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I am a great fan of the Lot département (46 Midi-Pyrenees), initially from wine-hunting around the town of Cahors, and more recently further upstream on the Rivers Lot and Célé, where the landscapes get even more enticing. A recent trip was greatly enhanced by having Helen Martin’s book Lot: Travels Through a Limestone Landscape in SouthWest France
It was her recommendation which led us to the stunning view at Reilhaguet (46 Lot) (see above) which she accurately describes as “the view to end all views, a roof of the world view, a heart-stopping, aching, yearning view” (about 25km north of Cahors just east of the N20).
But one of the undoubted joys of the region has to be its gastronomy and the richness of its markets, and with Helen’s permission we can share an extract from her chapter on “Food and Drink in the Lot”
Eating and drinking in the Lot is not so much gastronomy, it is more a way of life. Simple pleasures like early-morning mushrooming results in gastronomic treats at meal times.
The food used to revolve around the polyculture practised by the small propriétaires, less so today. But fruits are still bottled, geese are still stuffed, pigs are fattened, påtés are tinned, ducks are turned into hunks of confit, and yellow chickens, dotted with oil and butter and legs akimbo, are forced into ovens to emerge an hour or so later, tasting simply sensational. It is a day-in, day-out, year-long occupation. Tout es bou per sa sason ‘To everything there is a season’ takes on new meaning. ©Helen Martin
Helen Martin writes more about the Lot in her blog at http://lotbook.blogspot.com/
To read more about Food and Wine in the Lot see……… Read more on this…
Duck, Goose, Foie Gras, Cassoulet, Madiran, Armagnac and all the other good rich produce of the land feature in Martin Calder’s book A Summer in Gascony: Discovering the Other South of France
A Summer in Gascony: Discovering the Other South of France
The Independent’s Simon Calder narrates an interesting and informative Podcast which you can download and take with you to the cosmopolitan city of Nice, an easy option with many budget airlines flying in from numerous UK airports - or take the TGV from London!
Beginning in the Promenade des Anglais, Simon Calder explores the Matisse Museum and admires the beautiful views of the hills of Provence. He also samples the region’s cuisine, trying traditional corn pancakes and dining at the luxurious Aphrodite restaurant, before tasting some locally produced wine.
The local wine is called Bellet AOC.The vineyards lie within the city limits in the hills above the town. Seldom seen in the UK, the whites are made from Rolle and some Chardonnay with Folle Noir for the reds with some Grenache and Cinsault. Rosé comes from Braquet and Cinsault. Yapp Brothers stock the Bellet AC wines of Domaine de la Source - the rosé 2007 being “a dry and fruity rosé with aromas of wild roses. On the palate, red berry flavours precede a clean, dry finish.”, whilst the 2007 Blanc is described as “An esoteric dry white wine with subtle hints of Provençal pine. The wine displays aromas of pear and wild flowers when young and quince and toasted almonds when it reaches maturity. The dry but fruity palate has balanced acidity and good fruit characteristics, preceding an alluring dry finish.”
Some Links:
Hi Hotel
Musée Matisse in Nice
Aphrodite Restaurant
Nice Official Tourist Office
It looks exactly like the Café du Port on the quai Deschamps; it’s uncanny, as if they’ve brought the tiles and the brass fitments over piece by piece. You look out of the window expecting to see the Garonne, and instead you’re on Park Lane
The Telegraph (11 April 08) recommends some places to eat authentic French cuisine in the UK - the above description is about a new eatery in London’s Park Lane called Bord’eaux (which translates as “waterside”)
A meal at a decent French restaurant in the UK might just provide a cheaper alternative to a trip to France this year, bearing in mind the disastrous Euro exchange rate (currently £1=€1.20 at the Post Office).
The Cafe du Port in Bordeaux is on the right bank of the river and overlooks the port area with impressive views of the sweeping curve of the Garonne and Napoleon’s stone bridge (Pont de Pierre). Fish is their speciality.
Another option in Bordeaux is la Tupina “authentic southwest” in rue porte de la Monnaie (see map) which was recommended by Rick Stein in his Rick Stein’s French Odyssey series
See our customised Google Map of Bordeaux
Other recommendations from the Telegraph article for eating French in the UK:-
The Great House, Market Place, Lavenham in Suffolk - an attractive small medieval village in the middlle of East Anglia- “A striking medieval English building houses a romantic room serving classic Gallic cuisine. Try the hearty pavé of beef in a rich red-wine sauce with beef marrow”
French Living in Nottingham, which also featured in our article on where to eat Cassoulet. This endearing rustic bistro is decked out with checked tablecloths and serves onglet à l’échalote, using a typically French cut of beef with a sauce of shallots and veal stock, sautéed potatoes and seasoned vegetables
Restaurant Bosquet in Kenilworth,Warwickshire which focuses on the gastronomy of SW France The chef Bernard Lignier’s south-western French roots add character to this little restaurant in a terrace. Much of the menu has modern touches, but the starter of quail with Puy lentils and foie gras could not be more classically French. Their wine list features a good selection of the wines of Southwest France - Madiran, Cahors and Jurancon.
For those of us missing the essence of deepest France, the answer may be to indulge in some good wholesome French Food - particularly from the SouthWest of France, the source of goose, duck and foie gras. But for wholesome winter evenings nothing can beat the classic Cassoulet, originally from Castelnaudry (11 Aude, Languedoc). And in the heart of Nottingham there is a full-on French experience awaiting visitors to French Living (27 King Street, Nottingham, tel: 0115 958 5885) - a shop/cafe/restaurant also selling products of the South West - it all looks very French!
French Living was created in 1994 by Corsican/English partnership, Sephane and Louise Luiggi. The partnership also produced a book: Come to the Table: A Passion for Eating and French Living
Come to the Table is Louise Luiggi’s autobiography with recipes – it’s a story of two passions; love and food.
This is a deliciously romantic love story. Stéphane Luiggi, a brooding and darkly handsome Corsican meets fragile, blonde English girl, Louise, in the pink-bricked city of Toulouse – La Ville Rose. The couple discovers not only a passion for each other but they also begin to nurture a passion for food as Stéphane patiently tutors Louise in France’s culinary secrets. Food becomes the unusual yet evocative means of expressing the emotions that run through their story, as Louise and Stéphane’s life-experiences mirror the way it is depicted.
The Independent (9 March 08) recommends a number of other good French eateries in the UK which specialise in the dish, notably the Le Cassoulet Restaurant in SouthWest London (Croydon):
Malcolm John, chef/patron of the newly opened Le Cassoulet, hopes that Croydon is also waiting for its chance to dress up, drink Minervois and eat foie gras, escargot and 28-day-aged Chateaubriand… I find it physically and mentally impossible to see cassoulet on a menu and not order it….. It comes to the table in its own little lidded pot, complete with regulation crusty top, and a good mix of tender white beans, smoky sausage, shreddy, fall-apart duck, wibbly-wobbly pork confit and even bits of confit duck gizzard for good measure…… In the spirit of symbiosis, I choose a wine from the special list from south-west France and get a 2004 Domaine Berthomieu Madiran (£29) that is chunky, tannic, hard-working.
Le Cassoulet 18 Selsdon Road South Croydon CR2 6PA Tel 020 8633 1818
Other Cassouleteries include Comptoir Gascon in London’s Smithfield ( 63 Charterhouse Street,LondonEC1M 6HJ Tel: 020-7608 0851) and La Garrigue in Edinburgh (31 Jeffrey Street, Edinburgh EH1 1DH T: 0131 557 3032)
In the heart of Paris’ Left Bank, a British-owned and run Restaurant is one of only 5 new recipients of this prestigious award. “Le Restaurant” is part of “L’Hotel” which was voted Best City Hotel in the World by Harper’s Bazaar. Admittedly Le Restaurant does have a French Chef
Star chef Philippe Bélissent is the rising star of French cuisine. Formerly sous-chef at the three-star Michelin restaurant, Ledoyen in Paris, the precociously talented Bélissent quickly made Le Restaurant the hottest table in town confirmed by rapturous reviews in the French press.
The Michelin Red guide to France is published in French and English on 6 March 2008 and not only features those top restautants with Michelin stars but also offers 510 listings for restaurants where you can eat well for a more reasonable price i.e €28 or less in the provinces and €35 in Paris. I’ve always found the red Guide invaluable for finding my way around towns (lot of town maps) and for finding somewhere good to eat - and so often in France you cannot always tell the quality of a place by its location or external appearance. There are 435 one-star restaurants in France, 68 with two-star and 26 with three stars.
BBC2’s final of MasterChef 2008 (Thursday 28 Feb 2008) takes the finalists to work in some of France’s best restaurants.
The other challenges for the 3 finalists have included cooking at the London Hilton for a group of Professional Chefs with 17 Michelin stars between them, and cooking for the Army in the heat and humidity of Belize with very basic army equipment. Working in a French Michelin-starred restaurant will be the final challenge!
The restaurants and chefs chosen are recognised as amongst the best in the world, with exacting standards and extraordinary quality food:-
Interesting that 2 of these top restaurants are not in Paris but deep in the French countryside - very provincial and some distance from major centres of population - the French will travel long distances for a good meal!
If you are interested in French cuisine, have a read of Michael Booth’s entertaining book Sacre Cordon Bleu
Booth shares with us the secrets of his training at Le Cordon Bleu and of French cooking itself, explaining how to make the perfect sauce; the secret of great stocks; how to win a fight with a lobster; and how to avoid maiming yourself while cleaning your knives. He explores how France rose to culinary pre-eminence and asks if Paris still deserves its reputation as the culinary capital of the world. Following both traumas and unexpected triumphs at school, Booth embarks on the ultimate chef’s challenge, he goes to work at the Michelin-starred Paris restaurant of the most famous chef in France, Joel Robuchon.
You’ll learn a lot about the French and their approach to food.
One of the joys of renting a property in some parts of rural France was always the prospect of a little welcoming glass of the patron’s home brew - often something so unfamiliar and powerful if was bound to encourage good Franco-Brittanique entente cordiale. For me it was a homemade Pineau des Charentes near Saintes (Charente, Poitou-Charentes) - a blend of unfermented grape juice and neat Cognac made in the Cognac region, The first glass of this totally unknown beverage was drunk with a mixture of trepidation and politeness - served from an unlabelled bottle straight out of the fridge. The second glass was miraculously welcomed as an old friend, and the third was drunk merely to prove to the host that we were not merely being polite. Unfortunately we then discovered that the property we were staying in was still a few kilometres drive away along what roads that seemed anything but straight at the time - although the following morning the curves seemed to have been an illusion,
Hence a certain dismay at another piece of French life under threat as the Guardian (10 Dec 07) reports that this tradition is under threat.
Eau-de-vie, the fiery homemade fruit brandy which has been a staple of French rural hospitality for centuries, could be under threat by a new law to be enforced on January 1.
In France, making homemade alcohol is a tightly regulated - and taxed - process. But nearly 300,000 fruit growers and their offspring, thanks to a law dating back to the 1920s, can make up to 10 litres of pure eau-de-vie, or 20 litres of 50% alcohol, tax-free.
I do somehow have my doubts that this ruling will be strictly adhered to in the backwaters of rural France, although you should never underestimate the French customs authorities (les douaniers) who are regarded with grudging respect in France - so the bottle may stay in the fridge in future!
Charles Bremner in the Times (10 Dec 07) reports that another romantic icon of France with echoes of the 1930s is also disappearing - the Wagon-Lits sleeping cars which ran overnight from Paris to the Riviera are no more! The advent of the TGV and the ticket prices have rendered this serene and elegant mode of travel obsolete - Le Train Bleu as it was known was gleaming, polished and luxurious - a far cry from today’s preference for speed and utility. It does seem to me that modern travel termini such as all airports and many railway stations (with the exception of the new St Pancras International in London) are designed to rob travellers of any sense of anticipation or excitement for the thrill of the journey and turn it into an ordeal to be endured.
Now you’ll have to eat at the Train Bleu Restaurant in Paris to get an impression of the stylish decor and style (see image above) or really blow the budget with a trip on the Orient Express from Paris to Venice!
You may just have missed the annual Lille Wine Fair (16-19 November 2007) but Lille’s colourful Christmas Market starts on 21 November and runs through until 24 December. This vibrant northern city also features an excellent selection of modetn and stylish shops (Galeries Layfayette, Fnac, plenty of fashion) and the heart of the old town (Vieux Lille) has innumerable interesting shops and boutiques - including food, antiques, gift shops.
There is no shortage of places to eat e.g the extravagant ll’Huitriere for superb but extyravagant fish and seafood. Local resident Alexandra Hudson at le Jardin d’Alix recommends the rue de la Monnaie, the oldest street in Lille for finding somewhere to eat - including l’Assiette du Marché (the market plate) which is housed in the old mint (* gourmet food, and a good deal at 16€ (starters and a main course, or the main course+dessert), but also more refined dishes“).
Nearby is the “la Pâte brisée“ very cheap, which specializes in different hot and cold, sweet and salty tarts and pies. Both places are jammed with Lille people, because the price value is so good.
The chocolate expert is also on rue de la Monnaie near the musem l’Hospice Comtesse - his name is Benoit, and he is listed in all the gourmet guides..
A personal favourite is another fish restaurant, somewhat cheaper than l’Huitriere, but excellent food and service - l’Ecume des Mers, near the Grand Place - or if you are a fan of mussels and want something more bistro style - try Aux Moules in the rue de Bethune.
There is no shortage of places to stay in Lille to suit all pockets, but for a real sense of the place you could try the Jardin d’Alix, a B&B in the suburbs but on the tramway straight into the city centre.
Also until 20th January 2008 there is an exhibition of Chagall’s ceramics at the Roubaix Swimming Pool!
If you missed the Lille wine fair, Paris is the venue for the Independent Wine Makers’ WIne Fair - 22nd -26th November 2007.
Mark Hix in the Independent (28 Oct 07) claims that UK producers are now producing ducks which can rival the French!
Years ago, the best ducks always came from France. If you wanted that lovely rich, full-flavoured taste with minimum fat and skin, you had to buy a Barbary or a canard de Challans - or you had to use the breast (magret) or legs from a duck that had been reared for foie gras. These days, fortunately, we don’t have to go so far afield to find quality ducks. British farmers have come around to the fact that they too can produce quality ducks for the table. Poultry farmers, such as Reg Johnson in Goosnargh in Lancashire, are producing great free-range ducks and chickens that can match their French counterparts.
Personally I still think that the tradtional magret, the breast of a duck which has been bred for foie gras, still has the edge in terms of great gamey flavour and juiciness, and I would always prefer a breast or whole duck which has plenty of fat - the bonus being the oodles of duck fat which can be rescued by slow cooking, whilst the resultant duck dish itself does not have to be over-fatty. Duck fat is so great for roast potatoes!
Furthermore duck and goose fat are “good fats” being high in mono- and poly-unsaturated fats - good for the cardiovascular system and thought to be one of the elements of the French Paradox, whereby despite the relatively fatty diet, the inhabitants of rural France have lower levels of heart disease. For more info see the Goose Fat Information Service! where you can also find recipes, news and more information than you thought you might ever need about Goose Fat!
The article also points to the introduction of “ethical foie gras” - i.e duck or goose liver which is made by fattening the birds so that their livers become enlarged. Tradtional this is done through “gavage” which is a form of forced feeding. The ethical approach avoids forced-feeding and instead relies on the greedy bird’s habit of putting on weight prior to their natural winter migration to warmer climes - see the Telegraph (19 Feb 07). This is available at Club Gascon in London - the place to buy and dine on the best of South West France cuisine.
The Independent article has some interesting recipes which can all be made from one whole duck (French or British) without wasting a morcel:-
