The Morvan

Jake walking along boxwood lined hedges on the gorge trail

river through the gorge

Jonah being swallowed by the whale, church in Lorme

Heather and broom on a ledge in the Morvan

On Tuesday we headed east to Corbigny thinking that it had a Tuesday market that might involve cattle and a guidebook-recommended snail selling stall.  Corbigny is a narrow town running along a small river at the edge of the Morvan Natural Area.  The Morvan is a section of granite in the middle of the country famous for timber, mining, and as a hideout for the Resistance.  Some time in the 1970s the government declared it a natural area making tourism a major part of the economy.

We found Cobigny's tourism office in an old abbey.  The abbey had the usual history of buildings we've visited in the area - originally built 13^th c., plague, 100 year war, siege, state seizes church assets, more war, fire, most of abbey rebuilt some time in the late 1800s.  This one seems to have escaped the WWII bombings.  No market day though, market is on Friday.  So we wandered back through town stopping at one of pastry shops so Jake could get a cherry tart, and later at another so I could get an apple tart.  The pastry/chocolatier shops have the most enticing displays in the windows!  We also picked up a small baguette au lardon (bacon) for lunch.  There was a high end kitchen shop in town too with a great window display of wood stoves, appliances, dutch ovens, and other useful things like a champagne saber.

From Corbigny we took a small, winding road into the mountains to the Navrau gorge.  There is a nice, maybe 1 ½ mile hike around the gorge from the parking area.  The trail goes over some cascades, through oak forest on the far side of the gorge, then down into the less steep section at the bottom, across the stream and back up to the parking area. The woods were wet and misty and moss-covered.  Huge boxwoods with hanging curtains of limbs lined some parts of the trail. The ground was covered in ivy, blackberry, and other little plants (including garlic mustard!).  Most of the larger trees looked like beech trees and higher on the hills were gnarled oaks with grass and moth underneath.  One spur trail led to the Grotto of the Fairies and the area really did look like it could be an ancient fairy land.   Morvan is apparently a Celtic word for black rock, giving it a more sinister cast.

After our little hike we continued on to the hill town of Lorme.  At the top of the hill is a church and cemetery (great view for the dead!).  The church had interesting carvings at the top and middle of its pillars depicting scenes from the old and new testaments (see photos).  A cup of expresso at a bar in town and we set off back home.

Since it was cold and rainy most of the day, we decided to have dinner in town at another restaurant recommended by our host, Auberge du Seyr.  Another great choice!  It is a small place, maybe 6 tables.  The interior is very light and simply decorated.  You can choose a la carte or from one of several fixed menus.  We got a half bottle of Burgundy wine and the soup of the day, a pureed vegetable soup served with cream, grated cheese and croutouns.  Then beef burgouneon, in this case thick slices of slow cooked beef covered in a very rich red wine sauce served with some potato, diced turnip and sautéed wild mushrooms.  We also could not resist the display of about 6 different fruit tarts.  Jake had cherry and I had a slice of tarte tartin, both excellent. 

Forest Adventure

Recently thinned or trimmed oaks

Picnic area in the forest

We are staying near the second largest forest in France, the Foret Bertrange.  On Sunday, the weather cleared and we decided to go for a hike.  I guided us on the windy roads to the Fontaine du Vaux which appeared to have a walking path leading to other dirt roads through the forest.  We parked just outside a gate near another car and a short walk down the rutted dirt road led us to a beautiful open forest area where there appeared to be some ancient stone lined ditches for directing water, presumably from a spring.  There was a sign and a stone commemorating the members of the Resistance who had used the woods as their base of operations during WWII. 

Paths radiated out from this central area and we followed one uphill.  The forest is mostly managed for timber, I think cooperatively by local villages.  We passed relatively recently cutover areas filled with brush, thinned areas of red oak and white oak, and saw above us an area of evergreen spruce or fir.  There were lots of different mushrooms including a few boletes, lots of amanitas, russulas, and others I could not id (see photos). Our road reached a larger dirt road and we decided to go back by way of another small road that led back downhill.  We figured it would probably end up back where we started since so many roads had radiated off of that area. 

After walking some time, we saw several hunters with rifles sitting or standing along the road.  The second one said bon jour and set off an explanation of how the paths were closed because Sundays are set aside for hunting various animals including sanglier, which we thought meant deer.   We could hear dogs baying in the distance.    We explained that we were trying to get back to the Fontaine de Vaux, and he explained that if we took the path behind him down hill to a smaller path, continue downhill to a larger dirt road, turn left, that would eventually take us back to the Fontaine.  Merci, desolee (sorry!) and we headed off downhill.   We sort of thought we'd walked too far by the time we got to the hunters so just as well!  We found our way to the dirt road and went left and after a much more extensive and muddy walk than we predicted we did eventually reach the Fontaine Vaux without running into any animals or other hunters!  Today it occurred to me that we had stayed in Hotel Sanglier in Belgium several years ago, and that sanglier meant boar, not deer!  I am very glad that we did not run into any boar being chased by dogs towards a line of hunters!

Sancerre

Grape harvester

Harvesting by hand

Following the tourist line

Beautiful storefront

Jake's favorite French wine has long been white Sancerre, and today we visited the city of Sancerre and drove through several of the villages where Sancerre is produced.   The city is on the top of a hill with a lovely view of the Loire River to the east and of the vineyards and farms on all the other sides.  Wine has been grown in the area since at least the 500s.  Parts of the city date back to the 1300s. 

It was a rainy morning and being Monday out of tourist season lots of shops and wineries were closed.  The tourism office was open though with the usual lovely selection of maps and brochures (so far there have been great tourism offices in most towns).  We followed the red line painted on the cobblestone streets through town to visit the major sites (there was a blue line to follow in Nevers).  The wine cooperative's museum was open and out of the rain, so we stopped in.  They have a very interesting and thorough exhibit (with English translations on signs and subtitles on videos) that covers the history of wine making in the area, the different soil types, the harvesting techniques, wine making techniques, pests, and marketing of Sancerre as an appellation.  Out in the little garden there is a tractor with a video game console where you drive the tractor through a vineyard and get points for speed and accuracy.  Jake drove slowly and was timed out before he finished even trimming the vines.  I drove fast but ended up flipping the tractor on a sharp turn, game over.  The museum ticket ends with a tasting, but it turns out you just taste one wine and get the glasses as a souvenir. 

So the wine we tasted wasn't bad, but it did not meet up to Jake's expectations.  And in fact, little of the Sancerre we've had here has matched what he thinks of as a typical sancerre that you might get in the US.  I would say that we have now tried at least 10 sancerres.  The problem is explaining what you expect in a wine.  But after lunch (where I had a sancerre  that I thought was pretty nice, but minerally; lunch was an omlette with a side of green beans and a baked potato topped with a goat cheese sauce), we stopped in at a winery's store that offers tastings.  The saleslady poured 5 tastings of sancerres explaining that each was from grapes grown in different soil types/villages.  And sure enough, they also tasted notably different.  Still, none were quite up to Jake's remembrances from sancerres he'd had before.  I however really liked one and bought a bottle.  It was from grapes grown near Chavignol in clay and limestone marl soils (called Cuvee Silex on the bottle).  Chavignol also happens to be famous for its goat cheese, Crottin du Chavignol.

After exploring the rest of town we headed back down the hill to see Chavignol and other little towns.  The grapes are all grown on the steep hillsides, and any flatter land is devoted to cereal crops and pastures.  This is grape harvest season so there were lots of little tractors hauling wagons filled with grapes and cars of workers parked at the wineries.  Some grapes were being harvested by machines hooked to tractors, and others were being harvested by hand (see photos).  The vines were lovely with the dark purple grapes (pinot noir) hanging in tight clusters under leaves just turning yellow.  The sauvignon blanc grapes that make the sancerre must have been harvested a little earlier or they are just harder to see.

Duck with your duck

Chanterelles

Mimolette, roquefort, crottin of goat cheese, and pate

Duke's Palace in Nevers

Pied de Monton mushrooms

gargoyles in Nevers

Nevers cathedral creation window

Sylvan, Duke's Palace garden

We have officially overdosed on French food already and are cutting back today (Sunday).  Saturday night we went to Babette and Eva's in Charite sur Loire for dinner.  We got there at 7:30pm and were the only ones there except for a table of about 20 people who it turned out were participating in the weekly Philosophy gathering.   Eventually one other couple came in.  The restaurant is casual and eclectically decorated with wallpaper made of pages of 1940s fashion catalogs and a variety of paintings.  Dinner was a fixed price menu again of 3 courses.  That is our downfall!!

This restaurant though was a little more organic or healthy maybe.  We started with spinach soup and a very good salad of cauliflower and beans with sesame seeds and maybe a balsamic vinegar sesame oil dressing.  For mains, Jake ordered steak tartare and I ordered mussels with potatoes.  Both were very well prepared.  Dessert was also excellent, a dense dark chocolate torte and a raspberry cake with a coconut almond base and raspberry cream topping.  We enjoyed a nice half bottle of Sancerre with dinner.

Yesterday we explored Nevers, a small city to the south.  From our house we took lovely winding back roads.  Going by several stretches of forest, there were lots of tagged logs waiting to be taken away.  Many were cut in 5' lengths and were maybe 6" diameter.  Could they be for barrel staves?  We also passed a couple hunters and there are lots of signs warning of deer crossing roads.

Nevers is a relatively compact city built on a hilly area above the Loire.  It was bombed in WWII, so some more modern buildings are interspersed with the ancient ones.  The tourism office is built into the basement of the ducal palace and you can see the archaeological finds of a former chateau that preceeded the palace.  Nevers was a city by Roman times.   We went into the cathedral which is a curious mix of ancient and modern.  It lost its roof and windows in a bombing.  The windows have been replaced with some interesting modern stained glass depicting various biblical stories (see photos).  The upper windows look like ribbons of red and blue.

We visited the covered market and its surrounding outdoor Saturday market stalls.  All sorts of foods for sale including the "Chevallier Boucher" stand.  We bought two varieties of mushrooms to try, Chanterelle jaune and pied de something or other which appear to be small orange hydnums (toothed mushrooms) (see photos).  They also sold cepes and another vendor had black trumpet chanterelles and the more standard orange variety.

For lunch we found a place where we could just get a salad!  Of course mine came with toasted goat cheese rounds on slices of baguette, and Jake's came with smoked duck.  Everything closes between about 12 - 2pm so we decided to look for a place with free wireless to check our email.  We stopped at an phone store that was open and the saleslady gave us directions to "Macdows" - go to the fountain and turn right, keep going down the hill.  We followed the directions, but seemed to end up at a cross street, so we asked at a cute little café if they had wireless.  No, but "Macdor" does, keep going down this street and you can't miss it.  So we continue down the street to the ring road around the city and see…. yes, the golden arches of "McDonalds"!   Which does in fact have free unlimited wifi and a large sitting area on the second floor.

By mid-afternoon it was raining, so we took the highway home and hung out until dinner.  For dinner we had made reservations at "La Ferme des Barreaux", a farm on the west bank of the Loire between Charite and Pouilly sur Loire.  Our host had highly recommended it.  They specialize in duck grown on the farm.  We got there early and so were invited to hang out in the gift shop.  They sell all kinds of food, soaps, and amusing kitchen items including a mallard duck water pitcher with a cattail handle.  Dinner was in a small room with a huge fireplace.  They had only one table for four and one other couple besides us, but I think there were just two women doing all cooking and serving.   They started serving dinner around 8pm.  We started with an aperitif of kir (white wine mixed with cassis).  That turned out to be good because we tried two different vintages of a sancerre that were both off so we gave up on wine after that.  The first course was the house signature duck foie gras served with a small salad and some onions cooked in orange.  It was absolutely delicious, like a delicately flavored butter.  For the main course Jake had the duck tournedos which looked like a large duck steak, and I had the duck entrecote,  thinner slices of duck seared on both sides with herbs du Provence.  Both were perfectly cooked and for awhile we debated whether it was really beef!

Dinner was followed by the cheese course.  The waitress brought out an enormous wooden board filled with little cheeses, many of them varieties of goat cheese.  We selected several wedges but were so stuffed we just sampled a little of each one.  They ranged from really stinky to a creamy brie with peppercorns, and a milder goat cheese.  The cheese course was followed by the dessert course.  We went with chocolate again, chocolate mousse and a chocolate pave served with crème anglaise.  The pave was a little like a brownie, but both desserts were good.  A decaf expresso set us up for the drive home, but it came with four little cookies that we felt obligated to sample. 

So that explains why we have decided to eat at home today.  Of course we have cheese and pate (see photo) from the Friday market in the refrigerator and mushrooms to sample, so it's not like we'll go hungry!

First days in France

Thursday, Oct. 11

Jake is on his fall break and we are in France for 12 days for vacation.  We are staying 9 nights near Narcy, in the Loire Valley at the border between Burgundy and Centre, and 3 nights in Paris.  I'm just going to say up front, that I'm including a lot of info on food and our flight because a friend of mine in Maryland made a special request for details!

My first first-class flight and boy was it comfortable compared to coach!  On the AirCanada flight to Toronto we sat in the first row of a small executive class section.  Not a long flight but we were served a nice cheese plate as a snack.  The weather cleared as we flew over Central New York and I got a beautiful view of the Finger Lakes and of the wind turbines nearby.  Amazing that you can see them from 10,000 feet!  As Jake predicted, upon boarding our flight from Toronto to Paris we were offered champagne as we set up our little pods.  The seats were arranged in a chevron pattern of 4 rows with the seats slanted towards each other across the aisles.  Each seat was in its own little cubicle. This means that I couldn't really talk to Jake without leaning forward and him twisting around back to see me because the sides of our pods were about 4' tall.   It made it very private though from other passengers and the seats reclined and adjusted in multiple ways ultimately laying nearly flat as a bed for the overnight flight.

The frequent travelers appeared to forego the dinner menu and get right to sleep.  Jake and I on the other hand being on vacation figured why sleep when you can eat and watch movies?  We were given our choice of 4 hot entrees for dinner preceded by a seared tuna appetizer. I went with the lighter entrée of black cod in a lemon caper sauce with mixed grains. I skipped the cheese and fruit plate and went for dessert of a warm chocolate pecan tart served with a glass of port.  While eating dinner I watched a few of the Canadian short films that were part of a film contest sponsored by AirCanada.  They were quirky but not terribly memorable.  As the main attraction I went with The Internship, about middle age salesmen who do a summer internship with Google.  Although it was amusing, to me it came across as a giant ad for Google.  I think I got an hour or two of sleep, but they were turning on the lights and serving breakfast in a seemingly very short amount of time.  I skipped breakfast except for juice and coffee feeling like I'd just finished dinner!  Instead I watched the sun rise over Ireland and caught a view of the white cliffs of Dover as we made our way over the English Channel. Just before landing an attendant announced that our approach was being slowed by a work slowdown by the Air Traffic Controllers Union.  Welcome to France, land of perpetual strikes!

Going through customs in France was incredibly easy.  We got in some priority line as first class passengers (didn't know that was one of the perks!).  There was no declaration to fill out beforehand, they just stamped our passports, we picked up our luggage and were ready to go!

We picked up our rental car and headed out with Jake driving and me navigating.  The roads are fairly well signed, but somewhere along the way the E15 disappeared and we ended up on the A? (The roads are all named with a letter and number and providing navigation sort of feels like playing in a game of Battleship! A3 to E15, merge with A6 to A77).  But we just took a slight detour and eventually were back on our original set of directions.  Traffic on the Paris beltway was crowded, but not impossible.  Once we were south of the city on the A6 the road cleared considerably, and then we just had to worry about staying awake!  We stopped at a couple of the numerous rest areas to stretch.  That particular stretch of road is called the Tree Route, and along the highway groups of trees have a big sign with the common French name.  Great way to learn my French tree names! 

We got to our house with no problem.  We are staying at an old mill house owned by some friends of friends who stayed at Jake's house in DC a couple years ago.  The house is next door to a huge mill that is apparently operational, but not operated (see photo).  It looks like it is good shape from the outside.  The small Mazou River runs under the building.   The house is surrounded by farm fields of sunflowers, corn, and maybe a cover crop of radishes in some fields.  We are 15 minutes from Charite sur Loire, a small town on the banks of the Loire River.

In the late afternoon we went into Charite-sur-Loir for some supplies, stopping at the bakery in Narcy for a pate-stuffed pastry to snack on and 2 pain au chocolate for breakfast.  It's a town of narrow streets lined with white-walled stone buildings with red tile roofs.  Colorful geraniums fill window boxes.   We went first though to the big supermarket on the outskirts of town.  We got a disposable phone and 10 euros worth of minutes for making phone calls within France and in future other countries outside the US.  The young Frenchman who helped us asked whether it was easy to find a job in the US.  What sort of job?  Rugby.  He'd like to make it a professional sport in the US.

Back in town we bought a pinot noir from Sancerre in Le Vin, a small wine shop.  A bar of handmade dark chocolate with cocoa nibs at a lovely little confiture shop and tea salon next to the old church.  A slab of country chicken pate at the takeout food shop, and some salad items at the in-town grocery (which did not have a great selection, but the other alternative was to drive back to the big grocery).  Besides food stores, the town also boasts a number of book stores, several flower shops all in a row, and miscellaneous other stores. 

We had a glass of wine and a salad for dinner, managed to read until nearly 10pm, and then I at least slept straight for 10 hours!

Friday

This morning we got going on the late side heading to another nearby town, Pouilly-sur-Loire.  It is a grey and chilly day, but it wasn't raining.   We took a couple narrow, winding country roads from our house to town passing quaint hamlets and farms.  And one enormous green metal granary sitting like a behemoth surrounded by corn fields.  Pouilly was having a small market, just 5 vendors, but it's a pleasant town for a walk and is located right on the Loire with a nature center and biking trail along the river.  We picked out several cheeses from the market's cheese vendor and a fresh baguette from the bakery.  The nature center was closed until 2pm, so we decided to do a wine tasting at one of the vineyards just outside of town.  However, it is grape harvesting season, so one winery was closed and another was closing for lunch in 10 minutes.  So, back into town to see if we could get lunch at a place recommended by our food and wine guidebook.  Menerve is a small restaurant with a daily 3 course menu.  We apparently got the only unreserved table for lunch since the next couple that came in was turned away.  Basically they served about 24 people for lunch.  Next to us was a local couple and their little dog who had her own seat and got a few morsels through lunch. 

We ordered a half bottle of Pouilly fume, a dry, minerally white wine.  For the first course I had the plate of 2 terrines, one pork and one chicken, both very good.  Jake had the sausage plate, thin slices of summer sausage.  For the main course we weren't quite sure what we were getting.  Jake ended up with 2 small pieces of cured pork loin in a spicy mustard sauce and mine was filets of a small fish in a lemon herb sauce.  Both were served with duchesse potatoes and zucchini cooked with tomatos.  The fish were about 4" long and an inch wide with a fairly strong, but nice flavor.  Not quite as strong as bluefish.  For dessert I had a chocolate pudding doused in chocolate sauce and Jake got the excellent apple tart with an almond custard.  After waddling back to the car we went home to nap and will need to take a good long afternoon walk to make room for dinner!  We've already made reservations at a popular restaurant in Charite.

Visiting cat

The sitting area

View of the Loire River

The mill, our house is the shorter building on the right

Sunflower field uphill from the house

Restaurant Summary

In no particular order, places we enjoyed eating:

Club Social  Deluxe (San Telmo on Av. Caseros) - romantic atmosphere, very good list of appetizers (or small plates), and main courses.  Jake had braised rabbit, very tender and flavorful.  I had churrasquitos de cerdo (thin pork chops) with roast peaches and sweet potatoes.

Cabana las Lilas (Puerto Madero) - large, fancy restaurant with excellent service.  Known for its home-grown beef but also many vegetable side dish options.  Try the soufleed potatoes as a side.  They bring out a tray of amuse bouche for the table and after dinner a tray of small desserts.  We also ordered a chocolate torte that was very dense and delicious.

Bar Poesia (San Telmo, corner of Chile and Bolivar) - traditional bar with good food and coffee, nice literary atmosphere.  Huge lomo (beef tenderloin) sandwich, salads, excellent apple strudel.  Good licuados too served in pitchers.  American breakfasts available in the mornings.

Bar Federal (San Telmo, Bolivar) - like Bar Poesia but more historic.  Pretty much the same menu as Poesia.

Bar El Federal in San Telmo - beer and picadas

Bar Territorio (San Telmo, Bolivar near San Telmo Market) - small corner bar with a small but good menu.  Excellent spaghetti with shrimp in a tomato sauce, really good large salads.

Brocolino (Centro, Esmeralda in 800 block) - Italian with homemade pasta.  First recommended by my parents they have good food in a quiet atmosphere off busy Esmeralda.  Good bread basket too.  Lamb raviolis in sage cream sauce!

Antonino's (San Telmo, Bolivar 1083) - fish store with many pre-made dishes.  Seafood empanadas, paella.

Chifa Man San (San Telmo, Peru half block south of Independencia) - ceviche!  Also whole crispy fish, typical Chinese food.  Man San soup was good with won tons and different meats.

Place on Plaza Serrano in Palermo - sorry, can't  remember the name but it has some tables outside and a balcony with tables on the second floor.  Really good brownies and imaginitive selection of licuados.  The sandwiches sound good too, but we haven't tried them.

Chorimovil - (Puerto Madero) - choripan stand we liked on Calabria (in the middle of the park).

Aldo's (San Telmo, on Moreno just east of Defensa) - wine shop and restaurant.  We ended up only having a glass of wine here because they had a fixed price menu for Valentine's Day.  The regular menu looks good though and the wine selection by the glass or bottle is excellent.  Pretty place.  See their website for more info.

Caseros (San Telmo, Caseros street) - Sort of a similar menu to Club Social Deluxe.  Modern country decor.  Best to make a reservation on weekends.  We shared a ceviche (not quite as good as the ceviche at Man San).  Jake had lamb chops that were excellently seasoned but a little tough.  I had the lobster raviolones in a cream sauce.  Rich and delicious!

Cafe Origens (San Telmo, Corner of Peru and Humberto) - nice cafe with muffins, good coffee.

Coffee stand in the San Telmo Market

Coffee stand in the San Telmo Market - great coffee, good snacks.  Fun to sit and watch the market shoppers go by.

Coco Marie, shaded by Ailanthus!

Coco Marie (Palermo, 1700 block of Armenia) - cafe is behind a lingerie store with the same name.  Shaded, pleasant seating area.  Healthy and tasty sandwiches and salads.  Good cucumber lemonade comes in a bottle large enough to share.

Bar El 55 (near Parque Centenario, corner of Gallardo and Juan Ramirez de Velasco) - really good licuado and frappucino.

Also see postings on the two Puerto Cerrado (closed door) restaurants we went to, NOLA and Casa Salt Shaker.  Both excellent!

At the Zoo

Another uncaged animal - the nutria!

Feeding the deer

The B.A. zoo was started in the Victorian era and is still being updated, but it has a lot to recommend it.  It is overrun with maras, a large, jack-rabbit like rodent.  The zoo sells food to feed many of the animals so it is really easy to see most animals as they are all begging for food.  I know this would be a huge NO in the States.  Even animals that were not supposed to be fed were having food thrown at them.  There are 2 carousels for kids and the obligatory fast food stands.  The original buildings are very elaborate so the zoo is also interesting from an architectural perspective.

Welcome to the zoo, watch your kids.

Bear begging for treats - despite the do not feed sign

Notice chutes for rolling food down to the animals

Need a lawnmower?  Hire a giraffe.

No problem checking on this hippo's dental work

Jake communes with a mara

Antelope