Moissac: The French Romanesque Art Travel Game by Ruth Paget

Moissac:  The French Romanesque Art Travel Game by Ruth Paget

The Gothic period of art in France best known for its Nôtre Dame Cathedral in Paris was preceded by a lesser known yet prolific art style known as the Romanesque.

I associate the Romanesque style (1000 CE – 12^th Century) with the town church at Moissac (1115 – 1130) the most.  Moissac’s famous column statue of Saint Isaac swirls around a pillar in a frenzy that is characteristic of Romanesque sculpture.

Romanesque architectural interiors as at Autun Cathedral (1120 – 1146) can be very tall, but do not achieve the soaring heights of Gothic Amiens Cathedral (1220 – 1270) due to the architectural elements used in its construction.

The style is called Romanesque, because the builders drew upon ancient Roman architecture, notably the basilica form with parallel aisles.  Romanesque churches tend to be rectangular for this reason.

Game 1:  Romanesque Art Vocabulary

The first part of this game is based on vocabulary used to describe Romanesque art.  You can look up these terms online and download images so you can associate terms with images. 

You can also look up definitions for the following terms in Romanesque Churches of France:  A Traveler’s Guide by Peter Strafford.

The following are the words you need to know to appreciate Romanesque art and better appreciate what you see when traveling:

-abacus

-ambulatory

-apse

-arcade

-blind arch

-relieving arch

-transverse arch

-archivolt

-bay

-capital

-chevet

-choir

-clerestory

-cornice

-crypt

-cupola

-engaged column

-flying screen

-gallery

-Lombard bands

-mandorla

-narthex

-oculus

-pendentive

-pilaster

-squinch

-transept

-transept crossing

-tribune

-triforium

-trumeau

-tympanum

-barrel vault

-groin vault

-rib vault

Game 2:  Pronounce Romanesque Words Correctly

Use Google dictionary’s microphone function to practice pronunciation and recognize words when spoken.

Game 3:  Spell the Words Correctly

Work with a partner to spell words.

Game 4:  Define Words

Use a list of words as a guide to write out their definitions.  If you draw, draw a picture of the word.

Game 5:  Identify Romanesque Vocabulary Images

Use the images you downloaded and quiz yourself by showing an image and naming it.

Game 6:  Make an Architectural Terms Video

When you visit Romanesque churches in France, make a video of church façades (fronts) and various architectural elements.

You can use your mobile phone camera or video to do this.

Comparing how different Romanesque churches handled architectural needs is interesting to study.  Older teens might even help film from a checklist of images to make a scavenger hunt.

Game 7:  Make a Romanesque Art Travel Itinerary for France

The book Romanesque Churches of France: A Traveler’s Guide by Peter Strafford discusses many churches you could visit by region.  I have chosen places to visit from his list that I think are representative of the Romanesque style. 

I have visited most of these places with my husband Laurent.  My daughter Florence was a toddler when we visited, so I have also posted blogs on individual Romanesque churches on my Savvy Mom Ruth Paget blog on blogger.com .

A selection of Romanesque churches follows:

*Burgundy Region

-Autun

-Cluny

-Fontenay

-Vézalay

*Paris Region

-Chartres (The Cathedral is half Romanesque and half Gothic.  It took awhile to build.)

*Normandy

-Bayeux

-Caen

-Mont-St-Michel

*Loire Valley

-Fontevraud

*Massif Central

-Conques

*Western France

-Aulnay-de-Saintoge

-Périgueux

-Poitiers

-Saintes

*Southwest France

-Cahors

-Moissac

-Souillac

-Toulouse – St. Sernin

*Provence

-Arles

-Saintes-Marie-de-la-Mer

*Rousillon and Languedoc

-St.-Martin-du-Canigou

-St.-Michel-de-Cuxa

*Central Pyrénées

-Oloron-Ste-Marie

You can look these churches up online and decide which ones would be interesting to visit for your trip to France when setting up an itinerary.

Have fun learning, planning, and visiting France’s Romanesque Churches.

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

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

Click for Laurent Paget's Book

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The Layette Tradition of Tours, France by Ruth Paget

The Layette Tradition of Tours, France Buying Game by Ruth Paget

When I was pregnant with my daughter Florence in France, my husband Laurent’s grandmothers from the Touraine region lent me the family layette to use for the newborn baby and toddler.

The layette had amongst its treasures a christening gown, booties and caps knit by great-grandmas, bibs, satin mittens so baby Florence would not scratch her eyes, and sleepers.  I added overalls from the US, cozy tops, and sleepers to the collection once Florence had outgrown them.

The layette is shared among cousins and is a custom that royalty started that has trickled down to the present day in France.

I have read about layettes dating back as far as 1493 to the birth of Ercole, son of Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, and his wife Beatrice d’Este.  Their son had a layette and an ornate crib that the public could view before the birth according to the book Beatrice d’Este: A Study of the Renaissance by Julia Cartwright.

In the modern day, a family could set up a budget to buy a layette of basic items by looking what parents want on Amazon and noting prices of items to make a preliminary budget.  Funds for the layette could be set aside in a CD until the baby is on the way.

Sample Basic Baby Items to Budget for a Layette:

High Chair                                                              $114

Diaper Changing Stand                                          $112

Crib                                                                         $280

Crib Sheets                                                             $120

Layette Set - Amazon                                             $  50

Christening Gown                                                   $  60

Overalls - $20 x 10                                                 $200

Stroller – Graco                                                      $144

Playpen – Babycare                                               $230

Carter’s Cotton Sleepers 20 x $17                         $340

White Cotton Shirt Sets $25 x 2                             $  50

Carter’s Sweater                                                    $  24

Carter’s Socks – 12                                               $  16

Carter’s Bib Sets $19 x 2                                       $  38

Total                                                                    $1,778

If you have more than one grandchild, bleach, iron, and store clothes in air-tight plastic containers to lend out.  This is a basic kit to get parents started.

The layette tradition is a nice one that can save a large family money and provide for newborns.

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

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

Click for Laurent Paget's Book

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Growing up with British Culture in Monterey County by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Growing up with British Culture in Monterey County by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Monterey’s all-season foggy weather has encouraged the establishment of British-style pubs where you can eat well, sample a beer from a variety of choices, and lunch with children.

One of the most affordable places to eat at one time in Carmel (California) was the Sherlock Holmes Pub in Carmel’s Barnyard Shopping Center.

I thought their menu was typical of the British pubs I had eaten in on vacation in the UK that included a few American items on their menus in addition to British ones.

When I queried The Monterey County Weekly (Circulation: 200,000) about doing an article on the Sherlock Holmes Pub, they were very interested.  The review follows:

Think of England

Cold, damp weather always makes me want to eat hearty British food.  This thought propelled me, my husband Laurent, and daughter Florence to the doors of the Sherlock Holmes Pub in the Barnyard during a recent spate of winter storms.

One of the owners greeted us as we walked in to the snug pub, which had a fire going in a corner fireplace.  The owners opened the pub after visiting England over nineteen years.

The menu features British and American favorites.  We started our meal by sharing an order of mozzarella bread.  Our five slices of French toast topped off with oozing mozzarella took the chill off our bones and whetted our appetites.

For our main dishes, Laurent chose the Deer Stalker Fish and Chips, and I ordered Bangers and Mash.  Florence went with a Dominion Burger to try out the American offerings.

The fish and chips had a crunchy crust, which did not dry out the cod on the inside.  The fish tasted great with lemon juice on it, but malt vinegar is the usual condiment.  Fish and chips vies with roast beef as the national dish of England.

Ale certainly ranks as the national drink of England, which encouraged Laurent to sample a Bass Ale on tap.  Bass hails from Burton-upon-Trent in the Midlands of England, and is Britain’s biggest beer maker.  Bass has a slight citrus flavor, although no fruit is added to it.

My hearty dish of bangers and mash warmed me up after the rain.  “Bangers” refers to the two plump and juicy sausages I had with my meal and “mash” refers to the hand-mashed potatoes and gravy.  Beans baked with brown sugar rounded out my “best of the breakfast and dinner worlds platter.”

I ordered an Irish Guiness on tap – foamy, sweet, and bitter all at once.  You either love Guiness or hate it.  It went well with the sausages.

Two other English specialties that diners might want to try are the Prince of the Pub Shepherd’s Pie and Soho Spectacular Steak and Kidney Pie.  Minced meat such as lamb covered with onions, topped with mashed potatoes, and baked till brown constitutes Shepherd’s Pie.  In the Sherlock Holmes version, top sirloin replaces lamb.

Florence’s Dominion Burger came with Canadian bacon, Monterey Jack Cheese, and guacamole with fries.

Potatoes did not become popular in England until the latter part of the 18^th century, although other parts of Europe knew this New World product before then according to Adrian Bailey in The Cooking of the British Isles.  The English like potatoes and even have a chip sandwich according to Bailey.

For dessert, Florence had a generous helping of creamy vanilla ice cream.  Laurent had a slice of chocolate fudge layer cake.  British cakes are renowned for being moist and delectable.  Laurent’s cake lived up to the reputation.  The creamy frosting melted in the mouth.

Sherlock Holmes offers fair-weather items such as salads, soups, and a variety of burgers.  There is a “Little Detectives” menu for children.

With the variety on their menu, it is no wonder a diner would choose Sherlock Holmes Pub as “my local” as the British say when describing their hangout.

End of Article

Note:

Sherlock Holmes closed has but, fortunately Monterey County has large numbers of British pubs (Peter B’s and Crown and Anchor), California brew pubs (Alvarado Street Brewery), and German restaurants (Stammtisch) for an afternoon family lunch.

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


Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

Click for Laurent Paget's Book

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Fresh Taste of Lebanon: Tabouli's (Now Paprika) Review by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Fresh Taste of Lebanon:  Tabouli’s (Now Paprika) Review by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

I grew up eating Greek and Lebanese food as a child in Detroit (Michigan) and took my daughter Florence out to lunch at what was then Tabouli’s (now Paprika) in Monterey, California after she finished school for early dinners to continue the family tradition.

When I began reviewing restaurants for The Monterey County Weekly (Circulation: 200,000 – California), I queried the newspaper to review Tabouli, now Paprika, and was given the assignment I think, because I said I made many Middle Eastern food items at home.

I have changed Tabouli’s name to its present one of Paprika in the article that follows:

Fresh Taste of Lebanon

I can feel the vitamins course through my veins every time I eat vegetable-rich Lebanese cuisine at Paprika.  Chef and owner Christophe Hamadé offers a tempting array of vegetarian and vegan dishes alongside his traditional meat dishes.

The dish I order every time I go to Paprika is baba ghanouge, a roasted eggplant purée made with sesame seed paste (tahini), crushed garlic, and lemon juice.  Olive oil sprinkled with paprika and black olives decorate decorates the final product, which you spread on warm pieces of pita (Lebanese pocket bread).  I like to think of baba ghanouge as hummus without the calories.  You can order baba ghanouge as a side dish or as part of a combination plate.

My favorite feel-good plate comes with baba-ghanouge, hummus, and tabouli.  Hummus, a chickpea purée made with lemon juice, sesame seed paste, and crushed garlic, has become an onion dip substitute it seems.  At Paprika, hummus gets spread on pita like baba ghanouge and tastes like an exotic peanut butter.

For me, tabouli salad is like good-tasting Lebanese penicillin.  Finely chopped parsley and mint form the base of tabouli along with bulghur wheat that has been impregnated with lemon-oil dressing.  Pieces of tomato and spring onion add their flavor to this mix as well. 

These items that depend on freshness for their taste have always been good in the 20+ years that I have been going to Paprika with my family.

Adventurous diners might want to try the combination plate that comes with dolmas, tabouli, hummus, and spinach salad.  Dolmas are stuffed grapevine leaves that get rolled into cylinders and steamed.  Paprika’s version comes with tomato, onion, and rice.  Lemon juice and olive oil season the dolmas.  The vine leaves have a tart taste and are more tender than baked cabbage leaves.

A fatouche salad might be a new dish for some people.  This is an Arab garden specialty that makes use of the freshest lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, green onion, parsley, and mint.  The novelty of the dish comes from the sumac, used to season it, along with toasted pieces of pita bread.  The mint and parsley form an especially refreshing combination.

Refreshing also describes the tzaziki spread with pita bread.  Paper-thin cucumber slices hold this savory mix of yogurt, mint, crushed garlic, and sour cream together.  Tzatziki, a deceptively light spread, is a famous appetizer all over the Mediterranean.

The owner’s garlic chicken merits several tries.  This combination plate comes with hummus, tabouli, and rice.  You can also find shawerma, a relative of a Greek gyro, on the menu along with kafta kebab made with group steak.

All of the meat dishes can be placed inside a pita wrap.

Without doubt, Paprika’s food is excellent, but half the charm of the place is eating in the cozy interior decorated with oriental carpets that look like arches with lanterns in them.

A large supper tray hangs on the main wall with photographs of temples and Lebanese cedars under snow.  Large jars of preserved foodstuffs line the tops of the cupboards in the kitchen.  Arabic music plays while you eat and many times, Arabic and French language students from the Defense Language Institute come with their instructors to converse with the Beirut-born owner as they order.

Paprika’s owner worked in Paris nine years before coming to the United States.   While working in Paris, he met a couple from Carmel, who invited him to visit the Monterey Peninsula.  He agreed to come and immediately fell in love with the area, because it was quiet unlike Paris.

(Congratulations to Paprika for being named a Michelin Restaurant in 2019!)

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

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

Click here for Laurent Paget's Book

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