France – Page 4 – European Traveler

BASKING IN TASTE: Cuisine of the Basque Country

French Basque cheesemonger at the open-air market
in St.-Jean-de-Lu

A special region with a proud history, a distinct language and a unique cuisine

By Sharon Hudgins
Photos by the author

The Basque country of Europe is a region with a special ambiance all its own. Located in northern Spain and southwestern France, it’s a land of green meadows and high mountains, rugged coastlines and white beaches, wooded valleys and dry plains. Bordering on the Bay of Biscay, the Basque country straddles the Pyrenees Mountains and the coastal foothills along the frontier between France and Spain. It includes the Spanish provinces of Álava, Vizkaya, Gipuzkoa and, historically, parts of Navarra, as well as the western part of the French district of Pyrénées Atlantiques.

The Basques are proud of their regional identity and possess a spirit of independence that has often defined their history. An ancient people unrelated to other Europeans, they speak a unique language peppered with x’s, k’s and z’s. Theirs is also a land of contrasts, between rural and urban, past and present, rich and poor: the elegant boulevards of Biarritz and San Sebastián; the functional red-brick highrises and the soaring steel modernism of the Guggeheim Museum in Bilbao; the somber stone buildings of Vitoria and the picturesque fishing villages along the coast; the grimy industrial suburbs of major cities and the pastoral farmhouses of the interior, their walls, doors, and shutters painted white, red and green, the colors of the regional flag.

Passionate for politics and sports, the Basques are also very serious about food. Basque cuisine is famous on both sides of the border, and several Basque chefs have been among the leaders of Spain’s modernist cuisine movement. There are nearly 40 Michelin-starred restaurants in the French and Spanish Basque regions, with San Sebastián boasting a trio of restaurants awarded three Michelin stars (out of only seven 3-star restaurants in all of Spain). Known as the culinary capital of Spain, the city of San Sebastián has more Michelin stars per capita than anywhere else in the world.

The Basques like to cook, and they know how to eat well. Basque cooks of both sexes are renowned in Spain and abroad. Basque women are noted not only for the excellence of their home cooking, but also their success as restaurateurs. And Basque men, as accomplished restaurant chefs and members of local male gastronomic societies first organized in the nineteenth century, have been especially important in perpetuating and promoting Basque culinary traditions.

(left to right) Pork sausages flavored with paprika, in a Basque market; French Basque oil flavored with red peppers from Espelette

BASQUE FOOD PRODUCTS
High quality ingredients form the basis of any notable cuisine. Fresh fish and shellfish are the mainstays of Basque cooking, caught in the Bay of Biscay and beyond, as well as in the mountain streams that flow to the sea: cod, hake, sardines, anchovies, herring, sole, sea bream, baby eels, tuna, bonito, bass, red mullet, octopus, squid, lobsters, crabs, clams, mussels, oysters, freshwater salmon and mountain trout.

The interior of the Basque country provides pork, beef, lamb and game, some of which is processed into cured meats like the famous the hams of Bayonne on the French side and the spicy sausages of the Spanish Basque land to the south. Basque dairy products are also of high quality, and the Basques use milk, butter and cream extensively in their cooking. Sheep’s milk goes into the production of several kinds of Basque cheeses made on both sides of the border, many of them matured in caves or huts high in the mountains. And the Basques are crazy about mushrooms. Every spring, summer and fall thousands of Basques head to the forests and meadows to pick the many varieties of wild mushrooms that suddenly pop up in secret places.

Market gardens grow the fresh produce so essential to many Basque regional dishes, including artichokes, asparagus, cabbages, leeks, onions and carrots. With the first Spanish voyages to the Western Hemisphere 500 years ago, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, beans and cacao (later processed into chocolate) began returning in the holds of the ships and eventually became an important part of the Basque diet. Today several specific places in the Basque country are well known for the New World crops they grow: tomatoes in Deusto near Bilbao, potatoes in the province of Álava, many types of beans in Navarra and Gipuzkoa, and long green peppers from Gernika. Across the border in the French Basque country, paprika made from the bright red peppers grown around Espelette is the first and only spice in France to be awarded an AOC (controlled designation of origin) and APO (protected designation of origin) status.

Mild sweet peppers are a popular ingredient in Basque cuisine; peppers are a popular culinary motif in the Basque Country

Spanish Basque meals are often accompanied by excellent red wines from the Alavesa area of the famous Rioja wine region. A different type of Basque wine made near the Spanish coast is txakolí, which is light, slightly effervescent, and fruity but dry. Although the Basques produce white, red and rosé versions of txakolí, the whites are considered the best of these simple table wines, especially good with the fish dishes of the region. Reds are the predominant wines produced on the northern foothills of the Pyrenees in the wine region of Irouléguy, which is the only AOC-certified wine area within the Basque country of France.

Basque sparkling cider is another popular drink on the Spanish side of the border, served not only at home and in restaurants but also at sidrerías, combination cider mills and eating houses where the cider is tapped fresh from the barrels and served as an accompaniment to simple country-style meals.

TRADITIONAL BASQUE DISHES
Fish and seafood dishes—grilled, baked, stewed, sautéed—are an important part of Basque cuisine. One of the most expensive dishes in Spain is the Basque dish of angulas, silvery-white baby eels (which cost up to 1,000 Euros per kilogram!) cooked in a small earthenware casserole containing very hot oil, a clove of garlic and a piece of dried red chile pepper. Much more reasonably priced are the rustic fish stews of this region, including classic marmitako, an oily-rich mélange of white-fleshed bonito and potatoes, usually cooked with tomatoes, garlic, and white wine in an iron pot. And although the Basques have an abundant and continuous supply of fresh fish from the sea, they also love bacalao, dried salt cod that has been split lengthwise, flattened out, heavily salted, and dried in the open air. Reconstituted in water before being prepared in innumerable ways, bacalao has been aptly described as mummified fish brought back to life by the cook.

In the Spanish Basque country, seafood is also paired with classic sauces whose colors reflect those of the Basque flag: red sauce (a la vizcaína, or Biscay-style) made with onions and dried sweet red peppers; green sauce (salsa verde) colored with parsley, peas, and asparagus; and a special kind of white sauce made by cooking the ingredients al pil-pil, in a shallow earthenware casserole set over a low flame, the casserole shaken, not stirred, until the gelatin released by the fish combines with the oil to produce a rich, unctuous sauce. The Basques also prepare baby squid in a thick, creamy, subtly flavored sauce tinted black by the squid’s own ink.

Another classic Basque dish is piparrada (Spanish) or piperade (French). Sweet red or green peppers, roasted and peeled, are sautéed in olive oil, butter, or lard, along with other ingredients such as tomatoes, garlic, onion, and ham. Often beaten eggs are swirled into this sauce just before serving, to make a kind of scrambled egg dish, or the sauce alone is served as an accompaniment to baked, grilled, or roasted meats.

Pintxos are a particularly popular category of foods in northern Spain. The Basque version of Spanish tapas, these are bar snacks that range from traditional potato omelet slices, mayonnaise-bound potato salads, spicy sausages, and stuffed mussels, to more modern variations made from a thick slice of chewy white bread topped with two or three layers of tasty, colorful ingredients, all held together with a toothpick. Miniature masterpieces of the culinary art, these pretty little open-face sandwiches are enticingly displayed on the counter of each bar. No visit to the Spanish Basque country is complete without a poteo, a kind of civilized pub crawl, where you wander from one bar to the next, drinking a glass or two of local wine and tasting the designer pintxo specialties at each place.

But leave room for dessert. Traditional Spanish Basque specialties include leche frita (fried milk), thick custard squares dipped in beaten egg and flour, then fried until crisp; intzaursalsa, walnut cream soup made with crushed walnuts, toasted bread crumbs, milk, and sugar; mamiya, milk curds flavored with lemon and sugar; and colorful fruit compotes made with red wine and spices, such as zurracapote served on Christmas Eve. Spanish pastel vasco and French gateau basque are both classic Basque double-crust tarts filled with custard and sometimes jam. And if these old-fashioned desserts don’t appeal to your more modern palate, then spring for dinner at one of those Michelin-starred restaurants to taste (and marvel at) the futuristic sweets prepared by the Basque Country’s many highly acclaimed chefs.

For more information see:

www.foodsfromspain.com

www.spain.info/en/que-quieres/gastronomia/cocina-regional/pais_vasco/pais_vasco.html

www.travelandleisure.com/articles/exploring-frances-basque-country

Bites of Brittany

This French province with a strong regional identity has Celtic traditions of food, music and language that make it unique.

The rugged rocky coast of Brittany at San Malo

By Sharon Hudgins
Photos by the author

A CONFUSION OF NAMES
No, it’s not Great Britain. It’s Brittany—a region in the far northwestern corner of France. It’s also the largest peninsula in France, with a 1,700-mile coastline bordering on the English Channel to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Bay of Biscay to the south. The westernmost part of Brittany juts so far into the sea that it’s even called “Finistere”—the end of the earth.

When I was a kid in the U.S., I was confused by that geographic name. How could something called “Brittany” be in France? Later I moved to Europe and began eating my way through all the regions of France, where I learned that the French term for this region is “Bretagne.” The Bretons living there call it “Breizh” in their own Celtic language, which is related to Irish and Welsh. And they have a strong regional identity that makes Brittany very different from other parts of France—in customs, traditions, costumes, music, language and cuisine.

GIFTS FROM THE SEA
The traditional cooking of Brittany is rustic, hardy, elemental. Fresh, local, sustainable ingredients have been the foundation of Breton cuisine for centuries, long before those terms became buzzwords on trendy urban menus. Surrounded by the sea on three sides, Brittany is also a region where fish, shellfish and crustaceans are daily fare.

On my first trip to this part of France, I indulged in one of the glories of the Breton table, a plateau de fruits de mer—a huge serving platter heaped with fresh oysters, lobsters, clams, mussels, scallops, langoustines, prawns and periwinkles, all still in their shells and smelling of the sea. This massive meal for two was garnished simply with lemon slices and a bowl of mayonnaise (for dipping), along with slices of baguette and the best salted butter I’d ever tasted. A bottle of crisp white muscadet from the Loire-Atlantique wine region, which borders on Brittany, paired perfectly with the fine food. This classic seafood mélange is also a delightfully messy meal, eaten mostly with your fingers. But novice that I was, I had to watch the French couple at the next table to figure out how to use a straight pin (provided by the waitress) to pry out the flesh from those little periwinkles.

Another notable seafood dish is cotriade, originally a humble fishermen’s stew made with potatoes, onions, garlic, leeks and the catch-of-the-day, all boiled up in a pot of salty water. Modern cooks are likely to throw in some herbs and white wine, too. Whatever the variety of ingredients that find their way into the stew pot, cotriade combines all the characteristics of Breton cooking—freshness, simplicity, nourishment—in one delicious dish. And if you aren’t in the mood for fish stew, then try the local moules marinières, mussels steamed in their shells over a bit of white wine, cider or beer. Or ask for a big bowl of moule frites, steamed mussels with a side dish of perfectly cooked French fries.

CLASSIC REGIONAL SPECIALTIES
Crêpes and galettes are another favorite food in Brittany, sold at street stalls in every town, featured at festivals, and served in restaurants, some of which specialize in these big flat pancakes. Dainty crêpes are made from a thin batter of wheat flour, milk, and eggs, cooked on a large griddle. Usually sprinkled with sugar or slathered with jam, caramel spread, chocolate sauce or sweetened chestnut purée, the crêpes are then folded into quarters for serving. Galettes, which are slightly thicker, are made with a buckwheat-flour batter, cooked like crêpes on a griddle, and often garnished with sliced ham, fried eggs, shredded cheese, browned onions, or other savory ingredients. The classic drink with crêpes and galettes is a cup or ceramic bowl of cold Breton cider, the famous fermented apple juice of this region, in your choice of dry, semi-dry, or sweet.

Pork is a prime product in Brittany’s interior—cured into ham, stuffed into sausages—along with root vegetables grown on the rocky, windswept peninsula. Many of these go into the meat-and-vegetable stew known as kig ha farz (similar to French pot-au-feu), an old-fashioned rural dish. Buckwheat moistened with milk, meat bouillon, and lard is wrapped in a clean cloth and put into the pot to cook in the stew, to make a savory dumpling that’s later broken up with a fork and eaten with the meat, vegetables, and broth.

Nearer the sea, lambs that have grazed on the salt-marsh grasses are considered a delicacy, as are the artichokes, asparagus, strawberries and samphire that grow in the sandy soil. And along the coast, Brittany’s famous fleur de sel—mineral-rich, slightly gray, delicately flaky sea salt—is raked by hand off the top of shallow evaporation ponds flooded with sea water and left to dry in the sun and wind. Travelers to Brittany often return home with a big bag of fleur de sel purchased in one of the colorful open-air markets there.

SWEET FINISH
The Bretons have a sweet tooth, too. In every town, shops are filled with pretty tin boxes holding rich butter cookies and creamy caramels made with Brittany’s renowned butter and sea salt. An old farmhouse dish, also sold in pastry shops and restaurants, is far Breton, a simple custardy tart, made with an eggy batter poured over sliced apples, plums, or liquor-soaked prunes or raisins, then baked in a hot oven. And a gateau Breton is another simple (but simply delicious) flat cake, halfway between a shortbread and a pound cake, made with a large proportion of butter and sometimes ground almonds or hazelnuts, too.

But the most famous Breton pastry is kouign-amann (pronounced queen-ah-MAHN), which just means “butter cake.” This classic Breton sweet is much like my great aunt’s irresistible cinnamon rolls—layers of yeast dough folded around plenty of butter, cinnamon and sugar, cut into large rounds, and pressed into muffin tins. But the Breton recipe differs from hers in leaving out the cinnamon, adding salt and going a step further to heavily butter and sugar those muffin tins. When the kouign-amann bakes, sugar syrup forms between the layers of dough, and a crunchy, chewy, caramelized shell forms on the outside. Tasting these warm, buttery, caramely rolls, fresh from the oven, is reason enough to travel to Brittany.

Christmas in Paris

By Sharon Hudgins
Photos by the author

Parisian bakeries sell many versions of the traditional *Buche de Noel* (Yule Log) Christmas cake.

Paris is a great city to visit any time of the year—for fine foods, outstanding museums, and romantic walks along the Seine in the pink glow that often suffuses the city at twilight.

Many tourists want to see Paris in the spring. Remember the song, “April in Paris”? Or the movie of that name, with Ray Bolger and Doris Day? And who could forget Gene Kelly dancing among the blossoms with Leslie Caron in An American in Paris? But did you know that Paris is also a wonderful place to spend the winter holidays?

WINTER ROMANCE
Paris in winter has something for everyone. Open-air and indoor Christmas markets throughout the city. Nativity scenes and sacred music concerts in historic churches. Menorahs and special Hanukkah foods in the Jewish delis and bakeries. Strings of sparkling lights across the grand boulevards. Outdoor ice-skating rinks decorated with Christmas trees. Children’s noses pressed against the glass of department store windows animated with fanciful displays. Cheerful families toting wrapped packages in the subway. Smiling vendors at the food stalls. Even friendly waiters in the restaurants.

More than a dozen colorful Christmas markets brighten up the city, some open for only a few days in December, others lasting six weeks or longer, from the start of Advent (the fourth Sunday before Christmas) through Epiphany (Three Kings Day on January 6). Some Christmas markets specialize in products from a particular part of France, such as Alsace, whereas others feature handmade crafts by local artisans. Paris’s newest food fair, Noël Gourmand, is also held in December, at the Carrousel du Louvre, a glitzy underground shopping mall in the heart of the city. There you can taste French regional products such as artisanal cheeses from the Basque region, wines from the Loire, meats from the Ardennes, and sweets from Provence. And no Christmas market anywhere in Paris would be complete without roasted chestnuts, chewy nougat, and hot spiced wine.

CHRISTMAS DINNER
If you want to enjoy a special meal at a restaurant on Christmas Eve, make reservations early. Many restaurants are closed on the evening of December 24, and even more are shut on Christmas Day. A fun alternative is to pick up some good wine, cheese, bread, and a traditional French Christmas cake, a bûche de Noël (Yule log), to take back to your hotel for a private holiday picnic in your room. Then head to one of the gorgeous gothic churches for a memorable midnight service by candlelight.

You can feast even more lavishly if you rent an apartment through Airbnb or one of the other agencies that offer apartments in Paris year round. Have fun (and save money) by purchasing foods and wines at little local grocery stores and big open-air markets, then bring them back to your apartment for a cozy dinner at home. Even if you don’t want to cook, you can buy excellent prepared foods such as pâtés, cheeses, rotisserie chickens, cooked seafood, Burgundy beef stew, Spanish paella, North African couscous, fresh breads, and luscious French pastries at the delis, department stores, bakeries, and pastry shops all over Paris. Wine shops will also recommend the best vintages to accompany your store-bought meal. And if you don’t feel like lugging all that food back to your apartment, some stores will even deliver groceries and wines free of charge or for a small fee.

RING IN THE NEW YEAR
New Year’s Eve on December 31 is the time to party at a restaurant, with friends and strangers, until the early hours of the morning. Many Parisian restaurants offer a special Réveillon dinner, a fixed-price, multi-course, New Year’s Eve meal with champagne. Some smaller places charge as little as €50 per person (with wine extra), or you can splurge at the high-end eateries for several hundred euros apiece. Wherever you choose to eat, reservations are a must.

On a recent New Year’s Eve, my husband and I celebrated at Restaurant Polidor, a relic of France’s culinary heritage. Polidor still serves the same kind of simple, old-fashioned, very affordable comfort food like you could find in little Paris bistros half a century ago. Nothing trendy or minimalist-modern here—just small wooden tables covered with red-and-white checked paper tablecloths, bentwood chairs set close together, dark wood wainscoting, big mirrors on the wall, and plenty of nostalgia atmosphere. Filmgoers will recognize Polidor as the place in Woody Allen’s film, Midnight in Paris, where Gil Pender meets Ernest Hemingway back in the 1920s. And indeed, Polidor has been feeding the famous and the not-so-famous ever since it was established in 1845.

If you’re a cat lover and missing your own felines when you’re away from home, you can even celebrate New Year’s Eve in the company of 16 rescue cats at the cozy Cafe des Chats Bastille, one of Paris’s two cat cafes, where the furry friends roam free among the tables. And wherever you choose to party, you don’t have to worry about drinking that extra glass of champagne and staying out really late. From 6 p.m. on New Year’s Eve until 5 a.m. the next day, the Paris subway runs continually overnight, and it’s even free of charge.

GIFTS OF THE MAGI
Finally, finish up your Parisian holiday with a special treat on January 6, Three Kings Day. In all the pastry shop windows you’ll see round, flat pastries with a gold paper crown on top. These are galettes des Rois, the traditional King’s Cakes of northern France. A small porcelain or plastic prize is baked inside the cake, which is made from layers of puff pastry often with a frangipane filling. Whoever gets the slice with the prize inside is crowned “king for a day.” At some Three Kings Day parties, the prize-winner also has to buy drinks for everyone around the table.

So let Paris wish you not only a bon appetit, but also a Joyeux Noël (Merry Christmas), a Bonne Année (Happy New Year), and a Bonne Fête des Rois (Happy Three Kings Day) on your next trip to France!

For more information:

Paris Christmas markets 2016

Noël Gourmand 2016

Restaurant Polidor

Le Cafe des Chats

Apartment rentals in Paris (Airbnb)

Apartment rentals in Paris

Enjoying the Riverbanks of Burgundy

By Danielle Pruger
Photos courtesy Burgundy Tourism

Burgundy, France offers more than 600 miles of waterways, making it a perfect destination for sailors of all experience levels. There are many ways to enjoy the rivers of Burgundy – sailing, sightseeing, waterskiing and bicycling along the river are just to name a few.

FUN AND RELAXATION BY THE WATER
Visitors can relax on a sightseeing boat for a guided tour along the waters of the Burgundy Canal. The Seille, a river flowing between the French departments Tournus and Louhans, also offers cruising opportunities. Hotel barges are also a relaxing way to enjoy the Burgundy Canal.

The city of Clamecy and the medieval village of Cravant on the Nivernais Canal are great small towns to visit and explore. The little town of Semur-en-Auxois is few miles away from Burgundy and includes sights such as the Tour de l’Orle d’Or or the Collegiate Church of Notre-Dame. Large cities also have a lot to offer: the Dijon marina is a lively area with the Péniche Cancale, a boat converted into a floating gourmet bistro and cabaret that hosts concerts, exhibitions, dance performances and theatre.

Burgundy, the birthplace of pinot noir and chardonnay, is home to world-class vineyards that produce some of the most prestigious wines in the world. Visitors can taste some of the best wines of Burgundy at the cellars of the vineyards of Auxerrois, Tonnerrois, Maranges or Santenay.

WATER SPORTS
Water sports enthusiasts can choose other activities including water-skiing, sailing and rowing. The developed areas invite swimming in leisure centers in Auxerre or Decize. The tranquility of the waterway can be enjoyed by fishing on the region’s canals or lakes or by big game fishing on the Saône while accompanied by a qualified instructor.

OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES ALONG THE BANKS
The towpaths along the canals and rivers, open to cyclists, are perfect for biking. These paths are also great for enjoying a walk along the waterfront.

The region is full of marked trails so there are plenty of routes to choose from. The Tour of Burgundy by bike runs along the canals of Nivernais and Burgundy, as well as the Canal du Centre. These paths take visitors through the region’s most beautiful landscapes – across vineyards, groves and forests and pass by historic monuments and charming residences.

Pardone des mariniers in Saint-Jean de Losne

A region criss-crossed by waterways, every year Burgundy celebrates water with various events. Music, demonstrations, tournaments and tastings punctuate the shorelines all summer long. There are many events to choose from, including the Pardon des mariniers in Saint-Jean de Losne, the Fête du Flottage in Clamecy or the Halles en eaux in Decize.

For more info, go to Burgundy Tourism

Cruising Canals in France with “Panache”

By Marilyn Heimburger
Photos by Don Heimburger

The word “panache” means style, energy, verve — and it’s also an apt name for a luxury hotel barge from European Waterways that cruises the canals of France.

Why cruise on a canal? Why are the canals there at all? Of France’s more than 5,000 miles of inland waterways, half consist of a vast network of canals, some built as early as the 17th century, to connect France’s rivers and provide a freight transportation route from the English Channel and the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean. Narrow locks raised and lowered the barges over land elevations between the riverbeds. When trucks and railroads provided a cheaper and faster means of freight transport beginning in the 1970’s, the idea of redesigning commercial freight barges for passengers was born.

LUXURY ACCOMMODATIONS
Our home during the six-day cruise on the Canal de la Marne au Rhin of Lorraine in eastern France was the 129-foot Panache, built in 1959 as a commercial freight barge and converted to a luxury hotel barge in 1998.

The six person crew — captain, pilot, deckhand, chef, hostess and housekeeper — greeted us on the sun deck with a Champagne toast and three appealing appetizers, and led us to our air-conditioned suite, with a queen-sized bed, private bathroom, plenty of storage space, desk, bedside tables, lamps and a television for watching onboard DVDs. Six roomy suites on the lower deck accommodate up to 12 passengers.

The main deck held the dining area with a gorgeous granite table that seats 12, a lounge area with a sectional leather sofa and coffee table for relaxing and reading, a fully stocked open bar, books and games, all surrounded by panoramic windows so guests can watch rural France glide by.

Another large table and folding chairs and a hot tub were on the sun deck, along with a supply of bicycles for guests to ride on the paved towpath that runs alongside the canal.

GOURMET MEALS
Each morning a continental breakfast of fresh fruit, juices, cheese and meats, coffee and fresh breads and pastries awaited us in the dining area. A made-to-order hot dish, such as scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, French toast, or an egg-in-ramekin creation, was also offered. By the second morning we were invited to accompany the captain on his early morning visit to the local patisserie to help select the freshly baked French pastries, croissants and baguettes for the day.

Going for fresh bread and pastries in the morning.

Both red and white wines were served with lunch menus that included mussels, a pesto and mozzarella tart, slices of smoked duck, carrot soup, mullet fish, chicken with wild mushrooms, sea bream, and fresh salads and cheese.

Each day ended with a four course, candlelit dinner in true French style. Red and white wines were presented to accompany each course:

Appetizers such as goat cheese and sun-dried tomato tart; crab, avocado and mango stack; chicken livers with shallots and capers; or seared scallops in cauliflower puree with crisps and chive oil.
Entrees including filet mignon wrapped in parma ham, rack of lamb, pork loin with dauphinois potatoes, beef filet with seared foie gras.
A cheese course with two or three selections meticulously paired with complementary dried fruits, jam or nuts.
And a dessert course – ah, the dessert course – banana souffle with double chocolate glace, chocolate mousse with iced amaretto, a fresh, citrusy lemon tart, a ramekin of molten chocolate lava with vanilla ice cream, and a strawberries and cream confection with crumbled merengue called the Eton mess.

One meal not prepared on board by Chef Todd was a special dinner at the intimate Table la Viktor in nearby Lucy on our second-to-last evening of the trip. With Captain Arnault as our genial host, we ordered local French cuisine – appetizers, entrees and desserts – from the menu, paired with appropriate wines, of course! It was a delicious dinner in an intimate setting.

EXCURSIONS ON LAND
The shady towpath alongside the canal immediately tempted us to take advantage of bicycles available for guests. The crew gave us bicycle helmets and readied the bikes for off-loading as we approached one of the many, many locks. Just as the deck reached ground level, we stepped out with our “wheels,” and rode off, easily out-pacing the barge (whose maximum cruising speed on the canals is 3 mph) past flower and vegetable gardens, through a small town and a playground filled with children, eventually meeting the barge at another lock to re-board.

The crew somehow managed to hopscotch two multi-passenger vans from dock to dock each day, so that a vehicle was always available for excursions and errands. Hence the early morning trips to the patisserie for fresh pastries, and the crew’s ability to shop for fresh local ingredients for our gourmet meals.

During the first afternoon we enjoyed an excursion to the Domaine Trepo Leriguier family-owned Champagne house for a private tour and tasting.

The next day featured a trip to the town of Vaucouleurs and the Musee de Jeanne d’Arc. The museum is filled with statues and paintings from artist’s imaginings of how Joan of Arc might have looked. There was even a pristine framed WWI poster with her image, asking for support for the war effort. We also sat in the Castle Chapel where she prayed before departing with an escort in 1429 to request an army from Charles VII to fight the English in France.

(left to right) Joan of Arc Castle Chapel; Joan of Arc statue in Vaucouleurs; Armored head; Stained glass windows in Castle Chapel

One morning, while the barge traveled through a three-mile tunnel, we drove to the town of St. Mihiel and had an excellent, informative tour guide show us the WWI trenches preserved nearby. Since it had recently rained, he easily found German and French bullets, barbed wire and shell remnants washed up in the mud. The majestic hilltop World War I Montsec American Monument dominates the landscape, and commemorates, among other things, the four-day battle in September 1918 when the American army liberated the St. Mihiel Salient.

Viewing the trenches of WWI; A U.S.-led WWI attack occurred in the strategically important Saint-Mihiel Salient, a triangular area of land between Verdun and Nancy occupied by the German army.

Our second-to-the-last day of cruising brought us to the town of Toul. A tour of the cathedral was followed by a private wine tasting at Domaine Lelievre. In addition to offering several of their wines, our hosts served us a traditional Lorraine meat filled pastry called Pate Lorraine.

Bertrand Trepo of Domaine Treop Leriguier offers tours of his Champagne vineyards. Domaine Lelievre in Lucey is a family-owned winery producing floral AOC Côtes wines.

By now we had switched from the canal to the Moselle River (where cruising speed increased somewhat) and our last stop was in Nancy, the ancient capital of Lorraine. We walked from the dock through beautiful gardens to the immense Saint Stanislas Square, which is surrounded by ornate gold and wrought iron and gates and stately buildings, and then used English language audio guides for a tour of the old town. A visit to the covered market and a stroll through the high end shopping district showed Nancy to be a popular stop for locals and tourists alike.

Saint Stanislaw Square; Porte de la Craffe in Nancy, built in the 14th century.

ENERGETIC CREW
The Panache lived up to its stylish name in accommodations and gourmet food, but every trip is only as good as its crew. Their energy and attitude were first class every day.

Chef Todd from England left an office job to study and follow his passion for cooking, and surprised us each day with menus derived from local ingredients, all with a perpetual smile on his face that revealed how much he loved his job.

Pilot Andre skillfully guided the barge through locks and tunnels with literally 2” of clearance on each side. He was phenomenal.

Hostesses Gabi and Kim enthusiastically presented wine selections, tempted us to try new cheese courses, delighted us with napkin folding and table-settings, and put fresh towels in our rooms every time we turned around.

Deckhand Anteo energetically did whatever needed to be done…from securing the barge inside each of the many locks, to off-loading bicycles, to painting scrapes on the boat when the pilot didn’t quite make it unscathed through the locks, to entertaining us with his guitar on the sun deck after hours.

Our unflappable captain Arnault, mini-bus chauffeur, evictor of spiders from air-conditioning units, tour leader, and story teller, met every challenge with tenacity and good humor, insuring that satisfaction was guaranteed on the cruise.

Consider a luxury hotel barge trip for a relaxing, comfortable week of gourmet meals and informative excursions while gliding through the backwaters of France. You won’t be disappointed.

Note: The itinerary for our cruise from Tronville-en-Barrois to Nancy was unique in the European Waterways system because a damaged lock prevented the barge from navigating its originally planned route.

For more information on this luxury hotel barge excursion, contact European Waterways:
USA 1-877-879-8808
Canada 1-877-574-3404
Email: sales@GoBarging.com
website: www.GoBarging.com