www.theblisspages.com - travel: France
www.theblisspages.com - travel: FranceMy mother and uncle have been learning French for the last fifteen years and have made many friends in France, who I've had the pleasure of entertaining several times when they've visited them in England.
My mother has been wanting to go for a while but is unfortunately not very mobile, so I took a few days off and we went in September with my uncle. I was a bit uneasy about driving on the right and in an automatic to boot, but I thought, "Well, what's the worst that can happen?". Shying away from the gruesome images that welled up in my too-fertile imagination, I went online and booked a trip through the Channel Tunnel on "Le Shuttle".
The
drive to Folkestone was relatively uneventful (thanks to ABS!) and we soon arrived
at the tunnel. Boarding was well organised except that nobody at Eurotunnel
had told us that cars with passengers who required wheelchairs must embark first,
so we had to wait for the next train - luckily only seven minutes.
Driving off the train half-an-hour later at Calais, the road to Paris was well signposted and we had a good and fast trip until we got to Charles de Galle airport, 20 Km from Paris.
Disaster! We missed the turning and there was no alternative to driving into
Paris - and in the rush hour to boot! I looked at the map and found to my dismay
that Paris was shown the size of a postage stamp. Without a large-scale map,
we drove round in circles for several hours. On my second visit to Saint-Denis
and Montmartre, I pulled into a petrol station and bought a map. An hour or
two later, exhausted, we arrived at Lagny sur Marne...
We arrived at Lucy and Rène's house four hours late, but they gave us a great welcome and the first of many wonderful meals that we would enjoy on our trip. From memory, it was a chicken casserole with rice, followed by cheeses then a crème caramel.
I was overwhelmed by the hospitality we were given by everyone we visited, but especially by Lucy and Rène, who arranged everything and everyone at the french end of our trip.
I
love the French attitude to food: the quality was always very high, as was the
attention to detail. Even a simple tomato and radish salad was transformed by
the way the (home-grown) tomatoes had been blanched and skinned and the quality
of the ingredients. Every meal was accompanied by (fresh) bread, mineral water
and of course wine. After the main course came the cheeses, and what cheeses!
My uncle was particularly taken by the Reblochon de Savoire, but they were all
magnificent.
The French Food and Cook website offers some good recipes in both French and English.
The next morning we went to a local market. The range of food was overwhelming. Joints of meat were being rolled and strung, offal of all kinds were being sold: brains, liver, kidney and hearts. Garlic was being plaited. Vegetables were laid out with care: carrots still attached to the stalks, huge radishes, cauliflowers bigger than my head, and more. Then there were the huge range of cheeses.
We
also popped into Carrefour, a huge supermarket, where I could have browsed for
hours. Unfortunately, we only had a few minutes, so it was a supermarket dash
where we bought a few bottles of wine.
Then we went to some more friends, Francine and Gerard, for lunch. We had some Champagne from their sister's vineyard (and I was delighted to be presented with a bottle to take home) then a fantastic lunch with a 20 year-old white bordeaux and a good red wine.
After lunch, we were taken to see Therésa and Jean-Paul, where we were given afternoon tea and, after a walk in the park, dinner. A memorable meat course served with chanterelle mushrooms will stay in my mind for a long time. After the meat course came cheese before a pear tart. This serving order is much more sensible than the usual english habit of serving the sweet before the cheese. As always, there was plentiful wine, but, surprisingly perhaps, I had no hangovers during the entire visit. The water and bread that were always available probably helped, along with the leisurely way we ate - no rushing down food here. It was treated with the importance it deserved.
A friend of my mother's, Hugette and her husband Rène took us to lunch, and what a lunch! Le Gourmandin, a restaurant traditionnel, is a short drive up a twisty road from the Marne.
We started with an hot oyster in its shell with a cheesy sauce, then I had a salad
which included rabbit, duck and seafood. Unusual and very tasty.
I followed this by a steak with strips of Brie de Meaux, accompanied by a bottle of Moulin-a-Vent and a fruity Gigondas, which I really enjoyed.
I finished with a Crème Brulée, which was luckily not too sweet!
We then had a very pleasant stroll along the Marne in the beautiful sunshine for a couple of hours. We were very lucky with the weather, which was good for our entire trip.
The next day we visited Lucy and Rène's and a friend,
Marguerite, and whiled away the morning with some aperitifs, and were pleased
when their son Pascal popped in to see us. He was, appropriately (as Pascal
is a computer language), involved in programming and we had an enjoyable chat
before he had to leave. We had lunch with the others, then decided to visit
the Château de Champs-sur-Marne.
We followed Lucy et al. in their silver Ford escort v16 saloon, distinctive amongst the sea of Renaults in France. Well, you can imagine what happened! Yes, we lost sight of them for a couple of seconds, and were then surprised that they sped up significantly. When we joined a motorway, we became a little concerned, but when the car accelerated to over 145 kph (in a 110 kph limit), we realised we'd followed the wrong car. We got off the motorway, and on consulting the map, found we were at Joinville, just outside Paris (again). After about three hours and two visits to a small aerodrome near Emerainville, we finally arrived back at Lucy and Rène's, too late to visit the château.
We then went to some more friends at Torcy, diverting so we could at least see the château from the outside. Claudine and Jim both spoke excellent English, she being an English teacher, which I was relieved about, as my schoolboy French is woefully inadequate. We had another friendly meal and good conversation. I was touched when they presented me with a pot of Moutard de Meaux, which was from Claudine's home town.
Regrettably, all good things come to an end, and all too soon, we had to make our way home, though not before a visit to a local wine merchant, Caveau des vins, where I must have gone a little wild as the proprieter gave me a nice bottle of wine and two crystal cognac glasses! I bought about a dozen bottles, including a bottle of cognac, Delamain XO, one of my favourites and one which I've been unable to obtain in England.
I'd like to thank everyone who entertained us so well and look forward to seeing them in England soon. This trip has made me determined to improve my knowledge of the French language, ready for my next visit!
We were shocked to hear that Rène died on Tuesday 21 January after a short illness. I was very upset to hear the news and my thoughts are with Lucy at this tragic time. They were both so friendly and full of life. We are so sorry that we will not be seeing him again.
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: © Mike Bliss 2008