May Day in Metz (France): Eastern France Celebrates the Day with Traditional Lilies by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

May Day in Metz (France): Eastern France Celebrates the Day with Traditional Lilies by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

My husband Laurent and I arrived in lush, green Metz in Eastern France earlier than planned.  It rains a lot in this region, which makes life disagreeable during winter, but beautiful in summer.

Flowers abound and lilac trees pop up everywhere with their sweet fragrance.  The child in me wanted to pick a few lilac stems just for me.

We enjoyed driving along the limpid Moselle and Seille Rivers.  The charm of Metz is that this city is built on several islands in these rivers.

We spent our time touring town.  We knew that we could not arrive before the appointed time in France for a meal, so we had fun exploring town.

We went to the area around the heavy, stone Germanic train station where we could find parking.  We unloaded Florence and went to a shoe store where Laurent could purchase shoes at a lower price than in Paris; retail store rent in Metz was lower than it was in Paris, which the store owner passed on to the customer here by lowering the price of shoes.

The city was building a parking lot for the train station, which had become an archaeological dig.  There were many Roman ruins in the area.  Some people even believed the bones of “garoully” were being dug up.  I did, too, until I looked the word up in the dictionary and asked people if that was really the word for “dragon.”

We drove along the fashionable Avenue Foch and looked at the heavy, stone Germanic-style houses whose decorative garlands looked ready to fall from their weight.  The feather-light French apartment buildings had decorative garlands that seemed to float.

We drove to St. Symphorien Island where Laurent’s cousin lived.  We were still a little early, but we found a park where Florence could play some more.  A respectable hour to show up finally arrived.  We brushed sand off of Florence and went to the apartment.

We exchanged two-cheeked air kisses once we arrived.  Laurent’s cousin asked Florence, “Treasure, how are you doing?”

I liked Laurent’s cousin, because she called Florence and her grandchildren “Treasure.”

Next, we set out for our hotel.  Laurent’s cousin told the manager of the hotel that the rooms were correct, but, “Surely you must have something better.”  (I think she was in a loyalty program and had points to use for hotel room upgrades.)

Laurent’s cousin worked for the French administration and made sure her little cousins were going to be taken care of well.

We came back to the apartment to eat a delicious lunch that Laurent’s cousin’s husband prepared.  We began our meal with hard-boiled eggs served with sour capers and chopped raw vegetables.  The shiny egg yolks looked like custard.

Our raw vegetables would have pleased any vegetarian.  We started with one of my favorite entrées – a grated carrot salad with oil and vinegar dressing seasoned only with salt and pepper.

Sometimes the simplest things are some of the best.  (I also like the Moroccan version of grated carrot salad with a sweet and lemony dressing, raisins soaked in tea, and fresh mint leaves.)

Next among our tasty openers was grated celeriac, wild celery in remoulade sauce.  Remoulade sauce is made with homemade mayonnaise and Dijon mustard.  We also ate sliced cucumbers in fresh cream.

Laurent’s cousin’s main dish of veal knuckle in a white wine sauce with onions, mushrooms, and tomatoes made me ask for seconds and forget my perpetual dieting to be a runway model.

The tender veal meat fell off the bone and tasted delicious with Pinot Noir from Alsace (Jérome Lorentz fils 1992).  I felt like I was eating a classic French meal, but it could be equally a German meal I thought.

For the cheese course, I thought I ate a ripe, runny Camembert.  Laurent’s cousin served strawberries from the Marne region in red wine for dessert.  I liked this just as well as dunking them in sugar.

We drank strong espressos with an eau-de-vie made of yellow plums called mirabelles, a specialty of the Lorraine region.

This great lunch necessitated a walk around town “to digest” as the French say.

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


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Visiting the Medieval Monastery of Gorze in Lorraine (Eastern France) by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting the Medieval Monastery of Gorze in Lorraine (Eastern France) by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

One of the most interesting places my husband Laurent and I visited outside Metz (France) was the Gorze Monastery.  On the way there, we passed ruins of a Roman aqueduct at Ars sur Moselle.

At the entry to Gorze, we passed another aqueduct that ran partly underground.  Roman ruins made me think of how much history there is in France – from a Westerner’s point of view anyways.  China and India are both older civilizations than ancient Egypt.

We began our visit by climbing a small hill leading to the monastery chapel.  The tympanum, the half circle arch over the main entryway to the church, was what I called a Romanesque Last Judgment in haiku form.

All Last Judgment elements were there – the devil, monsters, angels with trumpets, a baleful Christ, and the select few.

We next visited an information-packed museum.  We watched an interesting slideshow abut the ancient Roman water system in the Metz (France) region.

According to our tour guide, Gorze is better known among Germans than the French, because the Abbey had many established several orders in Germany.  The Abbey no longer exists in France, but the orders in Germany do.

According to the guide, Gorze’s claim to fame is that the 8^th century bishop Chrodegung founded a school of “chants romain-messin” that later spread across Europe as Gregorian chants.

We ended our visit with a stop at the Graoully Restaurant and Bar.  We drank Kronenburg beers while the children played. 

I thought the trip to Metz was a great weekend outing from Paris, and it was still not over.

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

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French Seafood Meal in Metz (Lorraine Region, France) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

French Seafood Meal in Metz (Lorraine Region, France) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

My husband Laurent’s cousin’s children invited Laurent, baby Florence, and me for lunch on our long weekend vacation in Metz, France.  We offered them a magnum of Moët and Chandon champagne that we could all drink as a cocktail.

We began our meal with a large platter of white asparagus from Hoerdt in Alsace (France).  We ate these with a bright yellow, homemade mayonnaise that was flecked with freshly chopped Italian flat-leaf parsley.

Our next course was a marmite de pêcheur (a seafood casserole).  The seafood casserole had items in it like shrimp, octopus, scallops, mussels, and salmon in a white sauce made with white wine.

Salmon and shrimp together have a sweet taste and should be paired up in more recipes I thought.  We drank a pinot blanc from Alsace  (Jérome Lorentz fils 1997) – a dry and fruity white wine that is typical of Alsatian white wines.

Then, we had paper-thin slices of prosciutto from Parma, Italy.  The other ham we tried was called a San Daniele from Italy’s Udine region, which also produces Moretti beer.  This region used to be part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and is called the Sud Tyrol in German.

We drank a medium-bodied red wine with the ham called Bergerac (La Caste 1990) from southwestern France.

For our cheese course, we ate a perfectly ripe Camembert cheese.   Camembert is luscious when it is the real thing.

For dessert, we ate strawberry tartlets and slices of currant tart.

Finally, I drank an espresso as coretto with some Mirabelle (yellow plum) eau-de-vie in it while Laurent drank a marc de Calvados.  (Marc is the French version of Italian grappa.)

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

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Count Baldwin IV of Flanders Game: The Lille, France Touring Game Created by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Count Baldwin IV of Flanders Game:  The Lille, France Touring Game Created by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Introduction:

The City of Lille (France) is known as the Capital of Flanders, which has Flemish speakers in both France and Belgium.  Lille is in both France and Belgium.  Lille is in the region of France called the Nord – Pas de Calais.

History:

The Flemish Count Baldwin IV (Baudoin le Barbu in French or Baudewijn met de Bard in Flemish – born c. 980 – May 30, 1035).  Baldwin IV notably defeated the Holy Roman Emperor Henry II and won the following territories for France:

-Valenciennes (France)

-Ghent (Belgium)

-Zeeland (Netherlands)

Industries:

Today, the Lille-Tourcoing-Roubaix-Villeneuve d’Ascq conurbation produces:

-fruit juices

-freeze-dried coffee

-instant foods

-soybean and cottonseed oil

There are also service industries in Lille linked to trade with the above industries:

-banking

-insurance

-logistics (rail, port, and highway)

How to Get to Lille from Paris, France

Lille is about 1 hour away from Paris by Eurostar TGV, connecting London (UK) and Brussels (Belgium), which makes a weekend trip from Paris a fun option for shopping, dining, and sightseeing.

Festivals in Lille

Check out websites for Lille for tourism information.

Two festivals that might interest tourists visiting Lille for the first time include:

-“Festival Bal” – a Flemish and Belgian-Flemish beer festival

-Christmas Market – runs from the end of November to the end of December.  The Christmas Market sells nativity figurines, Christmas decorations, and Christmas foods

The various websites have maps and city guides you can download.

Tours

The City of Lille is adding tours of breweries, walking tours, and battlefield tours to its website.

One tour that may be of interest to Americans of English and Australian descent is a tour of the Fromelles Battlefield. 

The Germans defeated British and Australian troops on July 19 and July 20, 1916 at Fromelles.  The battleground here did not have trenches.  It used a “breastwork” or temporary fortification instead of trenches.

Notable Flemish Cuisine and Beer

-Carbonnade flamande – Flemish beef and vegetables stewed in beer

-Belgian fish and chips (fries) dunked in mayonnaise

-Belgian-Flemish beer – I tasted one of my favorite Belgian-Flemish beers in Arras (France).  It is called Affligem (Afflighem) and is from the Flemish province of Brabant outside Brussels, Belgium. 

Final Note:

Lille can be a weekend trip from Paris or a detour on the way to Brussels, Belgium on the Eurostar TGV (speed train).

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

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Visiting Pierrefonds and Compiegne: Fortress Towns in the Retz and Compiegne Forests North of Paris by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting Pierrefonds and Compiègne (France):  Fortress Towns North of Paris by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

On another cold, winter weekend in Paris, my husband Laurent and I drove north to the imposing fortress on the Oise River named Pierrefonds.

Pierrefonds is lit up dramatically at night, but there is not much to visit inside the Château.

The Château at Pierrefonds reminds me of Barbara Tuchman’s book entitled The Proud Tower.  The Tower in the book is medieval and watches over human wars and corruption and loses a few stones here and there, but remains strong due to its solid stone construction – what the French call “vielles pierres – “old stones.”

We drove through the Fôret de Retz and the Fôret de Compiègne for an hour to arrive at Pierrefonds to take photos.

There has always been a château on the Pierrefonds site since the 12^th century.  It is a fortress not a luxury château.  The main purpose of the Château at Pierrefonds is to serve as a barrier against invasion on the Oise River.

To finish the day off, we went to the town of Compiègne to do grocery shopping and visit the town where my husband Laurent did his engineering studies in computer science (hardware, software, and communications and electrical systems between the two).

Compiègne is famous as the place where Louis XVI met Marie-Antoinette in 1770.  She was very beautiful; Louis XVI was said to be “paralyzed with timidity” when he met his Austrian bride-to-be.

Both cities have a spooky air to them when you drive through the forests with hoar frost hanging off of them.

Both of these “vielles pierres” towns might not be on the agenda for a first or second trip to France, but maybe a third.

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

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