Visiting Salvador Dali's Home Town in Figueres, Spain and the Dali Museum (Monterey, CA) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting Salvador Dali's Home Town in Figueres (Spanish Catalonia) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Figueres, Spain is a nearby outing in the Catalan Pyrenees mountains from Barcelona or the Languedoc-Rousillon region of Spain.

Figueres is sought out, because it is the childhood home of Spanish artist Salvador Dali (1904 – 1989), and the site of the Dali Theater and Museum.  The Surrealist exhibition and performance space was converted from a Neoclassical building built by Jose Roca i Bros in 1850.  According to Michelin’s Guide Vert Rousillon Pays Cathar, the glass cupola over the theater was built by Emilio Perez Piñero.

I like Dali’s satiric and critical artwork, but I also went to Figueres with my husband to help Spain’s economy.  When we visited in the summer of 2015, official youth unemployment hovered around 50%.

The Spanish are working themselves out of this fiscal crisis by maximizing attendance at tourist venues I think.  We arrived at the Dali Museum at opening time and the line wound around the streets with an hour wait.  Busloads of tourists were loading more people into the streets.  It is okay to wait when you are part of a group and the distress is part of the trip story experience.  I was already considering a postcard visit.

I was a little distressed by the admission price.  The Guide Vert listed admission at 13 euros.  The Museum’s website listed admission at 14 euros.   The price listed with a sign posted at the Museum’s door was 20 euros.  You could get into the Louvre with a few more euros added to the 20 euros.  Dali would have loved this huckstering to get the economy back in shape.

I wanted to spend my money on souvenirs, so I said, “Let’s just get pictures to say we’ve been here” to my husband.  He agreed, because he was probably thinking of what parking was costing us.

The decoration of the Dali Museum is wonderful for photos.  Dali topped the Neoclassical building with large egg sculptures and put pastry puff decorations on an orange background to make it appear fairy-like.  It was a great photo op.  We discovered a way to reserve tickets several months in advance if you speak Spanish or Catalan, too, on the side of the Museum rarely stopped at by tourists running to get in line.

Then, we went to some souvenir shops.  The paucity of choices attested to the bad state of the Spanish economy.  Only posters, calendars, and postcards were on sale.  We bought calendars and many postcards. 

I bought a postcard of Dali’s The Temptation of Saint Anthony.  It is not at Figueres, but in the Royal Art Museum in Brussels, Belgium.  (I have seen it.  Temptation, as usual, takes the form of a nude woman.)  Art books and guidebooks are expensive to produce.  T-shirts are relatively expensive to make in a depressed economy.

I thought of something that might boost the local economy, though, as we went back to the parking garage.  My idea deals with beating the heat, hydrating tourists in sweltering weather, and feeding tourists; sell chilled, bottled gazpacho vegetable soup along the line to get in the museum.

Make the bottles plastic to avoid breakage problems.  You can also recycle plastic for money.  Roving refrigerated carts could sell the gazpacho like ice cream carts do in Hispanic neighborhoods in California.  Eventually, other tourist items and recycle carts could be added.

Gazpacho is made with vegetables, olive oil, bread, and ice and crushed into a refreshing drink.  The green pepper and cucumber disagree with some people.  Otherwise, the cold soup is halal, kosher, vegetarian, and vegan.  A gluten-free version can be made without bread. 

And, that is my little token of appreciation to the Dali Museum in Figueres, written Figueras in Catalan, for a ride through the mountains to fairy-like, Dali-Land.

When my husband Laurent and I returned to Monterey, California from Europe, we loved finding out that there was a Dali Museum on the wharf in Monterey.  Dali spent several years in Monterey and painted and organized lavish parties around California.  His paintings of parties and curiosities from this period in the museum make it an unexpected outing for a trip to Monterey, California.

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

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Photo by Laurent Paget

Visiting Fanjeaux (Languedoc, France) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting Fanjeaux (Languedoc, France) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Fanjeaux is a logical if low-key place to begin a visit of France’s Languedoc-Rousillon region, which shares a mountainous border with Spain and lies along the Mediterranean Sea.

The Spaniard Dominic de Guzman (1170 – 1221), later Saint Dominic, stayed in Fanjeaux during his tours in the region.  Fanjeaux is also the site of one of Dominic’s famous miracles that was replicated throughout Languedoc-Rousillon; this miracle was the ability of Dominic’s writings denouncing the Cathar heresy to withstand fire against Catholic holy books.

Catharism was the French offshoot of the heresy known as Bogomolism, which was founded in Bulgaria in the 10^th century.  It spread throughout the northern Mediterranean.  Bogomilism rejected many of the tenets of Catholicism, and its followers often refused to tithe to the church.  Tithing was the practice of giving 10% of one’s goods to the Church as set out in the Bible.

Suppressing Catharism was the impetus behind starting the Albigensian Crusade (1209 – 1229) against heretics in the south of France.  Saint Dominic became involved in this Crusade.  He founded the Order of Preachers (OP) in Toulouse, France in 1216.  This order later became known as the Dominican Order.

According to Michelin’s Guide Vert Rousillon Pays Cathar, Dominic’s home in Fanjeaux was the saddlery (horse gear room) of the castle (now gone).  Today Saint Dominic’s home is a private religious institution.  You cannot visit it, but the Dominican nuns from the nearby Prouille convent (set up by Saint Dominic in 1206) sing prayers in perpetual devotion to their Order’s founder.

As I stood listening to the nuns’ sung prayers, I smiled and figured out angles to shoot photos on a crooked street.  I appreciated the nuns’ life, but was happy to take photos with my husband, glimpse at the pretty church in town, and enjoy the contemplative silence away from Saint Dominic’s home.

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

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

Photo by Laurent Paget

Vacation Souvenirs from the South of France by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Vacation Souvenirs from the South of France Bought by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

You never have to worry about coming home to a house empty of food after a vacation to the South of France if you plan correctly.  You could outfit another trip with the vacation booty you can pick up at grocery stores and gas stations, which sell “produits regionaux,” or regional products, along the way.

On my family’s recent trip to the French Catalan region by the Mediterranean (Rousillon), we brought home cassoulet, duck confit thighs, nut cakes, powdered sugar cookies, and Catalan touron.  Each of these delights comes with a little story.  I will begin my autoroute, or highway, tale with cassoulet.

Everyone agrees that cassoulet is bean stew.  However, there are three ways to prepare it reflecting styles from the cities of Castelnaudary (pictured), Carcassonne (pictured), and Toulouse.

The Old Foodie Blog featuring a A Food History Story and Recipe Every Weekday of the Year summarizes the differences among the three different cassoulet styles using the French version of Larousse Gastronomique as a source.

Cassoulet bean stews feature these ingredients by city:

Castelnaudaray:

pork
ham
knuckle of pork
fresh bacon rinds

Carcassonne:

The same ingredients as Castelnaudary cassoulet plus

shortened leg of mutton
partridges in season

Toulouse:

The same ingredients as Castelnaudary cassoulet plus

breast of pork
mutton (neck or boned breast)
confit d’oie (preserved goose) or confit de canard (preserved duck)

My favorite cassoulet is from Toulouse with confit de canard (preserved duck).  We bought several cans of it including a Toulouse one parading as Castelnaudary with confit de canard.  (It’s sold to tourists and still tasted good.)

We bought confit de canard from Périgourd just in case we want to make our own cassoulet.  It takes several hours to boil the beans depending on their age.  (Older beans are drier and harder.)  Once the beans are sufficiently soft, you then bake them with the confit and other ingredients until the beans become really, really soft, but do not lose their shape.

Or, you can heat the confit de canard and eat it with steamed potatoes and green beans.  A red Bordeaux or Cahors wine goes well with the confit de canard thighs like the ones we purchased.

Another goodie purchased along the highway was the package of nut cakes we bought from Rocamador.  Rocamador sits perched high above the Dordogne River.  It houses a sanctuary for a Black Madonna pilgrimage site.

We did not visit Rocomador.  You could never reach your destination in France, if you want to visit all the sites advertised by brown tourism panels along the highway.

We did eat the Rocomador cakes made from chestnuts, walnuts, and hazelnuts.  The nuts are ground into flour.  The nut flour replaces wheat flour in making the cakes.  The cakes had a good flavor, but were somewhat dry and crumbly in the hot weather.

As we entered Rousillon (French Catalonia), we bought rousquilles de Rousillon.  These are ring cookies coated in powdered sugar that melt in your mouth.  Rousquilles remind me of powdered sugar donuts that have longer staying power.

Rousquilles de Rousillon are a Catalan specialty from the Franco-Spanish border area.  They are flavored with vanilla, lemon, and anis.  The cookie itself is made with flour, egg, and honey.

Catalan touron, a popular Christmas candy, tastes good in summer, too.  It is made with honey, almonds, and anis.  It is a nougat, which reminds me of divinity fudge.  The more almonds you have the better the quality.

We did not save any touron for Christmas.  We ate it after vacation as a last vestige of lazy days at the beach and tours through Catalan towns.  Like the French, though, we hoard our little cans of vacation booty confit de canard and cassoulet for the winter months.

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

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Ruth Paget Photography

Carcassonne - Laurent Paget Photography

Castelnaudary - Laurent Paget Photography

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Making a Porcelain Pilgrimage to Aixe-sur-Vienne (Outside Limoges, France) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Making a Porcelain Pilgrimage to Aixe-sur-Vienne (Outside Limoges, France) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget


Every time my family heads towards the South of France on vacation, we stop at Aixe-sur-Vienne located west of Limoges to shop for porcelain.  Porcelain is pricy, but the Maison de la Porcelaine allows you to buy pieces direct from the factory, which keeps prices lower than you would pay for porcelain on rue du Paradis in Paris.

Aixe-sur-Vienne is a visual treat.  You can walk along the Vienne River in a park by the Maison de la Porcelaine and visit the town, which lies along a pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostella in Spain according to the France This Way website.

The Maison de la Porcelaine is the main tourism draw in town, though.  The store offers free factory tours (in French) with most of their commentary summarized under links to porcelain’s history and manufacture on their webpage, which is available in English.

The story of porcelain in the Limousin is a story of kaolin.  According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, kaolin is a “soft white clay used in the making of porcelain.”  The clay is named after the Chinese hill where it was mined called kao-ling.  The Chinese began to use kaolin to create porcelain during the T’ang Dynasty (AD 618 – 907).

The Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama (1460 or 1469 – 1524) helped create the craze for porcelain among emperors and heads of state when he opened the route to India and China after 1498.

According to the Maison de la Porcelaine website, Portugal, Holland, England, and France all competed for the right to import porcelain, which had become a highly sought after luxury good.

While they were importing Chinese porcelain, European countries were also trying to make their own versions of porcelain during the Renaissance.  The Italians and French came closest to succeeding with their “soft paste” porcelain.  Soft paste porcelain was not durable and lacked the sheen and luminosity of Chinese porcelain.

The Encyclopedia Britannica credits a French Jesuit missionary with introducing Europe to kaolin as the ingredient that made Chinese porcelain special around 1700.

In 1707, a German alchemist named Böttger discovered a deposit of kaolin at Meissen outside modern-day Dresden, Germany.  He made the first “hard paste” porcelain with this clay.  Saxony, where Meissen is located, was able to guard the secret of porcelain fabrication by draconian means until 1767 when “hard paste” porcelain was produced in Limoges.

A large-scale porcelain industry was begun in Limoges in 1771 under the direction of the minister Turgot.  This marked the birth of porcelain production as we know it in Limoges today.

Limoges porcelain is made with kaolin (55%), quartz (20%), and feldspar (25%).  It goes through at least two firings, usually three, to obtain the sheen we associate with Limoges porcelain.

The last time we were at the Maison de la Porcelaine, we bought a teapot, chocolate pot, cheese plates, and a butter dish.  The plates had been made with a jollying or jiggering process used to make round objects on a spinning base.  The teapot, chocolate pot, and butter dish were all made with a casting process whereby the “paste” is pour into a hollow mold leaving a thin layer of paste on the surface of the mold.

There is a difference in shape among a teapot, chocolate pot, and a coffee server.  Teapots are usually short and round, but if they are tall, they should have a wide and round base.  The spout is found midway up the side of the pot.

Chocolate pots are tall and somewhat slender with a small spout at the top.

Coffee servers are tall and slender.  Coffee server spouts are placed at the bottom of a pot to retain the heat.

I have included a photo of a tall teapot.  I use a moka pot for coffee.  (Another blog topic!).

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

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Photo by Ruth Paget

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Lunching on the Camino de Santiago at Parthenay (France) with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Learning about the Camino de Santiago at Parthenay (France) with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget


On the way to participate in our cousin’s marriage in Limoge, my daughter Florence and I went through the town of Cholet, the shoe capital of France.  Many of Cholet’s interesting sites were destroyed during the French Revolution.  The town’s fame came from the white handkerchiefs that the Chouans (residents of Cholet) used to rally themselves against Republican forces during the Vendéen War.

We stopped in a picturesque town called Parthenay for lunch.  Off in the distance stood an old city gate.  Pilgrims going to the church of Santiago de Compostella in Spain passed through this town during the Middle Ages right up to modern times.  The pilgrims are called “Jacquots.”  The medieval bridge passes over the Thouet River.

There were many churches along the pilgrimage route in the Middle Ages.  It was quite profitable for a town to have pilgrims pass through.  Parthenay was mentioned in one of the earliest guides written for Jacquots by Amery Picot in the twelfth century.

One day I wanted to do the Camino de Santiago as it was called in Spanish, but until then I would be happy with eating in this pilgrimage route town.

We went to a bistro called the Challenge Rallye in the town’s main square and ate  I had a delicious salad – warm chicken gizzards with cheese on lettuce.  Florence had a ham and cheese salad.  The cheese on Florence’s salad came in little cubes.

“This is not gouda,” Florence said when she ate the cheese.

It’s the gouda of Parthenay,” I joked with her.

“It doesn’t taste like gouda,” Florence insisted.  The cheese was emmenthal, but Florence would have none of it.  I had a little connoisseur on my hands, who was connecting with her French heritage.

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

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