Cuisiner, Manger, et Deguster- To Cook, To Eat, and To Savor

This draft has been in my list for three months--it is an overwhelming project to talk about food in this country--but I can definitely say the experience has been an evolution for the inhabitants of this apartment.  


Produce - fresh, local produce- is abundant.  We arrived in Nice at the height of citrus season.  The Cours Saleya marché was full of beautiful lemons, huge oranges from Italy, and tiny clementines from Spain.  The French apples are yellow to light green, best for apple tartes or in recipes, but we have found the Chanticleer are great for eating.  Throughout our stay, strawberries have ripened; asparagus, artichokes, and tomatoes have come into season.  There have always been gorgeous ruffled heads of lettuce and purple garlic.  It is hard to shop the market without wanting to take pictures.  











Then, combine the produce with an amazing assortment of cheeses, less expensive than in the US and tasty.  Emmental and Comte have become go-to's for quiche and crepes.  Big, salty chunks of Parmesan are everywhere and we shave them for pastas and salads.  We love Tomme, which we never see in the US, on sandwiches.  We have all developed a taste for chèvre (goat cheese): the pepper encrusted version, toasted on toast points and drizzled with honey on a salad, or in wraps with arugula and pine nuts.

The BREAD- no one in France should ever be gluten free.  The croissants are 1 euro and heavenly, you can buy a pain au chocolat for .90 euro at most boulangeries or the grocery.  The baguettes have become a staple:  crust that will cut the roof of your mouth, big open bubbles in the soft inside.  No one in American can bake like this--for this price.  Our bakery downstairs has decent baguettes, but Blanc bakery on the Rue de Alexandre has the best (.10 euro more).  Both of my children are always happy to run out before dinner to grab a fresh baguette.  Many times, they hand it to you in the paper sleeve still warm from the oven.  It is truly hard to resist just biting into it.  

And the meat...the butcher is still frightening.  The cheval/boeuf grinder still freaks me out and my fear of ordering some kind of organ... but the Porc Rôtis already tied and sprinkled with herbs de Provence or the beef daube never disappoints.  I did have a fiasco the first trip to the butcher.  In my angst to do the transaction in French, my brain was preoccupied translating languages so I went the wrong way with pounds to kilograms.  In my head, I thought I needed to double the amount of beef needed for us and the Bullingtons.  The butcher's eyes got really big when I said "Douze kilo" (equivalent to 24 pounds)--I think he thought I was a new caterer.  He talked me down to 4 kg which fed both families- two nights.  

Those first weeks, we enjoyed the walk to the market and the experimental cooking in the tiny apartment kitchen.  I had a

french cookbook and we bought a crêpe pan and spreader, made Beef Daube, roasted pork with apples, fresh tarts, Salade Lyonnaise, (think really yummy lettuce, vinaigrette, bacon and fried egg..) and Pissaladiere (pizza with caramelized onions).  Even the shopping was an adventure, translating labels and reading the origins of all the produce at the Cours Saleya.  We also have plenty of time here, without driving to after school activities, to cook and enjoy meals together.

Sandwiches have become a major food group for us.  Most boulangeries sell sandwiches on fresh baguettes for under 5 euro(3euro average).  These are 12 inch baguettes filled with mozzarella, fresh tomatoes and basil drizzled with olive oil, salami with pickles and butter(yes, it is a condiment), ham and butter, tuna, you name it.  Even though the bread can sometimes be a jaw workout, you can barely finish the sandwich.  And they travel well.  Picnics account for at least a third of our meals.  Even if we just take a sandwich to the Promenade des Arts or Promenade des Anglais to watch the people.  And we never board a train without a Savoreux sandwich from our favorite train station bakery, Paul.  

The Deguster (to savor) portion of this trip hit a high point in Lyon.  A beautiful, centuries old city, Lyon celebrates the local cuisine.  They had the Méres Lyonnaises, the Lyon Mothers, that were the first women to make the small family style restaurants famous.  They have their set of celebrity chefs like Joseph Viola and Paul Bocuse.  And a great many new fresh restaurants- one where we took our cooking class with Guillaume.  Guillaume by the way, holds a degree in chemical engineering but had his pastry exam within the last few weeks to be certified as a French Pastry Chef.

As much as we enjoyed all this at the beginning, I can tell you that slogging bottled water in my rolling cart from the Monoprix has gotten old.  I bailed the kids out of trips to the grocery so they could work on school.  Sometimes, the French cheese stinks up the refrigerator.  The tourists have begun to crowd the market, and more lavender and soaps kiosks have popped up.  There are nights when my kids don't want the subtle French flavors and crave Mexican or stir fry.  And that is okay.  We have all learned new things and learned to appreciate new flavors.  Pete ate Foie Gras in Lyon-"it is the world champion, how can I not try it"- and Camille continues to order canard, veau, and lapin in restaurants.  But we have tried lots of new things and broadened another horizon.

Lyon- Bouchons, Wall Art, Cool winds, and Family Memories

With Kelly in town, it seemed like a great opportunity to see another city and use another 2 days on the rail passes.  Monday morning over coffee, Kelly found us an apartment and by the time Pete woke up, we had a 3 day trip to Lyon planned.  The forecast for a Socialist movement rail strike proved to amount to nothing more than a longer line in the billeterie…the ticket agent reminded me, “There is always a solution,” but also warned me not to buy return tickets for Thursday due to the strike…

While still on apartment wifi, I downloaded two articles from The Guardian about things to do and places to eat in Lyon.  On the train, I used the Kindle 3G to download a travel book.  Armed with that small amount of information, we tasked Camille and Pete to make us dinner reservations (the dreaded French phone call) and I set about processing the 2000 years of history and architecture that lead to Lyon’s UNESCO World Heritage site status. So by 4pm we were rolling our suitcases across more cobblestones and navigating new public transportation headed toward new experiences.

First off, Lyon is a beautiful city. 

The infrastructure (bus, metro, tram, funicular) is modern, clean, and well-developed.  According to my guide book, the UNESCO status comes from the city meeting two criterion:

1. Lyon bears exceptional testimony to the continuity of urban settlement over more than two millennia on a site of great commercial and strategic significance.

2. Lyon illustrates in an exceptional way the progress and evolution of architectural design and city planning over many centuries.

Lyon is at the convergence of two rivers, the Saône and the Rhône, just west of the French Alps.  This made it a great spot for moving goods up and down the rivers.  The hills on either side of the Saône allowed for easy protection.  The historic part of the city is divided into 4 distinct districts, and each one perfectly represents a time period and has a unique personality.

Fourvière-

Atop the mountain, this area has been settled since 43 AD when the Romans built the city of Lugdunum here.  It was capital of Gaul and the ruins of a theatre and Odeon on the hillside are well-preserved and highlighted by an impressively curated museum.  

The museum uses audioguides synced with displays to illustrate the history and growth of the Roman city.  Emperor Claudius was born here and there are bronze plates that were excavated inscribed with a famous speech he gave about whether or not to allow the people of

Gaul the right to vote and be represented in the roman Senate.  The McGriff conversation lead to the similarities of this situation with that of the US and Puerto Rico- Pete chimed in “Taxation without representation!”

Vieux Lyon-

Below Fourvière at the bottom of the hill is Vieux Lyon. 

A snapshot of medieval architecture, this area was in decline until Minister of Culture, Andre Malraux, took a special interest in its preservation in the 1960s.  Malraux ended up creating the Malraux Law, which provides a certain amount of historic preservation along with tax breaks for business and property owners in these areas.  Today, Vieux Lyon is home to streets full of bouchons, restaurants specializing in the warm, homey cuisine of the region, and nice apartments.

Croix Rousse-

Its location on the rivers lead to Lyon being a center for trading spices and silks.  In the 1300s, Francois I gave Lyon exclusive rights to furnish silk to the royal court and the rest of the kingdom.  Croix Rousse, named for a red cross that stood in the neighborhood, was a neighborhood of silk weavers.  

Outside the city walls, it was a more rural, working area.  The homes were built to house their looms and are built up the steep hillside.  Many of these were connected by “traboules” or vaulted hallways that lead to a center courtyard and then out the other side.  This allowed silk weavers to move their goods down the hill and to the river quicker.

Today, this neighborhood is active. The top of the hill has busy shops and restaurants scattered around hard packed pebble squares.  And the climb up, or montée, is along a park with benches and terraced green space- a great view of the city and the Basilica de Notre Dame on the opposite hillside.  

The neighborhood is full of the expected boulangeries, boucheries, and cafés but all are modern and part of a community, not tourist spots.  Another interesting cultural element of Lyon that is highlighted in Croix Rousse are the Murs de Lyon, or murals.  These have grown in popularity over the last 30 years, and there are entire sides of buildings painted in the trompe l’œil style.  The largest in all of Europe, Les Murs de Canuts, or The Mural of the Silk Weavers, is a short walk from the plazas.

The Presqu’Ile, or Peninsula-

From the Croix Rousse, the spit of land that extends out between the two rivers toward the confluence is referred to as the Presqu’Ile.  During the 19th century, this area grew in popularity and was the more fashionable neighborhood.  The buildings are mostly Haussmann Style (think the Parisian remodel of the late 1800s) with white stucco walls and gray slate roofs.  The Bellecour plaza is in the middle of the peninsula and was converted to a parade ground, so it is a huge expanse of red clay.  

The highlight for us was a great lunch spot on Bellecour that Camille found that ended up with us in a private pastry class with our new friend, Guillaume.  Guillaume sits for his pastry exam next month and we wish him luck.  We learned so much in the hours we spent in the kitchen and will take away happy memories of choux pastry!!

Overall, Lyon is a proud city.  Full of personality with painted walls and delicious food, they welcome visitors but are more interested in the city they have built and its citizens, not attracting more tourists-a perfect break from the places we visit where we worry that Europe will become nothing more than a crumbling tourist site.  

It is hard to have a bad meal in this city but we ate at(and would highly recommend):

Bouchon des Filles- andouillette sausage and boudin in puff pastry

Le Sud- Chef Paul Bocuse- loved the joue du porc, and the cornichons!

Daniel et Denise- Joseph Viola-award winning foie gras in puff pastry

La Menthe- chevre fondue

InCuisine- the Fresh Bowl, or anything on the "Daily Specials" menu

Cap Ferrat Part Deux!

Another sunny day on the Côte d’Azur, another day trip.  We originally set out to hike the perimeter of Cap Ferrat and tour both the Villa Ephrussi and Villa Kerylos all on the same day.  Half way through last Saturday’s hike, we realized it would be more enjoyable to split the hike in two and see one villa at a time.  So last week we hiked from Beaulieu-sur-mer to St. Jean and the easternmost part of the peninsula ending at the Villa Ephrussi.

This trip we knew we wanted to hike the lighthouse portion of the peninsula and tour Villa Kerylos so we started at the villa. 

 Villa Kerylos is the creation of Theodore Reinach and his wife, Fanny Kann, the niece of Baroness Ephrussi de Rothschild.  Both Theodore and his brother were avid scholars and their initials formed the monogram JST which lead to the french nickname for them- Je sais tout- meaning "I know all".

It was his love of Greek enlightenment, government and philosophy that lead him to create this villa filled with frescos, artifacts, statuary and furnishings that both inspires and relaxes.  

Built between 1902 and 1908 by an archaeologist turned architect who had rebuilt the Acropolis, it is the perfect example of greek architecture and style with statues and frescos relating to Greek Mythology, tiled mosaic floors and astounding views of the Mediterranean from almost every window. 

I’m not sure how much Pete was joking when he commented “villa goals” from the dining room complete with 180 degree views of the sea and leather woven sofas so that the visitors can eat in a reclined position like the Greeks..

The mosaic doormat at the entry reads

Greek for ENJOY YOURSELF.

After a stop at the Casino(grocery, not gambling) in Beaulieu, we picnicked on the beach of the Baie des Fourmis and began our hike.  

This was not simple to find so I have added some directional pictures.  But believe me, the path is worth the search.  We walked over the Pont St. Jean, past the Villa Ephrussi and entered on the western side at the Plage de Passage, a small, private beach complete with the typical Côte d’Azur overpriced beach restaurant and umbrellas for rent. 

You almost think you are in the wrong spot as the path starts just to the south of an out of place four story gray block condominium but then…..










you head up hill and the narrow path runs along the water’s edge all the way out to the lighthouse.

There are several steep sections with no railing that will make your palms sweat but the views of Villefranche, Mont Boron, and Nice in the distance are spectacular.

Pack your swimsuit because there are several secluded spots to climb down the rocks and swim.  We played the typical loud Americans when we hit the FREEZING water- we are spoiled with the warm Gulf of Mexico- but the water was so clear we could see sea urchins, fish and any rocks from the surface.  

The complete western tip of the peninsula takes about 1.5 hours to hike and heading counterclockwise, you end up in the village of St. Jean with plenty of options for a drink and a snack, or a rest on the beach, before hopping back on bus 81 to head back to Nice.

Note:  If you are doing this part of the hike clockwise- this would be your entry- it would be easy to get discouraged for the first 10 minutes, it looks like a private drive and a graffiti covered deserted beach.