quality of life, and a particularly appealing destination for a family vacation with kids, although it is in no danger of eclipsing Disneyland Paris (seriously, on our Paris-Dublin flights last year, every kid on board was either going to or coming from Disneyland).

Jules Verne was born in Nantes, and city pays homage to the pioneering novelist with an amusement park inspired by his adventure stories. Les Machines de L’Île looks like fun for kids of all ages. Who wouldn’t want to take a ride in a mechanical elephant or a giant bug on a carousel?

Duch [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

Sailing upriver from Nantes (and a river barge trip is a popular way to see the Loire, with many operators offering excursions), you will find a unique, quirky and nearly unknown attraction on the isle of Chalonnes-sur-Loire. Le Lenin Cafe is a museum to the Soviet founder and a celebration of revolutionary ideals. The establishment offers food, music and accommodations in accordance with its principles of resistant tourism. There is no information in English on this place.

Continuing on upstream, we come to another area of historical importance. Angers was the original seat of the Plantagenet dynasty that ruled England and parts of France for three centuries. Again, I’ll recommend historian Dan Jones’ fascinating book The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England. We will continue to meet up with them in our tour.

At the eastern edge of the region, we come to the large and important village of Saumur. Its wine trade provided the setting for Honoré de Balzac’s novel Eugénie Grandet, an excellent novel (albeit hard to find in print) capturing provincial life in early 19th century France.

Saumur brings us (finally!) deep into a French wine-growing region, which we’ll explore next week in the culinary edition.

FrancoFile Friday: Français en Caroline du Nord

The French, they are everywhere.

A restless and curious people, the French have explored and inhabited nearly every part of our planet, spreading French language and culture wherever they journey. Sometimes this influence has been unwelcome (see colonialism). But today, hooking up with French culture is usually a pleasant experience.

Recently, we were on vacation in North Carolina and we found a treasure trove of French experiences. Of course, French restaurants and eateries are plentiful, as expected. Even in the suburb of Cary, we stumbled upon two crêperie food trucks in the same parking lot.

One of my favorite stops for years has been the La Farm French bakery in Cary. It is far from a well-kept secret; wait times for brunch on the weekends can be long, but the take-out queue moves fast for those getting bread or pastries to go.

If you speak or are learning French, eventually you may want to read a book en français. One of three French bookstores in the United States is located in Raleigh. We visited Des Livres & Delices and were impressed at the large selection – classics, contemporary literature, history, travel guides and more. The shop, located near Five Points, also includes a small French grocery and offers online sales and shipping.

Another enchanting stop was about an hour west of Raleigh in the small town of Pittsboro. A French-American couple (he’s from France, she’s from North Carolina) opened the eclectic shop French Connections nearly 20 years ago in an old house on Pittsboro’s main street.

Whimsical art on the lawn of French Connections, Pittsboro, N.C.

Inside, owners Jacques and Wendy Dufour have collected a delightful gallery of fabrics and art to share France and Africa with North Carolina.

The gorgeous fabrics made me vow to learn to use my sewing machine.

The couple also lived in Senegal. African handicrafts, art and textiles fill two large rooms of the shop.

For the Francophiles who want to gather, Raleigh has an active chapter of Alliance Française, offering weekly activities and special events. It is connected with a language school for children and adults wanting to learn French.

And for conversation, each city in the Triangle has a French Meetup group.

First FrancoFile Friday video.

We hope you enjoyed our first FrancoFile Friday post. This will be an occasional thing whenever we find something non-regional we want to share, so check back regularly.

On Monday, we’ll take you to the region of Pays de la Loire, which is not just for wine and chateaux!

Degemer mat à Bretagne

That was Brançais. (Breton + French, I’m coining the term.) It means welcome to Brittany!

Brittany (Bretagne in French, Breizh in Breton) may be the least French region of France. The Celtic history of this northwestern peninsula has left a unique and fascinating legacy of culture and language, albeit endangered in modern times.

Human ancestors have lived in Brittany since the Stone Age. Many prehistoric sites can be visited today, including the Carnac stones.

Carnac stones. Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

Prior to the Roman conquest of Gaul, the area that is now Brittany was inhabited by five Celtic tribes. This population, largely rural, retained its culture during the Roman era. Later, near the end of the 4th century, Celtic peoples from Wales and the southwest of England migrated to the region. It is from this migration that the region derives its name.

For more on the history of Brittany, Encyclopedia Brittanica has a nice overview, and of course, Wikipedia.

By French standards, Brittany is a rugged, out-of-the-way destination. It’s off the beaten path for tourists as well, and that’s the tourists’ loss. Brittany has natural and cultural attractions that make for a great vacation or permanent residence. With a third of France’s coastline, many marine animals and birds can be seen along the shore and the hundreds of islands off the mainland. Inland, the land is forested, hilly and characterized by small villages, often highly picturesque. The principal cities are Nantes and Rennes, the latter of which has been listed as the best city in France for foreigners to live.

Dol-de-Bretagne. Schorle [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)]

Language

As discussed in this week’s video, Brittany has a Celtic native language, although it is in rapid decline. Efforts are underway to revive Breton, but today’s speakers are almost all elderly. Still, if you travel to Brittany, you may see a few road signs in Breton.

The ancient walled town of Saint Malo is Brittany’s most-visited attraction. It is also the setting for one of my favorite novels -indeed, a favorite novel of many readers – the Pulitzer-Prize winning All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. Set during World War II, this moving story of two teenagers caught in war on opposite sides is one I highly recommend.

And, if you are at all tempted to visit or relocate to Brittany, pick up the charming memoir I’ll Never Be French by Mark Greenside, a New Yorker who moved to Brittany with his girlfriend. She left, he stayed, and he recounts his experiences integrating into a Breton village. He is grateful for the warmth and generosity of his neighbors, who welcome him and rescue him from numerous mishaps.

Finally, Honoré de Balzac set one of his novels in Brittany. Les Chouans is out of print in English, but you can find it for online to download for free.

Our video this week, with a special guest.

Next week, we’ll take a look at some of the food of Brittany. There will be crêpes!

Haute-Normandie, part 1

CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73699

In 2016, France reorganized its administrative regions, combining Haute-Normandie (Upper) and Basse-Normandie (Lower) into a unified Normandie, to the delight of its inhabitants. But we’re keeping the division for our tour de France because it’s a large region with much to share.

Normandy owes its name to its association in the late dark ages with Viking raiders, or Norsemen. We’ll explore the invasions to and from Normandy in part 3.

For now, we take a look at the rich contributions to art and literature, beginning in the ancient city of Rouen, the region’s capital. Located on the River Seine, it was founded by the Gauls and has served as a center for many dynasties, including the Merovingians, the Dukes of Normandy and Anglo-Norman kingdoms.

Rouen. DXR [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

Rouen boasts beautifully-preserved half-timbered houses and other delights of medieval architecture. The Gros-Horloge is a 14th-century astronomical clock and one of the oldest mechanisms in France.

The Cathédrale de Rouen is among its most famous attractions and was painted by Claude Monet.

Cathédrale de Rouen. Yoyo6507 [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

Normandy gave birth to the Impressionist art movement. In the 1870s, Monet named his hazy painting of the sea at Le Havre “Impression, soleil levant” (Impression, sunrise), and that became the name of the style of painting by free-thinking artists of the late 19th century seeking to capture scenes of nature and everyday life.

Impression, soleil levant. Claude Monet [Public domain]

Initially met with derision by the art world, the Impressionists now are beloved. Monet was their leader and the countryside of Normandy a favorite subject. Monet’s home and beautiful gardens at Giverny are a top tourism draw.

Monet’s garden at Giverny. Art Anderson [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

Other famous French people, and even an English king, were born in Rouen. Joan of Arc was tried and burned at the stake here.

Notable from a writer’s perspective is the city’s contribution to literature. Gustave Flaubert hailed from Rouen. His debut novel, Madame Bovary, which is credited with establishing modern realist narration, is set in Rouen and the nearby countryside. (See this week’s video for our take on a couple of Bovary films.)

Another literary Norman was Flaubert’s protégé, short story master Guy de Maupassant. One of his stories, The Englishman of Etretat, was inspired by a dramatic incident involving the near drowning of English poet Algernon Charles Swinburne, who had taken refuge on the Normandy coast from the constraints of Victorian society. A very flowery account of Swinburne’s ordeal in the surf and its aftermath, along with de Maupassant’s role in it, is a fascinating read, with a cameo appearance by Oscar Wilde. Victor Hugo, who spent significant time in the area, also contributes to the tale.

Algernon Charles Swinburne. Balliol College Portraits: 139 Oil on canvas, 18×13, 1860. Poole number 74

With the exhaustive list of “must-sees” in Normandy, a month seems insufficient for a trip there, even a virtual one. We’ll try our best to provide an enticing overview in our four week stop. Join us next week for some tasty recipes, and don’t even think about counting calories!

La cuisine de Picardie

Last week, we ended our look at Picardie’s culture with an introduction to its extraordinary native son, Alexandre Dumas. This week, we begin our exploration of Picardie cuisine with Dumas. Perhaps one reason we love the French so much is that it seems every French person, regardless of profession, is obligated to contribute to the cuisine. Dumas was no exception.

Dumas is famous for his novels, notably The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, but the last great work of his life was the massive Grand Dictionhnaire de Cuisine, a volume of 600,000 words published posthumously in 1873. According to the publisher of the abridged English translation, Dumas on Food, it was for this work that Dumas wished to be remembered.

As with many French persons, Dumas viewed the entire world of foodstuffs as his eminent domain. He provided descriptions, anecdotes, stories and recipes of foods across the globe, some discovered on his travels. It is a fascinating first-hand account of the gourmet habits of a 19th century French gentleman. [Note: If you wish to read this book, you will need to track down a copy in the used book market as it is unfortunately out of print.]

I have not seen Dumas’ original work, so I can’t know what was omitted in the abridged version. Perhaps he wrote extensively on the food of his boyhood and the editors chose not to include it. Nevertheless, the dishes that are now considered the icons of Picardie cuisine are not described by this most famous native son.

Fortunately, you have me to look them up.

And unfortunately, some can not be easily replicated outside their place of origin.

Unless you are one of those people who can obtain what she wants wherever she happens to be, you will need to go to Picardie to try agneau de pré-salé, lamb that feeds in the salt water marshes of the Baie de Somme and is prized for its unique flavor.

Also, you probably need to go to Amiens to sample its special pâté en croûte of a boned duck baked in pastry. I’ll be doing a hacked version here since I do not have the skills or patience to try the original and I highly doubt I’ll find it on a restaurant menu stateside.

However, easily accessible to the home cook is the delicious almond cookie of Amiens, a simple cake with chantilly cream, and a crêpe dish that could be described as French enchiladas.

More photos are on this week’s video episode.

First up is that hard thing, the pâté en croûte. Amiens, the premiere city of Picardie, is known for its version of this French classic. My old edition of the Larousse Gastronomique has a recipe, but otherwise most of the instructions I found for making it were in French. I’m sure the effort is well worth it, but I settled for a cheaper and less time-consuming version.

My pâté en croûte, after the first slice.

Start this two days in advance, or at least very early on the day before you plan to serve it. Basically, you’re chilling the filling and the dough for several hours.

The Superb and Rustic Pâté en Croûte

adapted from a recipe by Yohan Lastre in Let’s Eat France

Cook’s note: The original recipe used a combination of chicken breasts, chicken thighs, pork tenderloin and pork belly. My market didn’t have pork belly, so I used more tenderloin, but I’m certain the pork belly would have made it richer with the extra fat. Also, 1350g of total meat was a little too much for my pan; 1kg would have sufficed. And I only needed half the gelatin recipe.

160 g unsalted butter
1 egg
1 pinch sugar
1 tsp salt
50 g water
250 g all-purpose flour

Melt the butter, let it cool, then beat it with the remaining ingredients for 20 seconds. Knead it until a dough forms, wrap in plastic and refrigerate overnight. The next day, roll it into a large rectangle that can line a greased 9×5 loaf pan, about 1/2 inch thick. Place the dough in the greased pan.

Cook’s note: I highly recommend bakeware from the USA Pan company. You don’t even need to butter or oil these pans.

650 g boneless, skinless chicken thighs, ground or chopped finely
350 g pork tenderloin, ground or chopped finely
350 g pork belly
28 g sea salt
freshly ground black pepper (about 15 turns of the mill, maybe 1 tsp)
1 pinch spice blend (I used garam masala)
1/3 cup white wine, vermouth, brandy or port. (I used vermouth and sherry.)
120 g shelled pistachios

Combine all and refrigerate, wrapped, overnight. The next day, after lining the loaf pan with the crust, add this filling. Bake for about 25 minutes at 400F, then lower the heat to 275F and baked until the center is 149F on an instant read thermometer.

While the pâté is cooking, make the gélee.

1 pkg gelatin
4.5 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1/4 cup port

Melt the gelatin in the warm broth, then stir in the port.

Remove the pâté from the oven and fill it with some of the warm gélee. Repeat this step about four or five times in 30 minute intervals. Refrigerate the pâté and any remaining gelée overnight.

The next day, heat the remaining gelée and pour over the top of the pâté. Refrigerate until set. To unmold, gently warm the tin in the oven to loosen the crust from the pan. Slice and serve.

macarons d’amiens

Now that we’ve gotten the hard one out of the way, let’s go for the easiest. These little cookies are simple, delicious and gluten-free! Another treat from Amiens, they just require a little forethought as the dough needs to chill.

There are several recipes on the internet. I used this one, but I forgot to brush the cookies with the egg yolk.

ficelle picarde

A newer entry (circa 1950s) into the cuisine de Picardie is this dish that reminds me of enchiladas. I made it to great acclaim, even from our French houseguest who had never before tried it (he’s from the south of France). I used this recipe, substituting white wine for the lemon juice and using emmantaler cheese.

gâteau battu

A sweet ending or an afternoon snack with tea, this cake is not difficult to make and uses pantry ingredients. It’s almost more of a bread than a cake, and it is traditionally eaten with jam. In Picardie, it is baked in a mold that resembles a chef’s hat, but lacking such a thing, I happily discovered I could approximate the effect with my English pudding pan, thus creating another role for that aside from the annual extravaganza that is Nigella’s Christmas Pudding.

The gâteau also provided a nice base for a dollop of chantilly cream, a classic version of whipped cream originating from the Picardie town of the same name.

There are so many dishes from Picardie that I read about but did not have time to try this week, and now we’re off to Normandy. I feel like I need to move to France and do this over a decade, at least!

À bientôt !

Tag: Books

Rosé in Marseille

Like this:

When in French

Like this: