Exploring Arcachon: Visiting Bordeaux's Family Vacation Spot with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

  

Exploring Arcachon (France) - 1:  Visiting Bordeaux’s Family Vacation Spot a Second Time with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Laurent and I were going on a weeklong beach vacation in Arcachon outside Bordeaux (France) with baby Florence.  We headed southward out of Paris and waited through the traffic jam to get on the highway to Bordeaux.

Just when we got on the highway, it started to rain.  I made a list of several restaurants by the port that we could try for seafood when we arrived.

The French stay slim by looking for the best “quality-price” value on restaurant meals.  They do not always choose the cheapest restaurant, but they also refuse to be financially exploited by eating at a restaurant that marks up a dish by 15%.

The French read cookbooks and shop themselves to know prices, so they can assess good values on restaurants and food purchases.

We arrived late in Arcachon and started looking for restaurants.  We spent six hours under a downpour from Paris to Arcachon.  Laurent was not too keen on looking at every restaurant on the port.

Almost all the restaurants were closed, but I tried the locked door on the Taverne du Pêcheur anyways.  The owner smiled at us huddling under our umbrellas and opened the door.

“Could we order some sandwiches at this hour?” I asked as I balanced Florence on one arm and the umbrella on the other.

“No sandwiches,” he laughed.

“I only serve full-course meals.  Please sit down,” he said.

We started our meal with a vegetable terrine that had layers of orange, green, and white, puréed vegetables and a cream sauce.

Then, we ate a dozen raw oysters each or “fresh” oysters as the French would say.  The theory goes that you should only eat oysters with months having Rs in them.

Arcachon oysters are famous for their plump light, green flesh.  The ones we ate were clear and not milky for the season.

We drank a wine called “Entre-Deux-Mers” with this meal.  It is named for the peninsula between the Garonne and Dordogne Rivers where the vineyards are for this wine.

We ate simple fish dishes with potatoes following this: Sole meunière for Laurent and grilled sole for me.

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

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Exploring Chateau de Chambord and Chateau de Cheverny (France) - Visiting Loire Valley Gems with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Exploring the Château de Chambord and the Château de Cheverny (France) – Visiting Loire Valley Gems with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

On a French National Patrimony Day, Laurent and I drove to the Loire Valley to visit two lesser-known châteaux: Chambord and Cheverny.

Chambord was first and foremost a royal hunting lodge.  Women sat on a terrace and watched men go off hunting and played cards until they returned.  They ate together.

This Château was built in 1519 on the orders of François 1 (House of Valois).  The famous double staircase allowed people to go up and down without seeing one another – good for servants and lovers.

The other architectural feature that makes Chambord stand out is its terrace.  The terrace is more of an Italian invention than a French one. 

The lawn and terrace both offer seating for the Château’s sound and light show.  Chambord has a liqueur of its own that is used in the Phoenix Cocktail of the University of Chicago.

I thought Chambord was a little touristy with its souvenir shops, a hotel restaurant, and several cafés.  I wanted to learn about châteaux gardens, history, and architecture.  I wished there were books out about those topics for sale.

I liked the small town of Cheverny next to Chambord, which is only 6 kilometers away from Chambord.  The garden was in full bloom there.

The Town of Cheverny had well-cared for hotels.  Red geraniums tumbled down out of window boxes and tables of umbrellas fluttered in the breeze outside lobbies and outdoor cafés abounded.

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

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Exploring the Abbaye-de-Royaumont (France) - Going on a Picnic Outside Paris with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Exploring the Abbaye-de-Royaumont (France) – Going on a Picnic Outside Paris with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

I used touring guides, history books, and art history books to make my lists of places to visit in France on picnic outings.

On one of our picnic outings, my husband Laurent and I visited the Abbaye de Royaumont with baby Florence.

This Abbaye in northwestern France is a two-star outing in the Michelin “green guide” series.  It was founded in the early 13^th century by the King Saint Louis.  King Saint Louis led Crusades.  This is why he is referred to as a saint.

Royaumont was a Cistercian Abbey that received many gifts.  However, Royaumont’s architecture does not reflect pure Cistercian style with a plain choir.  Royaumont has radiating chapels around the choir.  More chapels means more donors for artwork and alms to the church.

The Abbaye de Royaumont was sold during the French Revolution as a “national property.”  The last owners of the Abbaye – Isabel and Henri Gouin (1900 – 1907) created a Foundation to rent out the space as a small convention center.

Working at a place like that as a sales manager is a nice job.  I would try to sell the meeting space to architects, engineers, commercial artists, lawyers, accountants, city planners, and other people who would study the venue for its durability and get projects accomplished in this remote yet beautiful location.

I was always thinking of ways to make money even when Florence was a baby.

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

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Exploring the Chateau at Saint-Germain-en-Laye (France) - Visiting a Royal Chateau-Fort with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Exploring the Château at Saint-Germain-en-Laye (France) – Visiting a Royal Chateau-Fort with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

I loved Paris as a young woman, but recognized that as a parent in the 1990s that it was polluted, noisy, and dirty even in the near suburbs.

I took Florence on walks to the Bagatelle Gardens in the 16^th arrondisement during the week.  On the weekends, though, Laurent and I took Florence to run and play in her jean overalls in the park at the Château-de-Saint-Germain.  This Château was only 30 minutes away by car from our apartment.

The Château’s Park on a tall plateau with its woods made it a wonderful place for all of us to walk.  The Château itself is a mélange between a real fortress and a comfortable royal residence that has become a museum of French National Antiquities created by Napoleon in 1867.

We have cute photos of Florence climbing on tree stumps and playing on the paths around the Château.  My sister Kathleen’s small town Georgia newspaper published the photos of her with a caption like “Where is Florence?”

We would go grocery shopping at Chambourcy, a town along the Seine, after our park outing and eat lunch in the mall.  At that point in life, I liked quiet, family outings.

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

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Sampling Catalan Food in Barcelona (Spain) with Savvy Mom Ruth Pagert

Sampling Catalan Food in Barcelona (Spain) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

 

I woke from my nap and got ready to eat lunch at Barcelona time – 2 pm.  We went to the Los Caracoles Restaurant, a tourist spot for the Spanish as well as foreign visitors.

The restaurant began its life in 1835 as a wine shop and gradually evolved into a restaurant.  The food is simple and expertly prepared.  You have to walk through the grill area to get your table, and the walls are lined with photographs of the rich and famous people, who have eaten there.

We sat at a corner table, which was perfect for Florence.  She could see everything and not be in the way.  She was a well-behaved girl during all of the meal.  She smiled at our neighbors, a Spanish family and three German ladies.

Laurent began his meal with mussels cooked in tomato, garlic, and parsley.  I tried the fish soup made with tomatoes, langoustines (crayfish), and morsels of fish.  Florence ate garlic-butter croutons dunked in the fish soup I ordered.

For our next course, I ate the paella with grilled shellfish while Laurent ate grilled prawns (large shrimp).  Paella is like sauerkraut for me.  I will only eat it, if I am someplace where it is a specialty.  The rice the Catalans use is pudgy with round grains.

The 6-inch prawns Laurent used were grilled, chopped in half and seasoned with olive oil, garlic, and parsley.  We drank Viña Sol, a delicious white wine from the Torres Winery in the Pénédés region with our meal.

Laurent ate Crema Catalana for dessert, and ate I ice cream topped with tourron (hard nougat).  Catalan cream is made with milk, eggs, sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, and lemon or orange zest.

The caramelized, crunchy topping is made by flaming sugar and cinnamon with a blowtorch.  The Catalans use a heated, cast iron tool called a salamander with a disk at the end to make this dessert.

We walked back to the hotel and slept until dinnertime.  I ate Spanish Teruel ham with a pineapple quarter and felt like I was eating a meal from the Spanish Canary Islands.

Then, I ate roast chicken with potatoes.  Laurent had grilled shrimp.  We drank a rosé wine called “tinto” in Spanish from the famous Spanish wine region of Rioja.

These meals were definitely vacation gorging.  We would go back to more reasonable portions at home.

Recommended books on Catalan and Spanish food in general:

Catalan Cuisine by Colman Andrews

The Foods and Wines of Spain by Penelope Casas

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

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