Flaubert: The Normandy Resort Town Game Created by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

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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