Food in Western France

Tony Page — Sat, 23 May 2009 14:05:16 +0000

Food in Western France: a brief gastronomical tour!

Normandy; Brittany; the Loire Valley.

Rouen; Caen; Bayeux; Cherbourg; Mont-St-Michel; St Malo; Rennes; Nantes; Angers; Tours; Saumur; Vouvray; Amboise; Le Mans; Chartres; Orleans.

Fruits de Mer, A favourite in Brittany and Normandy. This one is by Tom Dowson at the Basse Copette, his luxury B & B in Normandy

Food in Western France will get you eating and drinking with a vengeance! With such a long coastline, it’s to be expected that seafood and shellfish are popular in Normandy and Brittany (try the Belon oysters).

"Fruits de Mer" simply means a selection of the local seafood, such as oysters, mussels, clams, crabs, shrimps, lobster, even cockles and whelks, all served cold (sometimes on a bed of ice), with fresh rye bread and ideally, washed down with a bottle of chilled Muscadet (one of my favourite wines, actually, especially “sur lie“). The one on the right is by Tom Dowson at Basse Copette, his luxury “Gite” (B & B) in Normandy near Aumale.

Other specialities include salt meadow lamb and poultry, and artichokes are particularly valued. Vegetables blended with pork in a hot pot is Calfedpotfe. Rilettes are pieces of pork or goose meat cooked slowly in lard then shredded and potted; perhaps an acquired taste, like tripe, another northern delicacy.

Crepes and Galettes

Crepes Suzette originally come from Brittany, but the region is also famous for buckwheat "galettes" stuffed with savoury mushrooms, cheese or eggs, as well as a truly amazing variety of crepes filled with sweets like chocolate or fruit (and don’t mention the cream).

Camembert

This is dairy country, and some of the best known cheeses come from here; Camembert, Pont l’Eveque, Livarot to name but a few, and the Loire is well-known for its goat’s cheese.

In the Loire Valley there’s plenty of fish from the river (although not so much now that it is dangerously low) and fried eel is a traditional dish in Nantes. Many fish dishes come in "beurre blanc", a sauce made of white wine, shallots and butter.

As far as drinks are concerned, still and sparkling cider is the local tipple in Normandy and Brittany, with Calvados (apple brandy) for something stronger. Dry white wines such as Muscadet, Vouvray, Pouilly-fume, Sancerre are favoured choices in the Loire. Want something stronger? The orange liqueur, Cointreau, is distilled in Angers.

Food in Western France is a fine introduction to eating and drinking the French way, a good start to your gastronomical tour!

Other pages about food in France:

Food in Northern France: Le Nord; Picardy; Champagne; Alsace and Lorraine

Food in Southwestern France: Poitou and Aquitaine; Perigord, Quercy and Gascony; the Pyrenees.

Food in the South of France: Languedoc-Rousillon; Provence; Cote d’Azur.

Food in Central France and the Alps: Burgundy and Franche-Comte; Massif Central; Rhone Valley and French Alps.

Other France pages:

Travel to France for a Europe Tour with Joie de Vivre!

Tour Routes in France

When to travel to France for your tour: weather and seasons

Useful facts, dates and links to help you plan your tour of France

Food in France: a brief gastronomic tour

Book your sightseeing tours or day-trips in France online

Book your hotel in France online

TRAVEL TO FRANCE WITH US: PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS

So, what do you think?

Travel to France

Tony Page — Sat, 23 May 2009 06:19:27 +0000

Travel to France for a Europe Tour with Joie de Vivre!

Paris: Arc de Triomphe on the Champs Elysees

There’s a lot more to France than Paris and Provence. Travel to France involves a journey into the whole French way of looking at the world, and life. Not for nothing do we use the french words “savoir-faire” and “joie de vivre”!

France lies at the crossroads of European culture

With the mediterranean influences of Italy and Spain in the South, and the more phlegmatic influences of Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands in the North, France lies at the crossroads of European culture. A tour of France involves a continually changing landscape, not so much of a physical nature (though that is often true) but rather of traditions, architecture, food and wine, ways of life and even language.

An inexhaustible variety of landscape

Watermill near Bayeux

From the plains of Flanders and Normandy to the rocky coastline of Brittany, the historic Chateaux of the Loire Valley to the green farmland and forests of Bordeaux and the Dordogne, the mountainous Massif Central to Beaujolais, the Rhone and the French Alps, and Provence’s limestone hills to the sun-drenched beaches of the Cote d’Azur, the only stone-cold certainty about a tour of France is its inexhaustible variety. And the rich, memorable experiences you’ll encounter wherever you go in this always-surprising country.

Travel to France for a Europe tour with joie de vivre indeed…and that’s even without Paris!