FrenchDuck UK - Latest

more info

Anthony Peregrine in the Telegraph provides an up-to-date guide on what to see, where to stay and eat in Aix-en-Provence (13 Bouches-du-Rhone, Provence).
He does however not say much about the local wines - Coteaux d’Aix-en-Provence AC where some excellent reds are produced, dominated by the Grenache and Cinsault grapes with Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon gradually replacing Carignan in the blend.. The rosé wines are soft and fruity with a bit more body than those from the Cotes de Provence which is further east and south.. You will still find some recent vintages of wines from the west of the region which are now classified as Les Baux de Provence AC - e.g the superb rosé from Mas Sainte Berthe at Les Baux. Perhaps the best of the Cotes d’Aix-en-Provence producers is Chateau Vignelaure at Rians (83 Var, Provence) - see map

It has always struck me as strange that a lot of British History has been brought to life for me when travelling through France. Much of England’s history between 1154 and 1453 was bound up with events in the Southwest France and the Dordogne, including Henry II’s ownership and subsequent loss of Aquitaine and his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine. Not to mention the English claim to Calais and innumerable battles on French territory over the centuries.

Another thread of our history is manifested in the Route de Richard, Coeur du Lion, better known as Richard the Lionheart or Richard I. Much of his reign was spent on the Crusades to the Holy Land, however the “Route” is not connected with the Crusades, but more with a less consequential tussle with Philip of France, which ultimately led to his death in the Limousin.

The route runs through pleasant and little-visited countryside in an area bounded by Angouleme(16 Charente, Poitou-Charentes), Limoges (87 Haut Vienne, Poitou-Charentes) and Perigueux(24 Dordogne, Aquitaine) and focuses on 15 medieval castles most of which are open to the public, Many of them are impressive structures with rounded turrets and moats, the most impressive being Chateau de Jumilhac le Grand (24 Dordogne, Aquitaine). The most poignant is probably the Chateau de Chalus-Chabrol where Richard met an untimely death.
The castles on the route are:-
Chateau de Rochebrune
Chateau de Rocheouart
Chateau de Brie
Chateau de Montbron
Chateau de Chalus-Chabrol
Chateau des Cars
Chateau de Lastours
Chateau de Neron
le Chalard
Chateau de Jumilhac-le-Grand
Cite de Saint Yreix-le-Perche (how do you pronounce that!?)
Chateau de Coussac-Bonneval
Cite de Segur
Chateau d’Arnac-Pompadour

The route is well sgn-posted throughout its 180km length, and provides a good way of passing a few days wandering through the gentle countryside of the Limousin, off the main north-south traffic routes - and get some history. Regrettably, wine is not one of the highlights of the region - you need to go north, south or west of the region for decent wines. But it is a rich fruit and chestnut producing area - so your trip can be healthy and abstemious as well!

For more info see www.visitorama.com

This coming weekend Bordeaux Fete le Vin - Bordeaux celebrates wine (29 June - 2 July) when more than 300,000 visitors descend on the city to sample and enjoy its prime assets and see wine workshops, concerts, firework displays, processions and conferences - see www.bordeaux-fete-le-vin.com.

However, one by-product of the festival and the business of wine is the production of wine posters, one of which will be available for purchase in limited edition numbers at the Festival. Usually in a retro-style, wine (and other) companies can commission posters to promote their products - the sample above being commissioned by the owners of “Malesan” from a talented artist Jean-Pierre Got, who is an “Affichiste” in Bordeaux. The image is (loosely) based on the bronze horses in the Quinconces Plaza fountain in central Bordeaux - entitled “Les Chevaux Girondins” - where one obviously frisky horse is trying to seduce another with a bottle of the said wine. For more of his work see http://jeanpierregot.online.fr/

The fountains and statues were built to honour local delegates to the 1789 Revolutionary Assembly who were later purged by Robespierre as being too soft! During World War II, the Resistance dismantled it piece by piece and hid it from the Germans in a barn in the Médoc for the duration of the war.
Malesan is a decent Bordeaux brand, blended from various vineyards and is usually a mix of 60% Merlot 30% Cabernet Sauvignon 10% Cabernet Franc - and tends to be reliable and value for money - see www.malesan.fr.
The wine is also available in the UK from Oddbins

Sunday 2 July 2006 is the day to be in Noyon (60 Oise,Picardie) - northeast of Paris roughly halfway between Reims and Amiens and not to be confused with Nyons!. (see map). For this is the day of the 19th annual MARCHE DES FRUITS ROUGES by the Cathedral when local producers arrive with masses of red fruit including strawberries, raspberries, red, white and blackcurrants, loganberries and cherries.(OK, so whitecurrants and blackcurrants are not technically red!). A prize is awarded for the best display,

So you can wander, taste, smell and purchase fresh fruit, jams, syrups, fruit coulis and compotes, and enjoy the street musicians and artists who lend a real atmosphere to the event.

As with a many small French towns, Noyon boasts an impressive 12th Century Gothic cathedral which is worth a detour anyway.

Keywords: France, event,Oise,Noyon

It is always thus - we speed down the motorway to get to our destination as fast as possible, and yet on the way miss and dismiss many other areas and attractions en route.
One such is the “Sologne” a vast area of unspoilt nature teeming with ponds, heathland and forest in the loop of the Loire river south of Orleans. If you take the A71 autoroute south from Orleans towards Bourges, Clermont-Ferrand or Limoges and Cahors, you pass through the Sologne, and as so often a landscape that is not particularly dramatic becomes a bore - just more time between you and your destination,
It starts in the west around Romorantin-Lanthenay (not for from Cheverny and stretches east and south towards Sancerre and Vierzon.
Romorantin-Lanthenay is well-known as a gastronomic centre, and gives its name to the local aromatic Romorantin grape. Otherwise. the main towns (and there really aren’t many) are on the N20 and include Lamothe-Beuvron (home of the Tarte Tatin the upside-down Apple Pie - see www.tarte-tatin.com and La Ferte-St-Aubin. But the main joys of the area have to be the solitude and the nature - ideal walking, hiking, cycling, fishiing and hunting country, bird- and nature-watching.
Best of all the area is quiet, uncrowded and less than 90 minutes from Paris.
Although no wine is grown within the area, there are plenty of local wines to choose from - Cheverny and Cour-Cheverny in the west, Coteaux du Giennois, Pouilly-sur-Loire and Sancerre to the east and Menetou-Salon, Quincy and Reuilly to the South.
For more info on the Sologne see www.sologne-france.com

Keywords: France, Loire, Centre, Sologne,wine,nature,parc,

FrenchDuck’s turn to do the Blog Carnival of France a round-up of latest postings on and about France this week, which I hope will help you to find some gems amongst the blogs and web offerings “a la francaise”.

Being marooned in the English Midlands for most of the summer, I look forward to my regular “fix” of France, and one of the best is Julian Merrow Smith’s Postcard from Provence - every day a new picture, usually a landscape or a still life capturing the essence of rural Provence.
A little less consistent, but always interesting is the French section of TrekEarth where some excellent photos from all corners of France can be found.
My background is in French wine, so I am always seeking interesting wine sites, and the most enjoyable and innovative I have come across is the video blog of the amiable Benoit Tarlant at Champagne Tarlant. Using podcast and video he provides a fascinating insight into the process of making Champagne (all in French though) - and certainly demolishes the rather pompous image of many Champagne makers.
For something in English, the Kitcheners at Domaine de Lauroux keep a vineyard diary as they develop a vineyard in deepest Gascony - most recently collaborating with an Australian wine maker.
WIth many Brits soon to depart for French destinations This French Life has some useful tips for driving in France, taking account of the tougher approach of the gendarmerie in recent years, whilst those already living in (or planning to live in) the Languedoc can find everything they need to know at Creme-de-Languedoc where you can also find out about local events such as the Montpellier Dance Festival which is currently running.
For travel to and within France, I do find the ViaMichelin website really useful, as it calculates your route, notes any problems you will find en-route with road works etc on the day chosen - and even provides details of the locations of speed cameras!!
Whilst we go Wimbledon crazy in the UK, the French go Tour de France crazy for the first 3 weeks of July, and for a non-French slant on the race plus all the latest updates on the teams, politics, drug scandals etc see the TDFBlog. On France for Visitors Kelby Carr has lots of info on the tour - and you can vote for the 2006 Tour city you would most want to visit from the choice of Paris, Strasbourg, Bordeaux. Carcassonne. Beziers or Pau - I voted for Carcassonne which is simply unique and spectacular - is in the warm south, has wines (Minervois, Corbieres, Limoux, Cotes de Malepere, history (lots of Cathar links locally), the Canal du Midi and is quintessentially French!

I recently had ocassion to provide an updated translation of a French wine website, but the vigneronne and I both agreed that her English and my French were about the same level of amateur competence. Hence, I was dellighted to come across French-Word-a-Day which is much better than it sounds, as it is essentially a French cafe blog (with some good authentic photos of French life) and some gentle help with French vocabulary and verbs - written in a lively style by Arizonan Kristin Espinasse - entertaining and instructive. Hence, I now discover (rather disappointingly) that the “boudoir” is better translated as a “pouting” or “sulking” room than some exotic female lair!

This is part of the Blog Carnival of France.

Throughout the summer the town of Bourges(18 Cher, Centre) is all lit up in the evenings! This great little town with its magnificent Gothic Cathedral (the best flying buttresses I have seen) and medieval town centre is a convenient stop on the trip south (now just off the A71 autoroute south towards Clermont Ferrand and also convenient for the new A20 autoroute south to Limoges, Cahors & Toulouse). The town will be illuminated on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights in June, July and September - and every night in August.
But this is not just a matter of floodlighting the buildings - there is a lamplit circuit through the heart of the Old Town “Guided by the blue halo of the lamplights, the visitor threads his way around the luminescent jewel of the Cathedral and through the winding streets, stopping here and there to admire details bathed in a soft glow of light : the elegant carving of a porch, a gargoyle learing from a doorway, or a timber-framed house silhouetted against the night sky.”
Furthermore in Friday 30 June, Saturday 29 June and Friday 18 July there is also a wine fair in the town - an opportunity to taste the wines of the region, especially the Sauvignon Blancs from Menetou-Salon, Sancerre, Quincy and Reuilly,
For more info see www.bourgestourisme.com

Sancerre (18 Cher, Centre) is world-renown vineyard (and pretty town) in the mid-Loire Valley, The town is situated on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Loire river and providing a superb view of the vineyards which enjoy the natural slopes on limestone and marl.
It is recognised for its Sauvignon Blanc wines - dry and minerally - although in the past it had been better known for its red Pinot Noir, which is still produced albeit in smaller quantities.

Emergency assistance call from an old friend touring the Loire Valley who needed to find a nice hotel with a decent restaurant not far from Blois - No problem!
As part of our wine-buying trips we frequently traversed the Loire Valley, both as a destination in its own right, and also as a conveniently placed last night stay before heading for the Channel ports and home.
One of our “discoveries” was the Cheverny appellation - well, actually it is 2 appellations Cheverny and Cour-Cheverny AOC. We had never heard of it back in the 1980s - and many still have yet to stumble upon it. Using our trusty “Guide Hachette des Vins de France” we had booked a visit to a winery, only to fail to discover it!! Road names and signposting in France can be notoriously difficult, and in those days our French was not so good - and mobile phones an expensive and heavy luxury! After about an hour of seemingly going round in circles, we gave up and started to head north - only to find a sign to another Domaine off the road towards Blois. So by serendipity we arrived at the Domaine des Huards to a fantastic tasting of wines served by Michel and Jocylene Gendrier. I particularly liked the Cour-Cheverny AC Cuvee Francois I - 100% Romorantin grape from old vines - very dry, very aromatic with hints of lime and honey!

Our discovery of Les Trois Marchands (The Three Merchants) was a recommendation from Michel Gendrier - and we have been back at least half-a-dozen times since. As a hotel it falls into the OK category - neither luxurious nor spartan - comfortable, affordable en-suite rooms in the French style (although heavy flock wallpaper is absent!). It is the restaurant that (as usual) is the main attraction - especially if you feel up to tacking the Menu Gastronomique! Always good food - with a wide range of choice - excellent local wines and friendly service. We have never had a bad meal there - even when turning up late and unannounced with a party of 8!!
But wait - that is not all. For some culture you can visit the nearby Chateau de Cheverny - an impressive Renaissance chateau within walking distance of the hotel.
And a little further south you can try the excellent Sauvignon Blancs at Domaine Octavie at Oisly in the Touraine (they also produce good red, rose and sparkling wines)