Bagnoles-de-L'Orne, a spa town

Bagnoles-de-L'Orne (pop. 2,000) is a spa town located a little less than an hour's drive west of Alençon in lower Normandy. zit's the largest spa in western France, according to the Michelin Green guidebook for Normandy). People go there to "take the waters" for circulatory disorders and as a preventive treatment against varicose veins. Bagnoles is a good place to take a walk and just admire the beautiful landsapes, the lake, and the grand houses all around the town.

According to a local legend, in the Middle Ages a prominent man named Hugues de Tessé, upon arriving in the forest surrounding the town of Bagnoles, realized that his horse was suffering and didn't have long to live. He decided to abandon the horse in the forest, and continued his journey on foot.

A few hours later, the horse caught up with him and seemed to be in much better health than when he was abandoned. The horse, which he called Rapide, guided Hugues to the natural hotspring where he had found water to drink. The cure was like some kind of miracle. Hugues drank from the spring and was likewise rejuvenated. The reputation of the waters at Bagnoles was born.

La Choucroute servie avec poulet et porc

Last week I wrote about having bought a nice cauliflower and also two kilograms of raw sauerkraut over at Intermarché, the supermarket that's closest to us as the corbeau flies. Here's what became of the sauerkraut. We've had two choucroute meals so far, and that's after having cooked just one kilo of raw kraut. The 'kraut itself cooks for three or four hours on low heat. Sauerkraut is cabbage that is cut into strips, salted, and left to ferment for days or even weeks. If you rinse it thoroughly, the salt washes away and the fermented cabbage is tasty — almost sweet — especially if you add a good amount of white wine to the cooking liquid along with carrots, onions, bay leaves, and spices (cloves, juniper berries, allspice berries, black pepper). Served with the cooked sauerkraut are boiled or steamed potatoes with butter and smoked meats.

Usually, the meats are pork, but nothing says they have to be. I like to have a smoked chicken with mine, along with smoked sausages, saucisses de Strasbourg (frankfurters) and thick slices of bacon (pork belly, poitrine fumée). All the meats are to be eaten in moderation of course, and hefty portions of cabbage go with them. Above you can see the smoked chicken, which we can buy already cooked at the supermarket. It just gets partially buried in the sauerkraut toward the end of the cooking, along with the bacon and smoked sausages, for 30 minutes at most.The potatoes are cooked separately and served hot with the choucroute and meats. Don't forget the Dijon mustard.

Lonlay — l'abbaye etc.

Not far west of Alençon...

For some people, pizza is almost a religion...

Alençon on a rainy Sunday afternoon

The Norman town of Alençon [ah-lã-sõ] is the southern-most urban area in the région Normandie. It's about 60 miles west of Chartres, 30 miles north of Le Mans, and 75 miles north of Tours. Extensive restoration work "has enhanced the charm of its old streets lined with picturesque stone or timber-framed houses," says the Michelin Green guidebook for Normandy. Alençon is "rendered even more pleasant by the rivers and gardens surrounding the pedestrian town centre", Michelin adds.

Michelin describes the Flamboyant Gothic church in Alençon, built in the 14th and 15th centuries, using words like "elegant," "refined," and "splendid."

There's Charles-Henry approaching the front door of the château owned by an old friend of his, whose son operates it as a hotel. The son, whose name is also Charles-Henry, is the co-author of a cookbook titled Un Plat c'est tout.

Back-tracking to Alençon

The small city of Alençon (pop. 25,000) is in lower Normandy just about 20 minutes by car south of the cathedral town of Sées that I was blogging about a few days ago. I've been to Alençon three times, I think: in June 2001 (I didn't take any photos that time), in August 2011 (a sunny day), and in late may 2015 (a rainy day with Charles-Henry). I picked these colorful pictures for today because it has been gray, foggy, and drizzly here in Saint-Aignan for a couple of weeks (or more) now. Our weather is supposed to improve this coming week. We may even see the sun.

Busy, busy, busy

Now that both my eyes have been operated on, the next task on my to-do list is to get new glasses. Or at least new lenses in my old glasses frame. The doctor has prescribed progressive lenses that will let me see up close (my computer screen, for example) as well as at a distance (when driving, walking the dog, or watching TV) without having to take off one pair of glasses and put on another about a hundred times a day.

That's what I've been doing for the past two months, after my second eye surgery on September 3. It works, but it's not fun. I'm still wearing the glasses I was wearing before the two surgeries were performed but now I can see distant scenes better without glasses at all, and I can see my computer screen better with the glasses that used to be good for driving and TV watching. It's all a little confusing. But it's good to know that my cataracts are gone now.

Here's another view of the feudal fortress in the town of Fougères, on the eastern edge of Brittany.

Anyway, a week from today, we are having a load of firewood (five stères or cubic meters — about one and a half cords) delivered. We'll have to figure out where to park the cars, or at least one of them, so that we won't be stranded here during that time it takes us to stack the new load of firewood. That could be two or three days or more than a week, depending on the weather and how our backs hold up. Either way, it will be a lot of work.

Meanwhile, I have to get our second car, the "newer" one — it's 16 years old! — ready for its contrôle technique inspection. The main thing is to put a container of engine cleaner (is that still called by the brand name STP?) into the car's fuel tank and fill the tank with diesel fuel (gazole or gasoil). Then I have to make it a point to drive it nearly every day for a week or two to get the engine's valves and cylinders as clean as possible. It has to be able to pass an emissions test in order to be certified as not polluting the air.

Finally, I have to find a groomer who can give Natasha the Sheltie a good bath and brushing. The woman who groomed 'Tasha last year and the year before has at least temporarily shut down her business. She's expecting a baby in the spring. Who knows when or if she'll ever start working again. She's the one who drove up to our hamlet in a camper van and did the bathing and brushing on site in her van. I have one new groomer in mind, but haven't talked to her yet. 'Tasha won't be happy to be dropped off and left behind, but it has to be done. It'll just be for a few hours.

Never a dull moment around Saint-Aignan, as my late friend Charles-Henry would say. He loved that expression. By the way, it's been foggy, gray, and damp for a couple of weeks now. It's the kind of weather doesn't exactly boost the morale.

Fougères en Bretagne et sa forteresse médiévale

Imagine you were spending some time touring around in the Perche region and towns including Mortagne, Bellême, Nogent-le-Rotrou, Sées and Alençon. If you decided you wanted to do a day trip, one good destination would be the town of Fougères (pop. 20,000) on the eastern edge of Brittany. It takes two hours or so to get there, but the drive is through beautiful green countryside and there are stops like the hilltop village Domfront along the way that would make a good place to have lunch. Fougères itself is the site of one of Europe's most imposing fortified châteaux. The château complex occupies five acres of land and included 13 towers. It was built between the 12th and 15th centuries.

The first château de Fougères was destroyed in 1166 when Henri II Plantagenêt laid siege to it and left it in ruins. It was re-built soon after, however, starting in 1176. It was given to Diane de Poitiers by the French king Henri II in 1547. And the novelist Honoré de Balzac spent time there in the 19th century. Fougères is only about 45 minutes by car from the Mont Saint-Michel.

Pictures taken at Sées cathedral in 2006

Inside and outside views of the cathedral at Sées

French Wikipédia says the first cathedral in Sées was built in the year 440 A.D. It was a much smaller structure than the cathedral that exists today and that was built in the 13th century — about a thousand years later. That earliest cathedral in Sées was heavily damaged during the Viking invasions of the 8th and 9th centuries and replaced by a more imposing building in the 11th century. That building didn't stand for long. A fire weakened its structure and it collapsed less than a century later. Another cathedral was built in the 12th century but it too was destroyed by fire.

Today's cathedral was built starting in about the year 1200. In their rush, the builders didn't lay a solid foundation for the structure, which was consecrated in the year 1310. It suffered major damage during the 100 Years' War and had to be repaired and re-consecrated at the end of the 15th century. In the 16th century the west front of the church was leaning precariously and was in danger of collapsing It had to be shored up by the construction of buttresses to keep it standing. More buttresses had to be added in the 18th century. Finally, major restoration and consolidation work in the 19th century stabilized the building and what we see today dates mostly back to that time.

Sées et sa cathédrale

I have to say I had never heard of the cathedral city of Sées (pronounced [say]; pop. 4,000) before I went there with my late friend Charles-Henry in June 2001, on our drive from Rouen to Vouvray. Walt and I went back in June 2006 with our friend Sue from California, when we were driving from Saint-Aignan to the Mont Saint-Michel. And I went back when I was in the Perche region with Evelyn, Lewis, and Marie-Jacques in August 2011.

Deux bons résultats

Some bullet points today, covering the week's news.

• We had a couple of small victories this past week. The first had to do with our 24-year-old Peugeot 206 "runabout" car. I love the car and will hate to have to give it up one day. It's a lot of trouble to go out and find another quality used car to buy. (I can't justify the expense of a new car.) Anyway, I dreaded having to take the Peugeot in for its bi-annual inspection this month. I decided not to have anything, not even an oil change, done to the car before its contrôle technique (technical inspection or MOT), which is a very detailed and thorough inspection required by the government. If the technician found problems, I'd have four months to get them fixed. I took it in for inspection on Monday morning. Well, once again the car passed inspection with flying colors. Now I'll have to have our other car (a Citroën C4) inspected before mid-December. I'll probably do the same thing with that one. Just take it in and hope for the best.
  

• On Wednesday I had my final appointment with the ophthalmologist who performed cataract surgery on my eyes in June and in September. He said everything has healed now and he judged the results of the operation to be good. He had me do the standard eye test — read the letters, you know. I told him again that I was a little bit disappointed that the vision in my right eye, the weak one, wasn't better. The left eye is great. He said new corrective lenses would take care of the right-eye problem. I was skeptical. He tested me again, showing me the vision I would have with that eye once I got the new prescription and new glasses. We ran through 6 or 7 different lenses without any good results. Then he tried one final lens and voilà ! suddenly I could see the letters clearly. Now I'm optimistic that my vision compared to what it was six months ago will soon be far better, once I get the new lenses and glasses from an optical shop.

 Now it's time to get into the kitchen and cook that cauliflower for lunch.

La saison des choux

Yesterday I went to the supermarket (Intermarché in Noyers-sur-Cher). I bought, among other items, a cauliflower. 'Tis the season. It was beautiful and was on sale for just two euros per head. Last week, at another supermarket, I saw heads of cauliflower (chou-fleur) that weren't as nearly as pretty selling for 3.69 euros apiece, so I figure I got a bargain. I'll make a gratin de chou-fleur tomorrow, using smoked pork lardons, Comté cheese (an Alpine or "Swiss" cheese made in eastern France), and a béchamel sauce. And don't forget, you can cook and eat the green leaves of the cauliflower the way you would cook and serve other greens.

Yesterday at Intermarché I also bought two kilograms (nearly five pounds) of raw sauerkraut (choucroute crue; good luck pronouncing that). It's also available pre-cooked, but I prefer to cook it myself, with onions, carrots, bay leaves, duck fat, white wine, smoked chicken, smoked sausages, and thick slices of smoked bacon. Sauerkraut is made from heads of chou blanc (white cabbage) that has been cut into strips and fermented in salt water. The soaking makes it much easier to digest than cabbage that has not undergone fermentation.

I've posted about choucroute many times before; for example here. The two kilos of choucroute was a bucket full, as you can see, and the raw kraut fit in two large containers that will go into the freezer. Notice the label and the information it gives, the most important being the ingredients: Chou, sel. No additives. To reduce the amount of salt in the finished dish, rinse the raw choucroute well in cold water before you cook it.