Touring Guerande: Walking around a Medieval Granite Town in Brittany, France with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Touring Guérande: Walking around a Medieval Granite Town in Brittany, France with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

The Collégiale is named after Guérande’s patron saint Saint Aubin (St. Albin in English).  He was the Bishop of Angers.  The town legend says that when Guèrande was under siege by the Normans in the 9^th century, he sent a knight in shining armor astride a winged, white horse to save the town from pillagers.

After visiting the Collégiale St. Aubin, I walked around the town.  There were many pottery, painting, and regional products shops with cute to expensive souvenirs.  I liked the cider, sea salt, and sturdy dish souvenirs the best.

Guérande is an adorable tourist trap with most tourists being French, German, or English.  I was tempted to buy some chouchen, a Breton honey liqueur for my small cocktail cabinet at home.

I spent the rest of my time trying to look over stonewalls or peek through gates to see flowers and gardens.  One house had little hedges arranged in a square around a tree with flowers around it.  That was cute.

I did not know the names of all the flowers except for pink and lavender hortensias that grow well in Brittany with its morning fogs.

Ivy covered many homes and walls.  In fact, the vegetation was very lush and green.  The winters in Brittany are rainy.  Most homes in Brittany must look desolate in winter from the outside due to the rain and cold weather.

The homes are usually made of granite and other more malleable stone.  Steep, blue-gray roofs let the abundant winter rains fall off away from the homes.

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

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Touring Guerande: Visiting Brittany, France's Sea Salt Town with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Touring Guerande: Visiting Brittany, France's Sea Salt Town with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Laurent and I set out for the July 14^th holiday (Bastille Day) weekend to spend time with his parents in Brittany in Western France.

I strapped Florence in her car seat, and we set out for Brittany.  I planned to spend my time writing and touring Brittany with my mother-in-law.

The first town we visited was the Breton town of Guérande.  This town has a wall around it and sits on top of a hill.  It is surrounded by salt drying beds.

Salt was and remains important to the area.  In the Middle Ages, Guérande had a monopoly on salt, which was traded for agricultural products from other regions.  Salt marshes in the South of France diminished Guérande’s control over salt prices.

Today canals bring salt water into a series of square reservoirs.  Each reservoir is shallower than the last one and allows workers to scrape off salt at the end.  Dry, hot weather creates the best production results.

I gleaned this wonderful information from my Michelin “green guide” for Brittany as I stood outside the church called the Collégiale St. Aubin (St. Albin’s in English).

St. Aubin was built in the 12^th and 13^th centuries.  The austere architecture is Romanesque and the more flamboyant decoration is Gothic.  I enjoyed visiting the church’s interior, because there was a rehearsal for an organ and trumpet concert going on.

My Michelin “green guide” said the Romanesque columns inside the church were decorated with scenes of torture, but they were so badly damaged that they failed to conjure any fright in me.

The columns are the only items that remained from the original church after it was destroyed by Louis d’Espagne in 1342.

The church decorations are definitely Gothic with three-petal flowers covering the interior and exterior alike.  The stained glass windows are recent.  Wars, ancient and modern, probably explain the absence of older glass windows.

The baptismal font seemed to be the oldest part of the church.  I guessed it must be the oldest part of any French church.

You have to keep the initiates coming in, if you are financing something over a century or two.

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

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Congratulations to Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget for starring in Hunted - 1st Feature Length Film by Lloyd Ferguson - Monterey County (California) Young Filmmakers

Congratulations to Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget of Monterey County for starring in her first feature-length film - The Hunted, a horror thriller from California - Directed by Lloyd Ferguson - Co-Star:  Anna Snare

Touring Barcelona (Spain) : Exploring Gaudi's Parc Guell with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Touring Barcelona (Spain):  Exploring Gaudi’s Parc Güell with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

From the Mirò Foundation, my husband Laurent and I walked to the Olympic Site on Montjuic that was being built for the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona (Spain).  The asymmetrical radio tower and the pool with wavy roof would look very good on television I thought.

We took the bus back to the Plaça Espanya and figured out our way to go to the Parc Güell.  We took Bus 24 through some of Barcelona’s nicest neighborhoods.  I was surprised to see Gaudi’s Casa Vincens from the window of the bus.

I love taking buses when I travel.  You get to see so much scenery this way.

We walked all around Parc Güell.  We could see bits and pieces of the curving, continuous park bench that was undergoing restoration for the Olympic Games.  I drank a soda while Laurent played with Florence.  Three Spanish families with their children were eating ice cream.  The children were all wearing costumes.  Maybe this was a birthday celebration.

I liked how people sang to their children in Barcelona and were not too concerned about fashion, preferring to be comfortable as parents out for a walk with children and grandparents.

Three Spanish families with their children were eating ice cream.  The children were all in costumes.  Maybe this was a birthday celebration.  I liked how people sang to their children in Barcelona and were not too concerned about fashion.

Florence certainly enjoyed herself in the Parc Güell.  The day turned out to be warm, so we could take Florence’s jacket off.  She was wearing her white outfit with red and blue polka dots and ruffled collar.

She played on the grass and squealed with delight and smiled at everyone, who walked by.  Families out for a walk came over and smiled at her and said “Qué Preciosa,” “Qué Bonita,” and “Qué Ojos Azulas.”

We returned to the hotel and went to Los Caracoles for dinner.  Lunch service is less stressful and less hurried than the dinner service.  Florence made friends with the people next to us by smiling away and not making any noise except for laughter and squeals.  An Italian man told Laurent “tutti mi complimenti” on pretty Florence, who was behaving.

Laurent ate snails with oil, garlic, and a little salt.  I ordered mussels.  Next Laurent had a grilled fish platter.  I ordered the grilled seafood platter. 

We visited the Poble d’Espanya on Montjuic before going home.  This mall sells luxury goods from all over Spain and has bars for dancing.

The hand glassblowing exhibit was the most interesting.  It was magic to watch the craftsman turn a blob of glass into a vase.

Cookbooks with great recipes for Catalan and Spanish food include:

-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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Eating a Metz Meal: Dining in Lorraine France with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Sampling a Metz Meal:  Dining in Lorraine France with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Quiche Lorraine is certainly well-known in France, but it is the suckling pig and pork products that make the Lorraine famous. 

Pork tastes sweetest when pigs have been raised on milk, but pigs can eat almost anything.  This fact allows the citizens of Lorraine to enjoy nutritious meals even in lean times.

Our host, Laurent’s cousin’s husband, prepared an optimal gastronomic experience for us.  The meal started with several hors d’oeuvres.  The first of these was rillettes (pork cooked in its own fat and preserved in it).

Our host next heated up sausages that were flavored with thyme and white wine.  He also had some plain pork sausages just in case we were not getting enough food.

Just as I thought we had finished, I began to smell bread baking.  Our host now appeared with a tray of puff pastries filled with sausage.

I could have stopped then and there and eaten a sorbet for dessert, but sturdier offerings appeared out of the kitchen again.

This time our host carried out an oversized Quiche Lorraine.  As the American visitor, I just could not have one piece of Quiche Lorraine.

Seconds of a “real” Quiche appeared on my plate despite my unheeded pleas for mercy. 

“What is that?” I asked.

“A pork pie,” he said.

I ate some more and took a nap.  When I woke up, I drank some Mirabelle, an eau-de-vie yellow plum brandy.”

At home, I would have just had a large slice of Quiche Lorraine, salad, and a lemon soda.  I truly was overwhelmed by the meal, but it was very good.

Some French cookbooks with specialties of the Lorraine Region include:

-Saveur Cooks Authentic French:  Rediscovering the Recipes, Traditions, and Flavors of the World’s Greatest Cuisine by the Editors of Saveur Magazine

-Paris: Authentic Recipes Celebrating the Foods of the World by the Editors of Williams-Sonoma

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

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Exploring Metz: France's Eastern Stronghold by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Exploring Metz:  Visiting France’s Eastern Stronghold by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

My husband Laurent and I took the Autoroute de l’Est (East) to Metz.  Once we passed Eurodisney, the landscape became hilly.

Woods, stretches of forest, and champagne vineyards rolled by the car.  The landscape surprised me.  I thought that the East of France was flat and a little war-ravaged still with patches of unkempt fields and many war cemeteries with their uniform white crosses.

When we arrived in Metz, I did not expect to see a spot that shimmered with such lush, green colors.  It rains frequently, which makes everything grow easily.

Several islands break up the Moselle River.  A canal is attached to the river as well.  There are many pathways alongside the river, which allows everyone to take advantage of the flower-filled walks.

When we met Laurent’s cousin, I said, “Metz is beautiful” with a strong emphasis on the “z’” on the end of the word.

“We pronounce the name of our city as ‘Mess,”” his cousin told me.

She certainly knew how to pronounce the word as she was a high-ranking government official in the Préfet’s Office.  A French préfet is the rough equivalent of an American governor; they are appointed by the French president and not elected.

I had unknowingly touched upon some sore spots with my foreigner’s pronunciation of the final “z’ in the word Metz.  This northeastern region in France has been fought over by the Germans and French in two world wars in the 20^th century.

Metz is bisected by the limpid Moselle River with tiny island parks.  German architecture lines the fashionable Avenue Foch.

Every apartment building on this street seemed to sport a stepped, triangular façade typical of German architecture along with heavy, stone masonry.

The thick, floral garlands decorating the German homes seemed heavier than the narrower versions on French homes with their tall windows and smooth, light-colored stone exteriors.

There have been hideous wars between France and Germany with Metz on the frontlines.  However, there is a fusion of cultures in Metz that is artistic and beautiful.  (The Jews have a long history in Metz as well despite the fact that they no longer live there.)

The most obvious manifestation of contact between the German and French cultures appears in the famous name of Quiche Lorraine.  The name “quiche” comes from the German “küchen,” which means cake.

Housewives in Lorraine make Quiche Lorraine with a mixture of cream, eggs, and ham in an absorbent pie crust with ridges.  Sometimes grated gruyère is added to the recipe along with onions.

Every “mamiche” or “Lorraine Grandmother” has her own recipe.

Some French cookbooks with specialties of the Lorraine in them include:

-Saveur Cooks Authentic French:  Rediscovering the Recipes, Traditions, and Flavors of the World’s Greatest Cuisine by the Editors of Saveur Magazine

-Paris: Authentic Recipes Celebrating the Foods of the World by the Editors of Williams-Sonoma

by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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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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