The château and church at Saint-Aignan

The church and the château at
Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher, in eastern Touraine
Click the pictures to see them full-size

Speaking of the Crêpiot restaurant, I have a distinct memory of going there for lunch with visitors from California (or America, anyway) one day when we all wanted to eat pommes frites. We got to the restaurant and found that the daily special was filet mignon de porc with green beans. It looked really good. So we all had that and then we ordered a big assiette de frites for the table to eat with it.

The câteau as seen by my zoom lens from Noyers-sur-Cher

The question is: who were the visitors with whom we enjoyed that lunch? Walt and I both think it was with Candy and John. Cheryl, I can't believe you haven't been to eat at Le Crêpiot. Next time... Chrissoup, have you been? Susan, I vaguely remember that we ate there when you were here two years ago. Thanks for the reminder and the memory.

The church at Saint-Aignan seen from afar

Day before yesterday CHM and I went out in the afternoon to buy some duck gizzards over at Intermarché in Noyers-sur-Cher, which is on the other side of the river. The gizzards, by the way were on sale: three good-size cans of gizzards cooked in duck fat (!) for €6,74 — a steal. Duck gizzards are great sautéed and then served on a salad.

Another view of the château
from a slightly different vantage point

After our shopping, we went on a picture-taking excursion. We only had an hour or two. I drove us up into the vineyards on the north side of Noyers, which are on high ground above the river valley. From there, we had fairly good views of the château and church in Saint-Aignan. Thus the pictures in this post.

An old windmill, minus its blades,
and some red poppies in Noyers-sur-Cher

This morning we are off to the outdoor market over in Montrichard to pick up some things: goat cheese from the Ferme-Auberge de la Lionnière and some tarragon plants in little pots to plant here at La Renaudière and also for CHM to plant in his garden in Paris. The weather is cloudy today but is supposed to get pretty warm this afternoon. We plan to have lunch at the Grill des Nouettes over in Noyers. That's the place I call The Truckstop. I've had lunches there with Gabby, Chrissoup, and my mother over the years. Not sure who else.

Lunch in Saint-Aignan at the Crêpiot

Yesterday we decided to go have lunch in one of Saint-Aignan's real institutions, Le Crêpiot. It's a small family-run restaurant on the town's main street, just across the street from the post office, and it has been in business since 1979. Here's the Crêpiot's web site.

The restaurant's sign hangs out over
Saint-Aignan's narrow, cobblestoned main street

In summer, the Crêpiot puts out a wooden deck with an awning over it and sets up tables for seating outside. It can be very pleasant, even though the cars rumble by right next to diners on the cobblestone street. The interior is — well, it's in the pictures below. It's rustic. We decided to eat inside because for mid-June, there was a slight chill in the air — le fond de l'air était frais.

The Crêpiot's summertime terrace,
which is taken down at the end of the season

The owners of the restaurant are Elie and Véronique, and they make it a point to welcome all their customers with a handshake and a big smile. Elie spends his time at the bar in one corner of the small room, and Véronique explains the menu and takes orders. She speaks very clearly and slowly in French. I used to think she spoke extra-slowly to foreigners, but CHM said he had the impression she talked that way to all her customers. She's easy to understand and she takes time to make sure everything about the menu choices is clear.

The typically rustic décor at the Crêpiot

Speaking of the menus, there's a daily special at lunchtime for about 12 euros. Yesterday the main course was a grilled slice of ham served with white beans. As a starter, there was a salad with warm goat cheese, a salad with strips of chicken breast, or a half an avocado stuffed with tuna salad. The desserts were tarte aux pommes (apple tart), a "floating island," or two scoops of ice cream (several flavors available). Instead of dessert, you could choose to have the cheese plate, with pieces of two different cheeses.

We decided to have the €16 menu instead, because we wanted steaks. As an entrée, CHM had a salad with Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine goat cheese. There were four big pieces of cheese on the plate with salad greens and chopped walnuts. Walt had a herring salad — two or three fairly large pieces of fish served with sliced boiled potatoes, onions, and salad greens in vinaigrette. I had the half-avocado stuffed with tuna salad.

We arrived early and were among the first noontime customers.
The gentleman in this picture was evidently celebrating his
birthday, and Véronique and her wait staff went over and sang
Bon Anniversaire to him when they served the couple's desserts.

Our main dishes were steaks called bavette d'aloyau, which is a sort of flank or skirt steak. It's lean mean with no fat or gristle. We all ordered the steak cooked rare (saignant). Walt and I got frites — French fries — with ours, and CHM decided to substitute sautéed mushrooms for a supplement of one euro. I thought the steak was perfectly cooked and tender (French beef is from grass-fed cattle and therefore very different from American beef). It was served with a pat of parsley butter that melted on top of and flavored the meat. CHM had such a big portion of mushrooms that he couldn't eat them all, but Walt and I both finished our fries.

Our desserts were a crêpe with warm chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream for CHM, a piece of apple tart for Walt, and a floating island for me. Do you know what an île flottante is? It's blobs of soft meringue sitting in a light crème anglaise — an egg custard — with toasted sliced almonds on top.

Saint-Aignan's post office is
just across the street a few doors up

I completely forgot to take pictures of the food. I was too busy anticipating and then eating. Oh, and now I almost forgot this detail: the Crêpiot features a locally made wine every month as its vin du mois. This month it is a Cabernet Franc and Côt (aka Malbec) blend made and bottled by a couple over in the village of Couffy, about three miles east of Saint-Aignan. It was tasty.

A number of you who regularly read this blog have had a meal or two at the Crêpiot. I'm thinking of Evelyn, Marie, Luke, BettyAnn, Danielle, John, Candy, Cheryl, and others (it's hard to remember who has eaten where on various visits). The Crêpiot is one of Saint-Aignan's mainstays.

The cathedral at Bourges

-La Cathédrale de Bourges

Bourges is a small city about two hours east of Saint-Aignan. We drove over there yesterday to see the city's cathedral, one of the most remarkable in France. Many people know the cathedrals at Chartres, Reims, Rouen, and of course Paris, but the one at Bourges is just as impressive. Besides, it is surrounded by an amazingly intact Medieval quarter full of old half-timbered houses.

The people in this picture give you an idea of the scale of this enormous cathedral.

In fact, the Bourges cathedral is the widest and one of the tallest in France. It was built over a period of 65 years, from 1195 to 1260, replacing an even earlier cathedral in Bourges that had been judged too small. The north tower is 65 meters high — that's 213 feet. It collapsed in the early 1500s and was rebuilt.

The cathedral has five entrance portals, which are being cleaned
at present. Two were hidden by scaffolding and tarpolins.

We left Saint-Aignan at about 10:00 yesterday morning and decided to take the autoroute over to Bourges. But the autoroute was closed at Romorantin for some reason, so just 20 minutes after getting on we were shunted off, and we ended up driving small roads through places named St-Julien, Graçay, and La Ferté. It was much more interesting than riding on the high-speed toll road. After some stops to take pictures, we finally arrived in Bourges at about 12:30. It was raining when we got there but the shower didn't last long.

A close-up of one of the portals

I found a parking space on a street less than a block from the cathredral. The parking meter was broken, so instead of the usual parking receipt, I just put a little note in my window saying Horodateur en dérangement. I didn't get a ticket. We ate lunch in a nearby restaurant (foie de veau, calf's liver, very good) and then spent an hour or two walking around the cathedral, taking pictures of flowers in the Archbishop's Garden, and touring the inside to look at the architectural features and all the stained-glass windows.

The gardens next to the cathedral, with
the archbishop's residence in the background.

It took us about three hours, with photo stops, to drive back to Saint-Aignan through St-Florent, Charost, Issoudun, Vatan, and Valençay. It's beautiful country with many little towns, churches, and châteaux.ý

Nouans-les-Fontaines

Ten miles south of Saint-Aignan, on the road to the town of Le Blanc, Nouans is a village of some 800 souls that looks like an overgrown intersection these days. It has a small grocery store, a boulangerie, a restaurant, a pizzeria, a combination boucherie-charcuterie shop, and a florist's.

A restaurant and a shop in Nouans

It also has a 13th-century church in which was found and identified, in 1931, a masterpiece of what the Michelin Guide calls art primitif. It's a painting by the 15th-century artist named Jean Fouquet and is known as the Pièta de Nouans, picturing Christ being taken down from the cross.

La Pièta de Nouans-les-Fontaines, re-discovered in 1931

One of Fouquet's best-known paintings is this
Virgin and Child.

Little is known about Fouquet's life except that as a young man he spent time mastering his art in Italy before returning to France and settling in Tours. He became famous for his paintings and worked for two French kings, Charles VII and Louis XI, who held court at nearby Loches. Then he was nearly forgotten for centuries until the Romantic movement of the early 19th century, interested in all things medieval, re-discovered his work.

Ceiling vaults in the church at Nouans

A drive in Boischaut country

Yesterday CHM and I took an afternoon drive down into the Boischaut Nord area, the north part of the Berry province that includes towns like Valençay and Palluau-sur-Indre. We wanted to go see the château in the town called Luçay-le-Mâle (picture), but when we got there we could only see the château, which is privately owned, from a distance. We rode all around the town for 30 minutes but never even found a spot from which we could take a good picture.

L'Allemandière

That was the kind of afternoon it was. First of all, the skies were menacing even though only a few drops of rain actually ended up falling on us. After Luçay, we drove down on narrow roads to a place called L'Allemandière. It too is private, but we managed to find a place where we could see and photograph the buildings.

Oublaise, a Krishna spiritual center

After that, we drove on to a place called Oublaise (also spelled Oublaisse on some signs and sites) to see a château there. All these châteaux and manor houses appear on the Michelin maps of France, so you can go find them. Oublaise turned out to be a late 19th-century replica of a Renaissance-style château. And it is also a Krishna spiritual center.

A contented-looking cow kept by the Krishnas

We talked to some of the residents and they gave us some home-made bread and cookies. They said it was fine if we walked around the château and took some pictures, and that we could come inside if we wanted. But we didn't want to disturb them any more than we already had. They were very friendly and welcoming.

After Oublaise, we drove on south to places called Les Echevées, Mizeray, and Rabry, which we saw on the map. All were screened from prying eyes by thick stands of tall trees. The people who own and/or live in them must value their privacy very highly. They don't want the curious (like us) peering at and taking pictures of their properties, I suppose, and I understand that. But the location of their houses is indicated on the maps...

Kidneys for lunch

Yesterday we had lamb kidneys for lunch. It wasn't planned. At least it wasn't planned more than about 18 hours in advance. But it was really good.

CHM and I had driven up to Contres Friday afternoon to do some shopping at the big SuperU store up there. We were wandering through the butcher section when there, on a shelf in a refrigerated cabinet, we saw packages of lamb kidneys. (And also packages of chicken livers, of which I bought some too, but that's an organ of a different color).

Rognons d'agneau aux champignons et à la crème

CHM said he had never tried lamb kidneys before, but he has cooked and enjoyed veal kidneys many times. I used to cook lamb kidneys back in the 1970s when I lived in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, but hadn't cooked or eaten them in about 30 years.

Back then, I must have had them in France once or twice between 1970 and 1976. Remembering that, one day I went to the a supermarket in Champaign and looked around. No kidneys were to be found. I rang the bell and talked to a butcher. He said he could order me some lamb kidneys but it would take 48 hours to get them in. Fine, I said. I'll come back day after tomorrow.

When I went back, the butcher carefully wrapped up the five or six kidneys and handed them to me. "Your cat is going to feast on these tonight and tomorrow, I bet," he said. I just smiled.

How about some good bread to soak up the sauce with?

« Les rognons d'agneau sont les plus fins des rognons. » That's what it says on one web site I found: "Lamb kidneys are the choicest of kidneys." That same web page gives a recipe that is about the same one that I used back in the late 1970s. I followed it yesterday. Here it is in general terms.

What you need is about two lamb kidneys per person, mushrooms, an onion, cognac (you could use white wine), cream, Dijon mustard, salt, and pepper. Lamb kidneys weigh two or three ounces each.

Cut the lamb kidneys in two — butterfly them, in other words — and with a sharp knife remove the lump of fat in the top middle of each half (sorry, I didn't take any pictures). Cut each kidney half into three or four pieces, or slice them thinly if you prefer.

And a nice bottle of Bordeaux red...

Put all the pieces of kidney in a cold water bath for an hour or so to disgorge them. You can add a squirt of vinegar or lemon juice to the water if you want — that takes away any gamy smell. Change the water two or three times over the course of the hour and then rinse the kidney pieces well under cold running water.

Meanwhile, clean and slice about half a pound of mushrooms — or more if you want. Sauté them in some butter or oil. Also chop a medium onion or a couple of shallots and sauté those too. Slice, chop, or mash some garlic and add that too if you want to.

...or two to go with it.

Put the mushrooms and the onions/shallots/garlic aside. Sauté the kidney pieces in the same pan at very high temperature. Don't cook them for more than five minutes (less time for smaller pieces) or they might get tough and rubbery. When they have browned slightly, pour half a cup or so of cognac or armagnac into the pan and let that evaporate. Grind in a good quantity of black pepper, along with salt to taste.

Finally, add about a cup of cream, a big tablespoon of Dijon mustard, and the sautéed mushrooms and onions. As soon as the sauce is hot and bubbling, the kidneys are ready to eat. Serve them with rice, pasta, boiled potatoes, or French fries. And a green salad or some steamed green beans.

The British eat kidneys in their traditional steak-and-kidney pie. I don't think many Americans eat them at all. Have you ever tried them?

Château: La Ferté-Saint-Aubin

Le château de la Ferté-Saint-Aubin
Click the mouse on the pictures to enlarge them

Wednesday June 4. It rained a few drops here and there as we drove south from Milly-la-Forêt after lunch in a café. We didn't stop to see much along the way because we both wanted the trip to be over as fast as possible.

But we did stop in the town called la Ferté-Saint-Aubin, just south of Orléans in the Sologne region. There's a château there that the Michelin Green Guide calls « un superbe château classique ».

This is another place I have driven by a dozen or more times but where I had never stopped before. We didn't go in; we just took some pictures from out front and from up at the main entrance.

The buildings were built in the 1600s and 1700s of stone and pale-colored brick. Some of the rooms are still furnished with their original 18th-century furniture, according to the Michelin Guide. The château's moats are fed by the Cosson river, which also flows past the imposing Château de Chambord just a few miles downstream.

Unfortunately, a big national highway runs right through the middle of La Ferté-Saint-Aubin, so traffic on the town's narrow main street can be terrible. Ferté, by the way, means "a fortified place," and there are a lot of towns in the Sologne region and up north on the edge of Normandy and the Paris area that are named that way: La Ferté-Imbault, La Ferté-Macé, La Ferté-Allais, and so on. The Michelin road atlas lists about 25 of them.

Cafés in Paris

If you've never been to Paris, you'll be surprised by the number of cafés you'll see on most of the streets in the center of town. And there are many fewer of them now than there used to be, according to all the statistics.

A lot of cafés serve food, but not all do. Some cafés will have just a daily special at noontime. Others have a more extensive food menu listing salads, sandwiches, and a few main dishes like steaks and fries or roast chicken.

See translation below...

Many cafés have outdoor seating. It's surprising that so many cafés in a city like Paris, which has a very iffy climate, would have so many sidewalk cafés. But as soon as there is a brief ray of sunshine, Parisians want to be outdoors. Their apartments are often small and they don't get a lot of sunshine.

Even in winter, a lot of café terraces are open. Heat lamps are provided. And nowadays, since France passed a law prohibiting smoking in cafés, restaurants, bars, and other public places, smokers can indulge their vice only outdoors. In other words, if they want a coffee or a drink with their cigarette, they have to sit outside.

If you want to save a few cents — and who doesn't with the U.S. dollar at all-time lows against the euro currency — you can have your drink, coffee, or sandwich standing at the bar inside instead of at a table on the sidewalk. And since there's no smoking inside any more, it might be pretty pleasant.

If you do sit outside, you never know if the person at the neighboring table might light up. People with an aversion to cigarette smoke, beware!

A lot of cafés have their outdoor seating area under a big awning, so you can sit out there even if it is raining. And some have full, transparent plastic partitions all around the terrace to protect customers from wind, rain, and cold.

By the way, the sign pictured up above, which was sitting out on the sidewalk outside a café-restaurant called Louise, says:

Non-stop restaurant service from 11:30 a.m. until 10:00 p.m.

Ask for our English menu.

Our specialties: "Simple fare like what you would have at home."
Steak tartare, lamb shanks, beef Burgundy, pasta, scrambled eggs, mixed salads, smoked salmon, foie gras, seasonal soups, the daily special, and our delicious home-made mashed potatoes or our famous ratatouille! And desserts made by Lilie...
Our prices are displayed on blackboards inside and outside the restaurant.
Welcoming you to our restaurant is our pleasure.
No smoking (except on the heated terrace). Family atmosphere."

Does all that sound like the kind of food you make and eat eat at home?

Le Château de Courances

A imposing entrance at Courances

Last Wednesday when I was driving back from Paris with CHM, who is visiting for a couple of weeks, we decided to stop and have a look at a château not far from Paris in the village of Courances.

Green lawns and tree-shaded canals

I took my favorite route as I drove out of Paris: down the autoroute almost to Fontainebleau, turned off on little roads just before the first tollbooth, and drove past Courances to Milly-la-Forêt and then on south. I've driven by Courances a dozen or more times over the past five years but had never driven into the village before.

Le Château de Courances, near Fontainebleau

The château de Courances was built in the mid-1500s for King Henri II's secretary of finances. It was then significantly modified in the early 1600s, during the reign of King Louis XIII. Think Place des Vosges in Paris, built during that same period: brick exterior walls, sandstone window framing, and steep rooftops. In the 1800s, a Fontainebleau-style horseshoe staircase was added on to the front of the building.

The horseshoe-shaped staircase
imitates the one at Fontainebleau

We didn't take the time to go into the château, which is open to visitors. One of the main attractions at Courances is the château grounds and gardens. There's a water-filled moat as well as several canal-like water features, and at this season everything there is emerald green and lush.

Keeping the park beautiful at Courances

The Michelin Green Guide says that Courances is one of the most "seductive" châteaux in the Paris region. There was a herd of cattle grazing in a field just across the road when we were there.

Rows of trees line the alleyways at Courances.

Oysters on Oléron

As you might know, when we were on the Ile d'Oléron in May, the commercial fishermen were on strike against high diesel fuel prices and the boats were not going out to fish. So there were no or very few fish available for purchase. Even the restaurants ran out.

OUT OF FISH
FISHERMEN ON STRIKE

While it is an important fishing center, the Ile d'Oléron is especially known for its oyster beds and ponds. The oysters are farmed; they are gathered in the offshore waters, separated into what in North Carolina we call "singles," and then placed in salt ponds to fatten up. After that, they are taken to market.

Here you can buy oysters, mussels,
and wines made on the Ile d'Oleron.

One of the prime oyster-raising areas is on the north shore of the island, north of Saint-Pierre d'Oléron and between Boyardville and Le Château d'Oléron. It's an area of canals, ponds, and little wooden oyster shacks. In the ponds lives a particular variety of green algae that the oysters feed on (I think) and that gives their flesh a pretty green color.

OYSTERS

Oyster shacks

All this reminds me very much of the North Carolina (and Virgnia and Maryland) coast, at least the way it was 25 to 50 years ago. It's changed now.