Reuil-Malmaison Chateau outside Paris (France) - 1 : Napoleon and Josephine's Country Estate by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting the Reuil-Malmaison Château outside Paris (France): Napoleon and Josephine’s Country Estate by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

The Reuil-Malmaison Château belonged to Josephine Beauharnais, the wife of Napoleon Bonaparte and Empress of France.

Napoleon liked going to Reuil-Malmaison, because Josephine had more relaxed etiquette at this château than in the Parisian salons.

Josephine was from the West Indies in the Caribbean, which is much hotter than France.  The fashion in this region tended to be lighter – in fabric and in color to deal with the heat.  Light colors reflect the sun rather than absorb it like black clothing. 

Light black garments might have been worn over clothing to do marketing and protect clothing, but generally clothes were not as constricting and hair was kept off the shoulders and neck to keep perspiration down in the West Indies (Caribbean).

Before visiting the Château, my husband Laurent, toddler Florence, and I visited the Parc de Bois-Préau nearby to just see what was in the park.  There was an aristocratic event going on:  a fox hunting dog show.

Five musicians in red waistcoats wandered around and played their circular hunting horns among the crowd.  Florence enjoyed running around the lawns.

We eventually made our way back to the Château and took a guided tour.  Josephine’s home was decorated in First Empire Style – lots of Egyptian motifs bathed in gold.

Florence squirmed during the visit, but I held her hand and stayed in back of the group in case Florence started chattering.  She liked looking at the gold Egyptian busts of the Sphinx on the chairs.

My favorite room was Napoleon’s recreation room, because it looks like the inside of a tent albeit an imperial one with lots of gold tassels.

Josephine’s red velvet bedroom had an octagonal mirror above the bed.  The general color scheme at Reuil-Malmaison is gold and black.  (The color scheme at Versailles is silver and white as a point of contrast.)

After visiting Reuil-Malmaison, we went to Versailles and let Florence splash her hands in the Neptune Fountain.

Then, we walked a kilometer to see Marie-Antoinette’s hamlet where she pretended to be a peasant with her ladies-in-waiting.

Marie-Antoinette’s hamlet is made up of a village of thatched roof farmhouses that gave us many cute photo opportunities for Florence.  Florence especially liked petting the sheep in the children’s zoo.

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

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Visiting the Bagatelle Gardens and the Puteaux Island Pool in Paris (France) by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting the Bagatelle Gardens and the Pûteaux Island Pool in Paris (France) by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

To go to the Bagatelle Gardens, my husband Laurent and I drove down the Avenue Charles de Gaulle to reach the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, known as Etoile on the Métro line Number 1.

There are 12 large avenues that radiate from the Arc de Triomphe that lead to almost all points in France it seems. 

Merging into the traffic circle is hard at the Arc de Triomphe.  Parisians seem to want everyone to take a tourist bus or the Métro to get to downtown Paris.  And, once you are in the circle, Parisian drivers make it difficult to get to your exit, so you have to keep driving around the Arc de Triomphe.  Of course, there is a lot of beeping and swearing in French done, too.

Once we got to our exit, we drove through the Bois de Boulogne (Boulogne Forest) to reach the Bagatelle Gardens, famous for its roses.

The Maréchal d’Estrées built the Bagatelle Gardens and its pavillon in 1720.  The Bagatelle Gardens were famous for romantic trysts – perhaps after a day’s worth of hunting in the Bois de Boulogne.

The French Revolutionaries spared the Bois de Boulogne while it was razing other buildings and parks.  They probably recognized its therapeutic value after a day of denunciations.

Parisians from the chic Western suburbs and inhabitants from Paris’s 16^th arrondisement treat the Bagatelle Gardens like their own private garden.

You had to pay a small fee to enter the Garden, but air fragrant with roses made you forget that you lived in a big city.

I walked to the Bagatelle Gardens about three times a week when Florence was a baby.  I got my exercise, and Florence got her outing.  The warm sun always made the flowers smell great there. 

You can buy ice cream, sodas, and casseroles in the Garden’s cafés and restaurants.

I used to sometimes eat lunch in the Bagatelle Gardens after going to the pool on the Ile-de-Pûteaux (Pûteaux Island Pool). I went back to the Bagatelle Gardens for lunch to regain my strength and stamina after childbirth. 

Many cities could put together similar “green and recreation” spaces with a little effort in the US, too. 

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

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Touring Downtown Metz (France): Visiting the Showplace of the Lorraine by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Touring Downtown Metz (France):  Visiting the Showplace of the Lorraine by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

A tour of Metz, the showplace of the Lorraine in Eastern France, awaited us the next day.  How do you do justice to a town like this in a few paragraphs?

Metz is 3,000 years old according to one of the guidebooks I bought (Metz: Découverte) and merits just as much of a visit as the towns in Provence I thought.  Metz is famous for its merchants, bankers, and warriors.

The guide went on to say that Metz tried to profit from its proximity to Luxembourg, Belgium, and Germany in the modern era with its university and hi-tech companies.

I felt that the town was more Europe-oriented than Paris, because of the willingness of its inhabitants to speak foreign languages. 

The people of Metz do remember that the European Union was formed by European steel manufacturers, who needed to sell cars, trains, buses, planes, ships, submarines, and weather satellites.  All of these items needed to be sold to decision-makers, who preferred to speak in their own language.

We began our tour at the Place de la Comédie and walked to Saint Etienne Cathedral.  The Cathedral was being restored to its lovely ochre color again.  The construction began in the 13^th century on this Cathedral.

The vaulting inspires vertigo.  The city had not begun restoring the interior, so it had black soot and mold everywhere.  Archaeology involved a lot of sooty scraping I decided.  Mass was in session, so I did not tour the Cathedral.

Outside everyone was selling Lilies of the Valley for May 1^st.  We walked to the Place Saint Louis, which was originally the Place de la Change.  It was built in the 13^th and 14^th centuries.

The Place St. Louis is a series of connected buildings with arcades on the ground floor.  The supporting pillar between each arch ballooned out a bit.  During the Middle Ages, this was the fief of Jewish and Lombard bankers.  The Milanese bankers of Northern Italy were called “Lombards.”

The day we visited, old paintings were being displayed along the arcades.  We walked around town enjoying the sights until noon when we went back to the apartment to meet Laurent’s cousins.  We set out for a little restaurant outside town called Chez Yvette.

We started with Kir – a sweet, white wine made with blackberry liqueur.  We ate white asparagus from Hoerdt in Alsace.  Laurent’s cousin told us that Hoerdt is a small village near Strasbourg, which is the asparagus capital of Eastern France.

The asparagus were served with homemade mayonnaise or vinaigrette.  White asparagus has a milder taste than its green cousin, but I like them both.  We drank a dry Alsatian Pinot Noir (Gaston Lorentz 1992) with the asparagus.

Then, we ate magret de canard, which is the fat line from the breast that comes from ducks and geese.  We drank a Côtes de Beaune from Burgundy with this dish.

As the cheese course, we ate Alsace’s only cheese that is also superlative – Muenster.  It has a stinky aroma, but I like it on pumpernickel bread with caraway seeds.  It actually tastes better with beer than wine I think.

We drank our coffee on the restaurant terrace and watched the children play on the swing set that the restaurant had for children outside.  I went out and pushed the kids in my heels and dress and did a few “underdog” pushes much to the delight of the children, who wanted to swing higher and higher.

I could have stayed there all night, but we had to go back to Paris.

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

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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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