Touring Saumur (France) - 2 - by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Touring Saumur (France): Visiting the Cadre Noir Equestrian Museum by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

My husband Laurent and I ran home from work to go on a long weekend trip to the Loire Valley town of Saumur.  I cannot think of any drive that qualifies as so much landscape eye candy as this drive through the Loire Valley.

The cave homes along the Loire Valley charmed me as usual.  I wanted to own one of those “troglodyte” homes with their window boxes full of red geraniums cascading down in front of them.

“You can rent one for a vacation.  I do not want to own one.  They have spiders and centipedes in them,” Laurent said.

The romance of permanent air-conditioning and perfect temperature for storing wine wore off with the centipede remark.

The cave housing led us into downtown Saumur where we met Laurent’s friend from the air force when they had to do mandatory military duty in France.  (This mandatory military service has been disbanded now.)   We ate dinner that night in a restaurant called La Serre (The Green House) at the Hôtel Roi René.

Roi René was the King of Anjou from 1409 to 1480.  He was beloved by his subjects.  We drank an excellent, sparkling wine with our meal that gave us a touring idea for the next day.

We went to bed full and happy.  The next day we went on a tour at Gratien and Meyer, which produces a champagne-like wine that tastes like Asti Spumante from the Piedmont region in northern Italy that produces the red wine Barolo.

After the tour, we drank excellent Angevin wines with our meal.  Our cocktail was the sweet wine from Anjou called Quarts-de-Chaume.  The wine tastes similar to Sauternes, but it is much more difficult to find in the US than Sauternes.

For our starter dish, Laurent and I ate a seafood platter with Savennières wine.

Our main dish was roast leg of lamb that we drank with a Saumur Rouge.  For dessert, we had the French upside-down cake called Tarte Tatin followed by a strong espresso coffee.

After this meal, we visited the Angers château and the equestrian museum.  Saumur is famous for its Cadre Noir equestrian team. 

Saumur was once a Protestant stronghold, but the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 caused mass migration to regions with more religious tolerance: England, the Netherlands, Berlin, and South Carolina in the United States.

The Decorative Arts Museum interested me the most with its collection of enamelware from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.  There was also a luminous French porcelain collection from the 17^th and 18^th centuries.

The Equestrian Museum has displays about equestrian culture from all periods and cultures.  Horses have never interested me too much, so I probably missed much of the significance of the items on display.

I did understand that horses were like the tanks of their day.  The only people who could ride the horses were aristocrats and royalty.

Suggested Reading:

- National Velvet by Enid Bagnold

-- Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

- Le Cadre Noir de Saumur by Guillaume Henry and Alain Laurious

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

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Jean Vrolicq Game: The French Basque Country Travel Game Created by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Jean Vrolicq Game: The French Basque Country Travel Game Created by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Introduction

I named this French Basque Country Travel Game after Jean Vrolicq, a French Basque whaler who was born in St. Jean-de-Luz. 

The Basque Coast of France used to be a whaling industry town before transforming itself into a tourism venue for water sports, dining, and hiking.

The French Basque Country is located along the Atlantic Coast of Southwestern France.  It is famous for offering invigorating beach holidays; historical places to visit; restorative and nutritious meals; and mountain hiking. 

French Basque Towns to Visit

There are 6 towns to visit in this travel game with suggested foods to eat and buy as souvenirs:

-Bayonne

-Biarritz

-St. Jean-de-Luz

-St. Jean-Pied-de-Port

-Roncevalles

-Hendaye

-Bayonne

Many people choose to stay in Bayonne and drive down the Atlantic Coast as well as inland to the pilgrimage site of St. Jean-Pied-de-Port.

The main tourist sites in town are the Gothic Cathedral, the medieval Old Town with its narrow streets, and Basque Museum with its permanent exhibit of Basque oppression under Francoism in Spain.

Bayonne is also famous for its Bayonne Ham, which resembles Italian San Daniele Ham from the former Sud Tyrol (Austria) region in northeastern Italy.

-Biarritz

Biarritz is a seaside town on the Atlantic Ocean.  It is famous for the Hôtel du Palais where royalty of all nations stay when they visit town.

The town was originally a whaling port that has transformed itself into an exclusive resort with a surfing school for competitive surfers, designer clothing shops, and an aquarium with Blue Whales and Emperor Penguins.

-St. Jean-de-Luz

St. Jean-de-Luz is famous for being the spot where Louis XIV married Marie-Thérèse, the infanta of Spain, in 1660.  She made chocolate popular in France, because she ate it all the time.

There is a Maison Louis XIV there with 17^th century furniture to visit.

-St. Jean-Pied-de-Port

If you go to the foot of the Pyrénées Mountains from Bayonne, you will arrive at St. Jean-Pied-de-Port.  All of the French Camino de Santiago trails converge in this town, which serves as an entryway to Spain and Santiago de Compostella in Galicia, Spain.

This town is quaint and has many great spots for photos.

-Roncevalles

Going further into the Pyrénées Mountains, you arrive at the Roncevalles Pass where the French King Charlemagne was defeated.  The famous French knight Roland was killed here and is the subject of the French folktale The Song of Roland.

There is a 13^th century monastery here where you can eat called the Colegiata de Santa Maria.  Call ahead to make a reservation as it is the only place to eat in town.

-Hendaye

Hendaye is really a water sports town.  There are tons of surfboards with sails out in the water along with ocean scooters, water skiers, and condo-sized yachts.  Everyone is tanned, thin, and beautiful. 

I was looking for Paris Match photographers in this modern-day L’Aventurra film town.  (L’Aventurra was a ritzy, Italian holiday film by Michelangelo Antonioni.)

These are the places I would suggest visiting on a first visit of the French Basque Country.

French Basque Beverages

Some of the French Basque beverages you might want to try on your vacation and send home as souvenirs include:

-Izarra –

French Basque country liqueur made in Bayonne that comes in yellow and green versions.

-Irouléguy AOC Wines –

This French Basque wine comes in both red and white versions.

French Basque Foods

Some of the French Basque foods you might want to try on your vacation and send home as gift souvenirs include canned or boxed items such as:

-Jambon de Bayonne

Air-dried ham similar to Italy’s San Daniele from the former San Daniele region.

-Esplette Peppers

Esplette peppers are used for making pipérade sauce with tomatoes and onions for omelets and for making cheddar-cheese bread with “pimentos” or esplette peppers.

-Poulet Basquaise

This is chicken roasted with a variety of different-colored, mild peppers, tomatoes, and onions.  Irouléguy red goes well with this dish as it is light-bodied.

-Marmitako –

French Basque soup made with tuna and potatoes.

-Gâteau Basque –

This French Basque cake is basically a white, round cake (a Genoise) filled with either black cherry jam or pastry cream.

Suggested Basque Cookbook

The cookbook by San Francisco restaurateur Gerald Hirigoyen entitled The Basque Table: Tempting Food from the Pyrénées by Gerald Hirigoyen provides recipes for tasty and nutritious food.

Personal Note

My husband Laurent and I took this trip as one of our vacations when I lived in Paris (France) for seven years.  I was glad to have an air-conditioned car, because the French Basque country shares a border with very hot Spain.

There are many Basques in the American West, so it is fun to see where the ancestors of this ethnic group came from in France.

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

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Frederic Bartholdi: The Alsatian Beer Buying Game for France Created by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Frédéric Bartholdi: The Alsatian Beer Buying Game for Alsace (France) Created by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Bartholdi is the sculptor who created the Statue of Liberty and many of the funicular trains that go up into the Pyrénées Mountains in French Catalonia.  He was born in Colmar, Alsace, which is why I named the game after him.

I do not know if he drank beer or not, but Alsace is a huge beer producing region as well as a wine producing region.

I found out about Alsace’s beer-producing regions when I lived in Stuttgart, Germany for five years and went grocery shopping in Strasbourg, France once a month at Auchan in Ilkirch-Graffenstaden.  That particular Auchan had a great book section as well as groceries and home supplies.

On one weekend grocery trip to Strasbourg (France), I found a book called La Route de la Bière en Alsace by Gabriel Thierry and Elénore Delpierre – Itinéraires de Découvertes.

There is an entire culture in Eastern France devoted to beer that extends from Northern to Southern Alsace.  If you can read French, you can use this book to plan a trip to Alsace’s Beer Country.

There are several beer festivals listed in this book, but the big one is held in a town of Schiltigheim, which has been brewing wine since the 14^th century.  The beer festival has been held in Schiltigheim since the 19^th century.

If you are interested in attending this festival, look at their website for information on it, hotels, and restaurants.

There are four breweries in Schiltigheim that might be able to arrange for tours, if you look at their website for information:

-L’Espérance

-Adelshoffen

-Fischer

-La Perle

Fischer has a large brewery in downtown Strasbourg (France) that probably does tours, if you check their website.

For the other regions, I have listed the number of breweries in each beer-producing region just to give an idea of how large the Alsatian beer industry is in Alsace:

-Downtown Strasbourg

5 Breweries

-North of Strasbourg

5 Breweries

-Outside Strasbourg

5 Breweries

-Haut-Rhin

5 Breweries

-Brewer Cooperatives

4 Breweries

The Beer Culture of Alsace (France) is relatively unknown and unexplored. 

A trip to Strasbourg for the month-long Christmas market in December might be a good time to explore Alsace’s Beer Route and to buy some lovely French food and wooden toys for children like Playmobil products or Kathe Wolwert Christmas tree decorations.

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

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Felix Kir: The French Cocktails, Liqueurs, and Digestifs Buying Game Created by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Félix Kir: The French Cocktails, Liqueurs, and Digestifs Buying Game Created by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Introduction

I named this game for Félix Kir (1876 – 1968), who was the mayor of Dijon in Burgunday, France.  Mayor Kir wanted to promote the products of his region and created a cocktail using crème de cassis (blackberry liqueur – 1 tablespoon) and a white Bourgogne aligoté wine.

The cocktail he made is simply called a kir.  If you use champagne to make it, it is called a kir royal.  Many regions of France make kir with a local, sweet white wine such as Chablis, Vouvray, or Côteaux de Layon.

I like drinking kir royals with rillettes (cooked pork conserved in its fat) and rillons (cooked pork strips conserved in its fat) from Tours in the Loire Valley.

What are the Difference Between Cocktails, Liqueurs, and Digestifs

Cocktail – before-meal drinks, usually sweet

Liqueur – sweet after-dinner drink

Digestif – after-dinner drinks such as Cognac, Armagnac, and Calvados (apple brandy) with a high-alcohol content

In the 1990s, the lines between cocktails, liqueurs, and digestifs blurred, especially when people began drinking whiskey as a cocktail.

Today, I would even suggest a light Loire Valley Red such as Chinon, Saumure-Champigny, or Bourgeuil with homemade cheddar cheese sticks, Portuguese New Year’s Eve cheese-and-butter balls (the Brazilians make these, too), or even Cheez-its crackers.

Ten High-Quality Cocktails, Liqueurs, and Digestifs

-Lillet – Bordeaux-region sweet cocktail that comes in white and red versions

-Suze – Alpine herb liqueur that tastes of vanilla and orange

-Chambord – blackberry and raspberry liqueur from the Loire Valley

-Izarra – sweet liqueur that comes in yellow and green versions from the French Basque region

-Benedictine – herb-based liqueur at the Abbey of Fécamp in Normandy

-Chartreuse – French herb brandy made outside Grenoble

-Cointreau – orange liqueur made from sweet and bitter oranges in Angers in the Loire Valley

-Calvados – apple brandy from Normandy

-Poire William – pear eau-de-vie from Alsace

-Mirabelle – yellow plum eau-de-vie from Lorraine

Suggested Appetizers

You can buy most of these items at Fauchon or Hédiard in Paris (France).

-canned vegetable terrines with or without truffles for toast

-slices of warm confit de canard – cooked duck breast that you just have to warm up, slice, and serve on toast

-white asparagus points on toast squares with mayonnaise served with sweet wines.  The cooked, white asparagus points come in a glass jar ready to use.

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

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