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| Paris In Sites Newsletter Direct From France Edited by Linda Thalman Travel & Leisure Articles |
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August 2002
Paris - Ardeche - The French Riviera - Northern Italy By Linda Thalman
We packed light - a few T-shirts, swim suits, shorts - hoping the méteo was
telling the truth that it was sunny and warm down south.
The torrential rain pounding down on the autoroute was not particularly
auspicious.
A Saturday in early August is not a good time to leave Paris, so we waited
until 18:00 for the first leg of our trip. We'd not reserved a hotel or
dinner. But never fear, we phoned on the road and booked dinner for two
at 20:30 at Le Grenier à Sel in Montluçon.
Montluçon is in the heart of the Auvergne region and the Le Grenier à Sel
restaurant is worth the trip for lunch or dinner. They also have spacious and elegant rooms
from 80 to 100 euros. The hotel was fully booked but reception graciously helped us on the spot
to book the comfortable Hôtel des Bourbons - 46 euros for a double.
Our dinner was simply perfect. The cold zuchinni soup with white truffles was exquisite.
I had ham on the bone and my partner a 'sardinade' and we enjoyed a bottle of Julienas Beaujolais 2000.
This was followed by fromage blanc au huile d'olive fermier and
then gorgeous fruit tarte desserts. The food, wine, service and setting
all got an A+ in my book.
Montluçon has a lovely medieval old town which was lively and fun to
walk around after dinner. The Hôtel des Bourbons, a 10-minute walk from
the restaurant was perfect for a short night's sleep.
Once we reached the Cevennes, the clouds disappeared, it was hot and stayed hot
for the next 5 days. Bliss.
Before getting to the charming village of Saint Jean de Maruejols
to stay with friends, we stopped at the Bambouseraie de Prafrance just outside
the town of Anduze.
The gift shop alone is worth the visit, with unique and beatiful bamboo gift
items at reasonable prices. Bamboo trees are quite pricey items, in fact, but they are so
beautiful in a garden.
An evening B-B-Q at Hans and Ruth's summer home with excellent local wine was
just perfect. Their village is small, off the main road and you need to be on foot
to get around most of the streets. Simply wonderful.
Our main shopping goal of the trip was to find a door curtain... which we did in
the quincaillerie in Barjac, a small town in the Ardeche region. Our beautiful door curtain
is made of wooden beads by the Morel factory in the Jura region of France.
We spent two wonderful days with friends 10 kilometers from St Tropez. Market days in
St Tropez are Tuesday and Saturday. They told us 'You MUST go early' - and that meant we
were enjoying coffee and croissants right by the market at 8 in the morning, and even then
the streets were full of people.
Returning to the peace and calm at our friends' about 10:00 the traffic
was backed up at least 5 kilometers going into St Tropez and the parking lots were full!
You have been warned - go very early in the morning!
Unusually, the wind was at 'force' 5 which turned the Med into a wonderful roiling
sea of warm waves at Gigaro Beach. We jumped the waves after a pleasant sea food meal at
the Bar de la Plage in La Croix-Valmer.
Tip one: don't put your car key in your swimming trunks' pocket... my dear Pierre did
and it took 2 days for the electronic components to dry out.
Tip two: take a spare car key with you - which we had done!
Thank goodness for small favors and advance planning: we had reserved lunch at the Auberge
Le Robur in Roure. It was the only restaurant we saw in this village that literally
hangs on a cliff. Roure gets the prize for being the most unusual and quaintest village
I've visited in France in years.
The 24 euro menu was perfect. We were delighted with the ecrivisse
and mushrooms and the salmon roll with cheese starters. The tournedo de boeuf au girolles
mushrooms and the carré de anneau (lamb) with morilles mushrooms were delicious.
Then came the local cheese platter and beautiful desserts.
We had a Domaine Caillol 2002 Cassis wine...
and wondered how we'd negotiate the 100 (we counted them) curves on the way down the mountain.
We picked the smallest mountain pass we could find on the map to cross into Italy.
We were not disappointed. The Col de Lombardi was a 45 kilometer one-car wide
maintained road that zigged and zagged through beautiful scenery. Our French and English
guide books had nothing to say about Piemonte... fortunately the Guide Rouge for Italy
showed not one, but TWO one-star restaurants in a village called Boves, outside of Cuneo.
Exhausted from hairpin turns all afternoon, we arrived at 19:00 at Al Rododendro restaurant
and - miraculously - they are also an albergo. Our beautiful room and ensuite modern
bathroom with shower cost an unbelievably economical 46 euros.
The dining room was rather formal, but the friendly, attentitive and professional service
set us at ease. Fresh flowers, a candle at the table, soft lighting... Perfect.
The 1995 Barrola Prapò red wine was excellent and served to us throughout
the meal with perfection. We're not all that familiar with Italian wines, but
we were very pleased with the suggestion of the 'patrone'.
Wanting to visit more of the Piemonte wine area, we headed for Barbaresco. In August
this is a sleepy village - postcard pretty but empty. At Minuto Fratelli opposite
the church there is free self-service wine tasting, wine, grappa, mushrooms, cheese, salami and
other regional specialties you can choose from in what I would call an Italian delicatessan.
We left with 6 bottles of wine and a bottle of grappa.
Now tired out from shopping we figured that at 12:30 it was time to eat - again! So it was
into the Trattoria Antica Torre 2 minutes down the street for a 12 euro Antipasto mixti
and vino rosso - house red wine.
My oh my. Huge portions of Russian salad, mushrooms, salami, tomatoes with
pesto sauce, marinated red and yellow bell peppers with tuna in olive oil and steak tartare.
Italy does have such good food; in fact, it's as good as in France, just different!
Much to our surprise we did not come across small local producers selling their wines from
the 'doorstep' of their vineyards as one does in France. Perhaps it wasn't the right season
or we simply didn't come drive the right country roads. Italian specialists, let me know!
We left the picturesque back roads for a stretch of autostrada to make our way to
Laveno Mambello on the Lago Maggiore to visit another friend, Renée.
The evening was warm and sultry. First a stroll in Laveno along the lake and then
up a winding road by car and then on foot to a view point in front of the grandmother's house of a
friend of Renés - this is NOT in ANY guide book you will ever read. We were lucky to
be with the locals!
My oh my the Italian lake district is beautiful - even with thunder and lightening rolling
across the lake and ping-ponging off the surrounding hills. The clouds hung low and
heavy. Lunch on the terrace by the lake was not in the cards. Instead, up the mountain
on a twisting one-car-wide road to Trattoria Bar San Antonio for Polenta et umidi tris.
This tratorria is like a small mountain refuge with
a fire place and a half dozen long tables. Renée sorted out what to order in Italian
with lots of changes to the fixed menu combined with à la carte choices.
It is such fun to listen and think you understand Italian, catching key words and
then being bewildered by rapid fire expressions one never learns in books.
You put a big dollup of polenta on your plate and smother it in sauce and mushrooms,
chervo, lamb brochettes, and a couple more side dishes I didn't note down!
Polenta is made from corn meal - which is basically a rather dry dish - but not with
all the 'toppings' - it is very tasty especially with Grignolino 2000 Piemonte red wine
along with it.
Nope, not finished yet - an Italian chocolate cookie for dessert and
then, of course coffee and two rounds of grappa! Back at our friend's house we
built a fire while the rain pounded down and the thunder cracked all around.
A rainstorm put a dent in our plans to be home in one go. So we spent the night
on the Italian side of Mont Blanc in Courmayeur and went through the tunnel at 7 in the morning
avoiding the traffic jam of the night before.
Ah, for another vacation in the south of France and into Italy.
Web Links and Contact Information
Le Grenier à Sel
Hôtel des Bourbons
La Lozerette Restaurant
Bambouseraie de Prafrance
"The name PRAFRANCE comes from Pra-fran
which meant “pré-fran”, i.e. tax-free. This name, distorted by usage into PRAFRANCE, is the only thing which remains from this privilege given to the Lords.
This property, which extends
over 34 hectars, is located 11 km south-east of Alès and 2 km north of Anduze. Geographically,
it is a basin whose bottom is made of alluvial deposits from
the Quaternary and whose sides are formed by limestone from various periods, and by granite.
Not far from Prafrance, the river Gardon makes its way through
a narrow canyon, of granite upstream (Roucan) and of limestone downstream
(Anduze Rocks). Prafrance enjoys a Mediterranean climate, with an average rainfall of 1100 mm per year,
but it can be very irregular, from torrential storms to drought. This is why the park has
been equipped with a 5 km long network of permanent irrigation canals.
It is in this privileged setting that the “bambouseraie” of Prafrance was created by a
native of the Cévennes region with a passion for botany : Eugène Mazel.
Mazel had made a fortune in trading with spices he directly imported from Asia.
This activity allowed him to have plants, practically unknown
in Europe at that time, sent to him from these distant countries.
In 1855, Mazel bought the property of Prafrance from Anne de Galière in order to realize
his dream : create a bamboo plantation, a “bambouseraie”.
The word “bambouseraie” did
not exist at the time. Only many years later was this name given to Mazel’s plantation in
Prafrance.
The natural conditions of the site seem to be favourable for his project. The local
microclimate apparently suits the bamboos. Only one thing is missing : water.
Mazel then undertook gigantic works to bring the water harnessed upstream from
the Gardon."
La Fontanilha Restaurant
Le Bar de la Place
Auberge Le Robur
Ristorante Al Rododendro
Trattoria Antica Torre
Minuto Fratelli
Maison Rosset
Hôtel Vallée Blanche - Two Star Hotel
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The park has literally a million bamboos! This magnificent
bamboo plantation was created in 1855 by Eugène Mazel, who had made his fortune
in trading spices that he directly imported from Asia.
The Ardeche river really must be seen in a canoe or kayak as the road
above the river does not give you much more than a few glimpses of its beauty.
Judging from the kayak traffic jam in the river and the 'no vacancy' signs at
all the camp grounds, August is the peak season.
Making our way, slowly but surely to Italy, we decided to explore the region north of Nice.
We're really very good at reading maps and rarely get lost. We didn't get lost, but were we
surprised that the last 5 kilometers (a finger's length on the map) was a one-car wide lane
almost straight up a mountain!
The 50 euro 'menu terroir' was simply outstanding. A truffle starter, followed by
the most delicate crepes with salmon and cream set the tone for this meal. Melt in your mouth
ravioli gallina (chicken) came next. Then pigeon with a honey and balsamic vinegar sauce
with a flower bouquet shaped presentation of finely chopped vegetables. Then
local cheeses. I had a fruit dessert with raspberries, red currents, blueberries and blackberries
and Pierre was in seventh heaven with the saffran ice cream and chocolate sauce dessert he chose.
So this gastronomique lunch started with Montepulciano d'Abbruzzo - stuzzichino della casa
and to drink Chardonnay Langhe. This was lard battuo con erbe.
Well... that's what my notes say. It was delicious.
Then antipasto rustico with la coppa, lardo, pancheta and salami cavalo and local goat cheese.
We're not finished yet. Next ravioli with pears and cheese. Then the polenta!
