Visiting the French
Limousin Region and the Limoges Porcelain Museum with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
On
a long holiday weekend for the Catholic holiday of Ascension, my husband
Laurent, toddler Florence, and I set out for the French Limousin region in the
South of France.
The
French Limousin is full of forests and has soil that is rich in kaolin, used to
make porcelain dishes such as those from Bernardaud and Haviland.
We
passed by oversized, reddish brown Limousin cows lounging by the Vienne
River. These cows are called Limousin
cows. I wondered if Limousin cows were
at the origin for the name “Limousine.”
Golden
Limousin oak trees lined our way. The
wood from these trees is used to make barrels for aging cognac.
The
houses in the Limousin had rose- to clay-colored stone topped off with the
orange, half-moon tiles you see on the Mediterranean Seaboard.
At
a small village along a country highway, we turned in to a cluster of houses
where several members of Laurent’s extended family lived.
We
ate lunch at Laurent’s great-aunt’s home, who brought out champagne and flutes
before we ate a lunch of several vegetable appetizers, a salad with smoked
salmon and eggs, and a selection of cheese served with butter and baguettes.
After
lunch, we set out along the Vienne River again and went to St. Junien where we
would be staying at a local hotel called Le Boeuf Rouge, the Red Cow.
The
name must have inspired us to go to McDonalds for dinner. There was a crowd at McDonalds, pronounced
“McDough” in French slang. In Detroit,
we called McDonalds “MickyD’s.”
Next
morning, we went to the Leclerc grocery store to buy our breakfast. French grocery stores bake a lot of their own
croissants and baguettes, so this is not really a second-class dining option.
The
aroma of baked bread made the supermarket smell wonderful. We bought cinnamon rolls, chocolate
croissants, and baguettes and made hot chocolate in our hotel room.
I
gussied Florence up for lunch at the great-aunt’s. We had the same lunch as the day before minus
the champagne. It was a delicious menu
the second day as well.
After
lunch, Laurent, toddler Florence, and I went to the Adrien Dubouché Museum.
This
Museum holds large porcelain, faience, and earthenware collections. The basic differences between these kinds of
tableware follow:
-porcelain
– ceramic made by heating clay with kaolin at high temperatures
-faience
– tin-glazed earthenware pottery like Faenza ware from Northern Italy
-earthenware
– pottery made of fired clay and glazed, making it waterproof
The
discovery of kaolin in 1768 in France made it possible to make hard porcelain like
that found in the Far East.
Originally,
Sèvres outside Paris was the main location for making porcelain, but after the
First Empire, Limoges was chosen as the principal manufacturing site, because
it had kaolin as well as wood for furnaces.
By
Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
 |
| Ruth Paget Selfie |
