Déjeuner de poissons au Relais d'Artémis

Last Saturday, we went back to the restaurant named Au Relais d'Artémis for lunch. We had enjoyed a delicious lunch there with CHM on June 1. This time we were accompanied by our friends Tom and Harriett from Illinois.

The Relais d'Artémis is located in the town of Bracieux, just outside and south of the park that surrounds the Château de Chambord. Here's the web site. Last Saturday (July 13, so Bastille Day weekend in France) the restaurant was crowded and busy. The weather was so nice that we were able to have lunch outside on the patio.

Here are photos of the lunch that Harriett and Tom ordered. They both had a starter of smoked salmon and a main course of the European fish called sandre in French or 'zander' in English, with risotto and a beurre blanc sauce. Sandre is also known as "pike-perch" and it's not well-known in North America.

Carpaccio de saumon, tartare de légumes au parmesan

Filet de sandre, beurre blanc

For dessert, Harriett had the upside-down apple pie called Tarte Tatin. Tom chose the strawberry nougat with vanilla-flavored marshmallow.

Tarte Tatin et sa crème glacée vanille, caramel  à la fleur de sel

Nougat de fraises, guimauve à la vanille

The menu we selected from was priced at just under 25 euros per person (approximately $32 U.S.). Wine and coffee were optional (can you believe I wrote that?) and cost extra, of course. We had a nice bottle of local rosé.

Tomorrow, what Walt and I ordered and enjoyed.

Photos of Saint-Aignan wall paintings

These are all photos of wall paintings in the crypt of the church at Saint-Aignan. The paintings date back to the 12th and 15th centuries — 600 to 800 years ago. This is not the first time I've posted photos of these wall paintings, but they are worth another look.

And I'll just quote some information from the Cadogan Loire guidebook:

“The high point of the church interior is the crypt.” [Ha ha ha. The crypt is actually the lowest part of the church.] “This was an older church upon which the larger one above was plonked. The dark, dank place contains some fine vestiges of Romanesque wall paintings and capitals; it also offered excellent conditions for a local wine merchant to keep his stock in the last century, saving this level from the clinical restoration carried out above.”

“The most original painting depicts events not from the life of St Aignan but from that of St Gilles; here he performs acts of charity and miracles, clothing a beggar, healing a man bitten by a snake bite [sic] and even praying powerfully enough to rescue a ship from being wrecked.”

“A grandiose Christ in Majesty was painted in the inner chapel. He is flanked by St Peter and St James Minor, who appear to bow before his glory thanks to the curve of the ceiling. At the feet of their robes, cripples grovel, one with a stick holding out a coin, another moving along on walking irons.”

“The frescoes to the side of this scene are much later, from the 15th century, but also show penitent, frail mortals, the lord of St-Aignan, Louis II de Chalon, and his second wife, Jeanne de Perellos. They caused a terrible scandal...

...in 1420, when they eloped from the Burgundian court — Louis was unfortunately already married to Marie de la Trémoille.”

“Look out too for a 16th-century interpretation of the Last Judgement [sic], illustrating what Louis and Jeanne might well have lived in fear of.”

I haven't tried to coordinate text and photos in this post. I'll leave that up to you.

Saint-Aignan comeback?

We are actually having a summer. The weather has been beautiful since July 2, which was the last time it rained. Temperatures have slowly risen to highs in the mid-80s F and we are enjoying time outdoors, finally.

The Renaissance wing of the Château de Saint-Aignan

One specific time we enjoyed outdoors was Sunday morning in Saint-Aignan. We took our friends Tom and Harriett into town to have a look around. It was le 14 juillet, and we ended up marching in the Bastille Day parade for a few minutes, behind the band and the firemen.

Rooftops, chimneys, and the massive church tower in Saint-Aignan

We went up onto the upper terrace of the château, and I took the photo that is the new blog banner above (assuming you are reading this in July 2013 — I change the banner every few weeks or months). We went into the church, and down into the crypt to see the ancient wall paintings.

Inside the church in Saint-Aignan

We walked through the narrow streets of the old town down by the river. We checked out the new cheese shop in town — nice, but very expensive. We went to do a little shopping in the little Coccinelle grocery store across the square, and there I bought a cheese for two euros that was identical to one on sale for twice the price in the fromagerie.

One of the main intersections in central Saint-Aignan

I think Saint-Aignan is picking itself up and dusting itself off after several years in a slump. I'm sure the increased attendance at the Beauval zoo has a lot to do with it. The two pandas the zoo acquired from China a year or two ago are a national attraction.

Down in the vaulted crypt of the Saint-Aignan church

Many more shops were open on a holiday Sunday morning than I expected to see. Many more people were out and about. Maybe it was just the nice summer weather that made the place seem livelier and more attractive.

Departing friends + Chambord artwork

Our friends from Illinois left us yesterday to continue their travels in the Alps and then on to Paris. They are following the Tour de France bicycle race.

Did you know that there is a direct train from Saint-Aignan to Lyon? That fact surprised me when I first found out about it, because most trains from this area go to Paris, where you can connect to lines leading to other regions and cities.

The train from Saint-Aignan to Lyon originates in Tours — our largest local city — and includes stops in Vierzon, Bourges, Nevers, Moulins, and many more towns and villages along the way. The trip takes just more than five hours. At Lyon, you can get a train to Grenoble or Marseille, for example.

Anyway, I'm pretty exhausted after four days of touring around by car, preparing food at home, and coping with our "hot" weather. In fact, we had a beautiful weekend, with temperatures in the 80s F and bright sunshine. We had lunch on Saturday at the Relais d'Artémis in Bracieux, just outside the walled park of the Château de Chambord, and we sat outside on the terrace.

In fact, even at home, we had all our lunches and dinners out on the front terrace. It was a treat, and it was a great weekend. We hadn't seen Harriett and Tom since 2006, when we visited them in Illinois, and they hadn't come to France since 1985. We've been friends for 35 or 40 years.

Today I'll just post a few more pictures that I took at Chambord Saturday afternoon. The first is of a portrait of the Renaissance king François Ier. The others are details of a gigantic Renaissance-era tapestry showing hunting scenes.