Gustave Flaubert: The
Normandy Resort Town Game Created by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
Introduction
I
named this touring game Gustave Flaubert, because he, Proust, and Monet all
loved the town of Trouville on the other side of the River Touques from
Deauville as a place to relax, write, eat iodine-rich seafood, and walk in
windy sea air full of salt.
Flaubert’s
books have been made into films, especially Madame Bovary, who might have been
the example for the modern date-and-ditch ploy of “ghosting.” I told my daughter when she was growing up that if this happened to her to write a screenplay and take her sorrow to the bank.
There
is much to see in Normandy. Most hotel
concierges can arrange for bus tours to Giverny, Rouen, Mont St. Michel and
World War II sites, but there are many more places to visit in Normandy that
are important to French and New World history that are not on all tour bus
routes.
Normandy
is named after the Norsemen or Vikings, who sailed down the mouth of the Seine
River in longboats like those described in Nancy Farmer’s young adult book
series The Sea of Trolls to pillage Paris and the British Isles alike.
The
Vikings finally settled in fertile Normandy and intermarried with the
“Gaulois.” Their modern-day descendants
still have blonde hair and blue eyes like the Swedish, the Norwegians, the
Finns, and the Danish.
You
can go to the Norman towns I describe in this touring game by car on the
Autoroute de Normandie, which is well-paved with pruned trees on either side of
the highway to look like rectangles – which is reminiscent of the Loire Valley
châteaux (Valois Royalty) not Versailles (Bourbon Royalty).
On
our drives out to Deauville for lunches, when we lived in Paris I liked to
listen to Jean-Michel Jarre’s albums Revolutions, Equinoxe, and Oxygène. I also liked Daniel Balavoine, Vanessa
Paradis, and the Greek singer Nana Mouskouri, who also sang in French.
Norman Resort Towns
The
3 towns that I have suggested for a week’s vacation in this game, which
includes time for shopping, include:
-Deauville
– famous for its American Film Festival, yacht club, beach boardwalk, and
casino
-Trouville
– famous for its villas in the hills, covered fish market, and restaurants
-Honfleur
– famous for its port, wood-stave Saint-Catherine Church, and port where French
New World explorers such as de Champlain and settlers of Québec departed from
Norman Souvenirs
If
you reserve-and-pick-up souvenirs, you have more time to frequent restaurants
and visit museums.
-Calvados
– apple brandy – the best one is from the Pays d’Auge. The Calvados carries an AOC designation,
which means it is made with high standards of sanitation and quality control.
-Poire
Wlliam Eau-de-Vie – their bottles have a pear in them, which means you have to
replenish the Poire William frequently, but it is a nice after-dinner drink.
-Apple
Cider – almost all French ciders have alcohol in them and are mild laxatives. French cider goes well with crêpes and some
mussel dishes are made with it.
Any
liquid you buy in France, especially alcoholic ones, will probably have to be
shipped home. You might want to buy in
stores that know about customs, shipping, and insurance. These stores are more expensive usually, but
you get what you pay for in most instances.
-Copper
cooking vessels
-restaurant-quality
cooking pots and pans for poaching fish and grilling fish and seafood platter
trays with 3-tiered shelves
-French
porcelain, crystal, silverware, and household linens – these items are not made
in Normandy, but are shipped to England through Rouen. You can find outlets for most of these items
in Deauville.
Level 1 – Deauville
Americans
going to Deauville are often delighted to find out that there is an American
film festival there like the one in Cannes, but devoted to American films.
Deauville
is a hidden resort town for Parisians that is not too far away from the
Capital. There is a yacht club in town
and a casino. The beach rents parasols, lounging
chairs, and changing cabins.
The
beachfront restaurants have clear windbreaks, so you can eat seafood platters
with raw oysters, shrimp, langoustines, mussels, and snails or roast pheasant
with cabbage if you prefer.
Wine
suggestions for the seafood platter and pheasant with cabbage:
-Chablis
(from Burgundy – varietal: Chardonnay)
-Pouilly-Fuissé
(from Burgundy – varietal: Chardonnay)
-Pouilly-Fumé
(from Nivernais – varietal: Sauvignon Blanc.
Note: a town in the Nivernais is the setting for the French flashbacks
in the film Hiroshima Mon Amour.)
Level 2 – Trouville
After
visiting Deauville, you can drive over the River Touques Bridge to Trouville.
Deauville
is a very wealthy resort whereas Trouville-sur-Mer is a less expensive one for
locals, who cook.
Trouville
is famous for the literary artists who have lived and “summered” there –
Flaubert and Proust. The Impressionist
painter Monet also created Trouville scenes for his clients, who built the
villas that line the hills above the sea.
The
villas of yesteryear’s landed-elite are now owned by corporations, who use them
for conferences and vacation homes for employees. Some of the villas may even be foundations
now and do sabbatical training for executives.
There
is a casino in Trouville (great-food-at-cheap prices destination), but it is
most famous for its covered fish market.
The
fishmongers at the fish market do very good placement marketing. Next to the day’s catch they place bottles of
white wine of varying price levels and recipe cards. I learned how to match and pair fish dishes
with wine by shopping here on the weekend.
I
have a cookbook listed at the end of this game for the dishes suggested here,
but the following are some of the fish dishes you might want to try in a hotel
with cooking facilities. The wines I
listed for the Deauville restaurant foods go with these dishes, too, with the exception of champagne to go with
the stuffed turbot:
-Stuffed
turbot with champagne sauce
-Hake
with forest mushrooms
-Oysters
cooked with brut cider
Level 3 – Honfleur
If
you turn right at the ocean, you can drive along the seacoast to reach
Honfleur. Honfleur is located where the
Seine River meets the English Channel.
Monet and Courbet both painted scenes of Honfleur.
The
town is a shipping port with no beach.
Ships from Honfleur took French settlers to Québec (Canada – Samuel de
Champlain was the explorer).
Nice
dinners for Honfleur include:
-Sole
Meunière – sole dredged in a thin coating of flour and sautéed in butter with
lemon squeezed on top of it. This dish
is served with steamed potatoes with chopped parsley. The British like this dish, too.
-Mussels
steamed with white wine, shallots, and a tablespoon or two of crème fraîche to
make moules poulardes
I
would drink a slightly sweet white wine with both of the dishes above such as:
-Vouvray
(from the Loire Valley – varietal: Chenin Blanc)
-Montlouis
(from the Loire Valley – varietal: Chenin Blanc)
Trip Preparation
Reference Books
-The
Cuisine of Normandy: French Regional Cooking with Princess Marie-Blanche de
Broglie
(The
recipes I have mentioned are listed in this book’s index. She writes her cookbook using menus by
season.)
-Calvados:
The Spirit of Normandy by Charles Neal
-Gustave
Flaubert’s novels
-Marguerite
Duras’s novels – she spent vacations in the region as well
By
Ruth Pennington Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
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