Visiting the Dobree Museum in Nantes (France) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting the Dobree Museum in Nantes (France) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget


One of the most interesting museums in Nantes, France is the Dobrée Museum.  The Museum houses the collection of Thomas Dobrée, who earned his fortune in the slave and sugar trade in the nineteenth century.

There were many merchants in Nantes who had shares in “ebony wood” as the slaves were described.  The merchants, who earned their profits from the slave trade and New World products, were called “armateurs”.  The luxurious apartments and homes of the armateurs make Nantes look elegant to this day.

Dobrée was particularly rich and had his own house and not an apartment.  His family was very international.  On his maternal side, his ancestors came from Guernsey and Germany.

My favorite piece in his collection was a thirteenth century reliquary chest from the Limousin that almost looks cloisonné, but it was really wood, stamped leather, gold, and colored glass.

Most of the work in the collection was from the Middle Ages.  A Flemish holy family triptych from the sixteenth century also caught my eye.  Flemish figures have such gentle gestures in paintings.  I never realized that carved that carved ivories of religious scenes were painted until I saw a sixteenth century diptych at the Dobrée Museum, featuring the Madonna on one side and a crucified Christ on the other.

The Museum’s real treasure is Anne de Bretagne’s gold, heart-shaped reliquary from 1514, topped with a crown signifying that she was Queen of France.

I was happy to be fluent in French in this lovely Museum, because French was the only language on the exhibit labels.  This reminded me of American museums, which only give information in English.  Both countries assume that you will read their languages when seeking out their art treasures.

By Ruth Paget, Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Visiting Basel (Switzerland) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting Basel (Switzerland) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

My husband Laurent and I visited Basel, Switzerland, because it is part of the cultural region that encompasses Alsace, France and the Baden-Würtemberg region in Germany where we lived.

Switzerland is part of the Schengen Area, which allows for the free flow of travelers once you are inside Europe’s borders.  However, travelers and Swiss residents alike must post a Swiss vignette in their car windshield to prove that they have contributed to the upkeep of mountainous roads.  The vignette costs 40 Swiss Francs and is a pricey amount to put on top of your lunch outing, but the views are worth it.

Basel is Switzerland’s third largest city after Zurich and Geneva.  Bridges into the city center tower over the rolling Rhine River below that flows to Rotterdam in the Netherlands.  Basel’s port, chemical and pharmaceutical companies, and banks are its main industries.

Bank offices surround the Market Plaza downtown and showcase the Rathaus.  The Rathaus, city hall, is very German, being built in red stone with murals painted on it.  German is the language of Basel.  French, Italian, and Romansch (a Latin language) are the other three official languages of Switzerland.  However, if you do not speak German, English is the preferred lingua franca of Basel.

We ate in a restaurant directly opposite the Rathaus.  I dined like a local.  I ordered fried cervelat sausage, grated and fried rösti potatoes, salad, and hefeweizen, wheat beer.  Laurent ate freshly harvested Alpine mussels.

Cervelat is made of beef, bacon, and pork rind.  The Swiss consider it one of their national dishes.  The rösti poatatoes, fried in duck fat, are beloved by German Swiss, but not by French Swiss.  The French Swiss eat their sliced potatoes baked with milk, crème fraiche, butter, and gruyère cheese.  I think both taste good and make the French Swiss potatoes in winter.

Gruyère cheese, by the way, is French Swiss cheese.  It has no holes in it.  Emmenthal, the German Swiss cheese, has holes in it.  Emmenthal is what is known as Swiss cheese in the United States.

Basel’s most famous Swiss export, though, is Roger Federer, the seven-time Wimbledon champion and Rolex wearer.

The University of Basel, Switzerland’s oldest university founded in 1460, has produced some famous alumni as well.  Among the alumni are Carl Jung (1875 – 1961), the psychiatrist who founded analytical psychiatry, and Leonhard Euler (1707 – 1783), the mathematician and physicist, who created modern mathematical notation.

Basel invites multiple visits especially as the auto vignette is good for one year.  According to Switzerland – Culture Smart! The Essential Guide to Customs and Culture by Kendall Maycock, there are 27,000 restaurants in Switzerland, which makes this densely populated Alpine country worth the entry fee for lunch choices.

Note: For great sausage stateside, I like Aidells.)

By Ruth Paget, Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

Laurent Paget Photography

Laurent Paget Photography

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Visiting Heidelberg (Germany) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting Heidelberg (Germany) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Heidelberg, located in southwestern Germany, is famous for its university, printing presses, and Gothic castle that is perched high above the Neckar River.

Heidelberg has an important history in Germany and Europe as home to the Palatinate electors, who voted for the Holy Roman Emperor.

Charlemagne (c. 742 – 814) was crowned first Holy Roman Emperor in 800, the first Roman Emperor since the Fall of the Roman Empire.  Charlemagne is considered to be French and German.  The Germans date the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire at 962 with ascension of Otto I (912 – 973) to the throne, a wholly Germanic figure.

According to a Deutsches Historiches Museum exhibit about the Holy Roman Empire, the Empire was decentralized, multilingual, and multidenominational.  It covered Germany, Austria, and Central Europe.  This diverse cultural base of the Holy Roman Empire required adroit diplomats and politicians to hold it together.  The Germans of the Palatinate, of which Heidelberg is a political center, distinguished themselves for meeting the needs of the Empire.

The Holy Roman Emperor was elected by an elite group of churchmen and princely electors.  The position of Emperor was not hereditary; each candidate had to be a skillful politician to get elected.

The last Holy Roman Emperor was Emperor Franz II (1768 – 1835).  He abdicated the throne in 1806 and assumed just the title of Emperor of Austria as Franz I.

Heidelberg’s importance somewhat diminished with the end of the Holy Roman Empire, but one look at the solid, stone houses leading up to the castle alerts visitors to the town’s self-assuredness of its historical role in creating modern Germany and Europe.

By Ruth Paget, Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Laurent Paget Photography

Laurent Paget Photography

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Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Bavaria) - Winter Olympics Site by Ruth Paget

Visiting the Winter Olympics Game Town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Bavaria, Germany) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Garmisch-Partenkirchen, located south of Munich and straddling the Austrian border, was the site of the 1936 Winter Olympics and the World Alpine Ski Championships in 1978 according to the Michelin Touring Guide for Germany

It remains a ski resort in winter and a hikers’ paradise in summer.  Germany’s highest peak, the Zugspitze, towers above the Wetterstein Chain of the Alps here.

Brown, wooden German chalets decorated with murals on their white, outer walls are nestled in a valley below the snow-covered mountains.  The murals make the town buildings look cheerful and inviting.  People stroll and buy baked goods and Swiss watches.

You have to be a road warrior to get to all of this tranquility though.  As of June 2015, the road through Munich requires a turn at the Allianz Soccer Stadium, driving through tunnels under central Munich, and surviving snail’s pace traffic jams; plan your exit early to snake your way there by Olympic Park.

 Once you are on the outer roads leading towards Garmisch Partenkirchen there is construction with no updates to the GPS network it seems.  Once headed south, you go through one-lane roads with slow traffic and lots of tunnels under mountains.  Munich dwellers interested in skiing appear to take the ski bus and leave the driving to other people.

We usually stay at the Hotel Mercure in Garmisch Partenkirchen.  This hotel has rooms decorated in light wood with old-time skiing photographs.  Their restaurant is open all day.  The hotel is modern, but the rooms remind me of little chalet hotel rooms.

The hotel restaurant offers Bavarian specialties.  I like eating what was described to me as a Bavarian Sunday lunch favorite: pork roast with gravy, braised red cabbage that tastes sweet, and dumplings with croutons in the center.  The dumpling tasted as if it had been steamed over chicken broth.  I drink Pils beer with hearty lunches like this.

A walk is in order after a Bavarian Sunday lunch.  Bakers, restaurants, and luxurious accessory shops provide window shopping interest galore.  The stores are polished and new; very spiffy.

Garmisch Partenkirchen is a town for people whose only worries appear to be getting the day’s bread.

By Ruth Paget, Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Laurent Paget Photography

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Visiting the Tomb of William the Conqueror in Caen (France) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting the Tomb of William the Conqueror in Caen (France) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget


Caen, France is a favorite destination of American and British tourists alike but for different reasons.

The Americans come to the area to see the Normandy beaches, especially the new museum dedicated to D-Day at Utah Beach.  My husband Laurent and I visited the Utah Beach Museum on a Memorial Day weekend and also rendered homage to my English ancestors by visiting William the Conqueror’s (1028 – 1087) tomb at Abbaye aux Hommes in Caen.

William the Conqueror was the son of Robert I, Duke of Normandy.  William and his army invaded England in 1066.  William won the English throne by winning the Battle of Hastings.

William the Conqueror’s rule brought about profound changes to English culture.  William’s supporters became the new ruling class of England.  French was the language of the ruling classes, the courts, government, and high culture.  The French language has retained its lofty stature in English society; the Queen of England speaks French fluently.

William the Conqueror also commissioned the Domesday Book in 1086, which was a survey of landholders in England.  The Domesday Book is now available online.  It has a search function, which allows you to type in your family name to see if your family was recorded at this time.  I typed in my maiden name, Pennington, and found several listings for landholders, an endowed church, and a town named Pennington.  That was nifty!

A trip to Caen is nifty, too.  William the Conqueror’s wife Mathilda of Flanders (1031 – 1083) is buried about one mile away from the Abbaye aux Hommes in the Abbaye aux Dames.  There are many restaurants in Caen for all pocketbooks, which makes all the walking seem shorter.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

Photo by Laurent Paget

Photo by Laurent Paget

Photo by Laurent Paget

Ruth Paget Selfie