Chateau de Grignan

About a half hour north of Vaison la Romaine is the village of Grignan. The most prominent aspect of the village is the restored castle that sits at the top of a rocky promontory.

Chateau de Grignan

Street in the village of Grignan

The gardens of the castle, below.

The history of the castle indicates that the first home was built in the 11^th century then expanded in the 13^th century and was the fortress around which the medieval village developed. The castle was rebuilt in 1479-1495 during the Renaissance and then destroyed during the French Revolution because it was one of the « monuments qui insultent l'égalité en rappelant ces temps de servitude, de féodalité et de superstition, dont le fardeau a trop longtemps pesé sur un peuple rendu à la liberté » “one of the monuments that insults equality by making one remember the times of servitude, feudalism and superstition for which the burden has rested too long on the people who have now acquired liberty.” In the early 20^th century, the castle was purchased by a woman who worked with an architect and restored the chateau to its original beauty. The work continued from 1913 until 1931. Ultimately, the chateau was sold to the Department of Drome in 1979 and became an historic monument in 1987.

While the history of the building is noteworthy, there is an equally interesting about one of its inhabitants and her mother. It is the story of the letters from Madame de Sévigné to her daughter Françoise-Marguerite. Madame de Sévigné lived in Paris and her daughter married and moved to the castle to become the Countess of Grignan. Madame de Sévigné wrote over 1,000 letters most of which were to her daughter whom she missed very much. As a wealthy woman in Paris, she visited the court of Louis XIV and met the king as well as the high-society women of Paris. Her letters offered insights into the lives of Parisian aristocracy: what people were talking about, what people were seeing at the theatre, what books were popular, etc. Her descriptions were lively and heart-felt. She became widely known as a letter writer (une épistoliere) who offered wonderful descriptions of daily life among the aristocracy. Many of her letters were copied and distributed even before they were sent. She wrote not only to her daughter but to the wider audience of readers that she knew were waiting for her next letter. 

Madame de Sévigné is considered one of the icons of French literature. L'absence de la comtesse a fait d'une femme sans ambition littéraire un auteur par la volonté de combler son manque affectif et de consoler sa douleur... Parce qu'elles sont une recomposition de la réalité à travers le prisme de l'amour maternel, elles deviennent littérature. The absence of the countess turned a woman without literary ambition into an author by the will to fill her emotional void and to comfort her pain… Because they (her letters) are a restructuring of reality through the prism of the maternal love, they become literature; (Hélène Bernard, editor, Madame de Sévigné: Letters. Flammarion, Paris, 2003.)

Locavores – Part deux,

After only 10 days of our journey into the land of “Locavores” – where one buys only locally grown/raised products – I can offer four observations: the land of “Locavores” is more expensive, more time-consuming, requires more planning and is more interactive.

1.      Shopping locally (instead of in the box-stores) is more expensive. The prices are marginally higher. The local shops may have their devoted clientele but in order to maintain that loyalty (and to entice more customers), the local stores have to remain somewhat competitive – and they do!

2.      Shopping locally takes more time. As my friend Susan commented:  “I think one has to be retired to embark on such a venture, but i do love shopping at our market in Ann Arbor even though it takes a hit on the pocketbook - always the bummer that eating healthy and ecologically is not for those with few resources.” I have found every word of Susan’s observations to be true. I am thankful that I am retired and love that I have the time and opportunity to pursue the locavore life style. There is a time-saving aspect to shopping in big supermarkets. At the box stores, I need only go to the appropriate aisle; I don’t need to stop at the butcher shop, the green grocer or the cheese shop to get what I want to cook that evening. At the box-stores, I can get all of the items on my shopping list at one store – never mind that they may come from Holland or Morocco or Israel… (or, in the case of almonds – generally considered to be a local/Provençal cash crop – California!)

3.      I can confirm that shopping locally requires more planning. The local shops follow the French schedule of being open until noon, closed for 2 ½ hours for lunch and then open until 6:00 or 7:00 in the evening. Most of the local shops are also closed on Sunday and Monday, so when planning meals for those days, it is important to do my shopping by Saturday evening. On the other hand, the local shops are only a five-minute walk from our apartment, so they are easy to access – when they are open.

4.      Shopping locally means more interaction with the shop owner/counter person. At the big box-stores, you can find what you want without interacting with anyone. (For those of us with questionable language skills, that is a BIG plus. You don’t have to ask for an item if you can find what you are looking for.) On the other hand, interaction is a good thing. The shop owners begin to recognize you and that often leads to a conversation. Speaking with the shop owners improves one’s vocabulary and speaking skills (and you will have learned new words as you look up the words for the items that you want to buy before you go to the store).

We like the vegetables and meats that the local stores offer, like knowing that we are contributing to the local economy and are probably benefiting from eating foods that are grown/raised with fewer pesticides or insecticides (?).

Isn’t that a “win-win”?

"Locavores"

He probably smiled to himself as he made the decision to send the book to me. He knows me very well and knows how the hypothesis would work on me. He has seen how we live in France and probably made a connection.

Now we are back in France and I am trying to address that for which I have been ruminating as a result of John's gift of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and family.

The book is about how they became “locavores” for a year at their family farm in southern Virginia. The family agreed to eat only what they could obtain from their own garden/farm or the gardens/farms of neighbors. That meant no broccoli or oranges from California, no lamb from New Zealand, no red bell peppers from Holland or anything outside their region. The author claims that “Every food calorie we presently eat has used dozens or even hundreds of fossil-fuel calories in its making…” and once the food is processed, “Each food item in a typical U.S. meal has travelled an average of 1,500 miles” (co-author Stephen Hopp). The family wanted to know where things were raised and how things were raised: (pesticides? herbicides? growth hormones? antibiotics?)

So, as John knew it would, reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle has caused me to assess my shopping habits from a “locavore” perspective. When we are in Michigan, I go to the Allen Street Farmers Market on Wednesdays or make meals from the vegetables of my own garden (no pesticides, no herbicides there!). The majority of my food shopping is nonetheless done at big box stores. I do pay attention to finding fruits and vegetables that are in season – as in Michigan’s seasons. (I love it when asparagus from western Michigan is available and cheap In the spring).

In France, I think it will be easier to get closer to a “locavore” profile. For one thing, the French display prominently the country of origin of all fruits and vegetables.  Restaurants usually have a display showing the sources of beef and pork.  Cheeses, some meats and wines are origin-protected. Origin-protected means, for example, that only the sparkling wine that comes from the Champagne region of France can be called ‘champagne’. (You may remember my post a few years ago when I bought a 10 pound origin-protected turkey for Christmas and paid more than 100 € for the privilege – to my great shock.)

If Ellen and I are to be “locavores” in France, it would mean shopping at the local independent stores and not at the big box stores. The one ‘caveat emptor’ is that in the center of town there is a small grocery – part of a franchise large enough to offer their own brands…

We are going to try it. (John probably predicted this decision.) That means that we will buy our vegetables at the local épicerie (grocery store), our meats at the butcher shop and our fish from the fish monger and continue to buy our bread at a local, made-here bakery. I will include the market on Tuesdays as it is the day on which we can buy all that we might need even though the Tuesday market includes fruits and vegetables from Africa and Spain. (The “little” market on Saturdays is populated with farmers who bring produce from their farms.)

Since we are starting “cold”, I don’t have a cellar filled with canned vegetables or fruits that I could use to bring some summer back to the menu. I will have to get really creative to make inviting dishes to reduce the boredom of winter vegetables. “On verra.” (We’ll see) how this works out. Stay posted.

Christmas Dinner

Ellen and I joined French friends for Christmas dinner in L’Isle sur la Sorgue. Daniel had found the restaurant, made the reservations and invited us to join them. We loved the idea and jumped at the chance – one of the best decisions in years.

Daniel lives in Auch but chose to visit L’Isle sur la Sorgue for the holidays. It is a town about 50 km from here and a town that we know well having spent two weeks there several years ago. The town is an antique hunter’s paradise but as we discovered, it is also a gourmet’s paradise.

We ate at a restaurant called Le Vivier – a word which means fish tank/fish pond. The restaurant is located along side the Sorgue River, so the name may have something to do with the location. In any case, the setting was attractive, the service was impeccable and the food was fantastic.

The restaurant had put together a special lunch-time meal as its Repas de Noël (Christmas meal). The meal started with canapés and amuse-bouche (mouth pleasers) including a light mousse of cream and fish served with a piece of crisp bacon, oyster paté served on an oyster shell and a lobster roll.

The Entrée (first course) was “Maki de Saint Jacques, cressionnière à l’ail noir, emulsion au lard rance.” – I’ll never get the word-for-word translation for this item. Suffice it to say that it was a lovely, thinly-chopped scallop wrapped in basil (or spinach) topped with a watercress and garlic sauce. The sauce was a bright green and looked lovely served in a white bowl.

There were two plats (plates) for the main course. The first was: Turbot rôti, citron confit de Menton, gnocchis de potimarron et blinis. Roasted white fish (turbot) served with a crispy slice of preserved lemon (from Menton, Fr.), gnocchis made from pumpkin and little pancakes.

(Daniel chose a Jurançon sec for the above courses. Wonderful pairing. We had a burgundy – Auxey Duresses – to go with the second part of the main course. Another wonderful pairing!)

The second plat was: Dos de cerf aux poivres, velouté de topinambour à l’huile de noisette, copeaux de châtaigne et pomme de terre en transparance. Venison rubbed with coarsely ground pepper served on a sauce made from Jerusalem artichoke and hazelnut oil with pieces of roasted chestnuts; potatoes sliced so thinly that they looked transparent after cooking.

The cheese course was warm St. Marcellin cheese (creamy, soft cow’s milk cheese) with a slice of truffle in it. Saint Marcellin truffé, servi tiède.

Dessert was: Boule de Noël aux litchis & pommes (a Christmas ball that contained an apple/litchi ice cream). –and the Christmas ball was a sugar confection, i.e., edible!

Merry Christmas

Joyeux Noël

Et bon appétit!

Une soirée française

Saturday evening, we prepared and served a French dinner for six at our home. The dinner was the “prize” won by a couple at the Tri-County Office on Aging’s Meals on Wheels live auction last fall.

Ellen is very involved with Meals on Wheels (MOW). She delivers meals and she serves on the MOW fundraising board. For the past two years, we have offered a French dinner and a week at our apartment in Vaison la Romaine. Luckily for MOW, the items have been popular and we have been able to generate more funds for MOW. Since retiring, I have taken over most of the cooking and have learned a lot. The dinner was a chance to share what I have learned in the kitchen – both here and in France.

The couple that won the bid for the dinner knew what to expect. They had won the bid the previous year and had enjoyed the evening enough to make sure that they won the bid again.

We invited Steve and Re’Shane to come to an “apéro” to plan the menu. I had prepared a list of options for each course and had included several items directly from the menu at La Lyriste in Vaison la Romaine. (Chef Benoit had asked me to translate the menu into English.) They chose the menu including a dish for the main course that I had never prepared before. A quick “m’aidez” note to Benoit to get instructions on how to prepare the dish followed. Benoit wrote back and included detailed instructions and photos.

The menu*

Hors d’oeuvre: Gougère, Purée de pois chiches au cumin à tartiner, Clairette de Die

Gruyère cheese puffs, hummus on toasts, sparkling wine

Entrée: Soupe de tomate au basilique, croustillants de parmesan, chardonnay

Tomato-basil soup served with parmesan crisps, French unoaked chardonnay

The bowl that I served myself... (not attractive enough for the table)

Plat: Nage de gambas et cabillaud dans son jus de crustacé, ratatouille, riz brun, Vouvray

Jumbo shrimp and cod poached in shellfish stock, ratatouille and brown rice, Vouvray

Fromages: brie triple crème, morbier, chèvre (avec confiture de piment)Bordeaux rouge

Cheeses: triple cream brie, morbier and goat cheese (with hot jalapeno jelly) red Bordeaux

Dessert: Baravois aux fraises, vin doux

Strawberries served with Bavarian cream, fortified red sweet wine

Café et chocolat

*the vegetables for the soup and the ratatouille came from my garden!

After all of the dishes were served, Ellen and I joined the six diners and got to experience how much fun they were and how much fun they were having. They were six people who enjoyed good food, good wine and good camaraderie – and that menu of fun, food and camaraderie, served for a good cause, could be a winner every time!

Slip Slidin' Away

Summer is sliding by quickly.

This past weekend, we joined Ellen’s siblings and cousins for a reunion at Carol’s and Bernie’s lakeside house in VA. It was fun to see relatives/friends and to enjoy stories and videos from times past. Carol had prepared a variety of foods to which we added our potluck items. Great company and wonderful food made it a perfect event. (It was nice that the weather cooperated as well.) On the way to VA, we visited Ellen’s brother and his wife in PA and then Ellen’s nephew and his wife at their house in NC. By the time we got back to MI we had put more than 1800 miles on the car in six days.

Several weeks ago, we visited Marge and Charley in St: Joseph, MI. Marge surprised me with an invitation to cook rabbit with her for my surprise birthday dinner. This was not the usual 2+ pound rabbit one finds in the freezer case at the grocery store. It was a fresh rabbit and weighed over five pounds! Marge had found an interesting recipe in a Patricia Wells cookbook (Patricia Wells At Home in Provence) calling for preserved lemons. We used three of the five pounds of rabbit and had a wonderful dinner – though we were both nervous at how salty the preserved lemons were… (The flavors worked out okay. Marge and I decided to reduce the liquid portion of the lemons to reduce the saltiness.) I brought home the remaining two pounds with which I plan to make Terrine de Lapin.

Ellen’s sister Tish has been staying with us for most of July as part of her annual stateside vacation. This year when she leaves, she will be going to teach in Nairobi (and we are all relieved that she did not choose to extend her teaching contract in Cairo). Tish said that one of the things that she missed while in Cairo was live music. I could echo her comment in referring to Vaison la Romaine though we know that there are a lot of music venues in Vaison in the spring and summer (when we are not there!). We went to hear “The Delta Rhythm Kings” and “Frog and the Beeftones” and enjoyed live music at the “Taste of Downtown Lansing” gathering. We also went to see a friend’s grandson in a lead role in a local production of “Next to Normal”. Local performers, world class talents.

We watched the Tour de France on television and got to see the amazing riders climb Mt. Ventoux and then depart from Vaison la Romaine on the stage that took them to Gap and the Alps. Ma belle soeur (Sister-in-law) found a charmingly funny video about the Tour de France visit to Vaison. Go to: www.vaison-ventoux-tourisme.com and click on “Les Romanus”.

BTW, today I picked and enjoyed the first tomato from my garden. Fresh vine-ripened tomatoes are among the greatest pleasures of summer, especially when I can walk into my own back yard to pick them.

What we miss

I just saw a friend’s post in which she referenced “35 Things You Appreciate About America After Living in Europe.” It was written by Lucy Hebb and first posted at www.buzzfeed.com. I found the list interesting and more than exhaustive (exhausting?) I wondered if the author had to limit herself to 35 things or if she had to stretch to reach 35. I am sure that the author found all of the items to be legitimate but several times I had to ask myself why she included X or Y but, hey, it is her list.

As counterpoint to that list, I offer an update to my 2009 list of what I miss when not in Europe (France). My list contains only 25 items. Feel free to add to my list if there are other things you see that I missed.

1. The friendliness of shop owners “Bonjour, monsieur” greeting as I walk into almost any store (followed by: “Au revoir, monsieur. Bonne journée” as I leave a store – even if I didn’t buy anything.)
2. Very good wine for under $10.
3. Specialty stores – butcher shops, fish shops, vegetable shops, bakeries.
4. Open air markets/market days
5. Sitting in cafés nursing an espresso (for hours, if you want) and none of the wait staff push you to leave
6. Cheese selection – more than 200 varieties
7. Fresh rabbit – and other selections of protein such as pheasant, quail, guinea hen
8. Walking (everyday) to purchase food items for dinner
9. Bread (baguette) for $1.00
10. A fresh baguette everyday
11. Minimalist (environmentally friendly) approach to packaging
12. Diesel fuel which costs less than gasoline
13. Inexpensive espresso
14. Cars with clean-operating diesel engines
15. Cars with manual transmissions
16. Fast, on-time trains
17. Roman ruins
18. Fields of poppies
19. Slow food
20. Small portions (of food entrées in restaurants)
21. Dry rosé
22. One dollar (euro) coins
23. Well-maintained roads and streets
24. Families walking together on Sunday afternoons
25. Mussels from Brittany (moules de Bouchot)