Normandy – Day 10 – Suisse Normande & A Gourmet Meal.

 

With Rosalind,Naomi, Matt and Josh deciding on a day at the seaside the oldies [Lorna,Patrick,Sylvia and I] decided that a leisurely drive in the countryside would be more fitting. The area we choose was the picturesque Suisse Normande , the most rugged of landscapes in Normandy.

The road from Falaise gave a different view of the castle which led to the first photo opportunity of the day.

Leaving Falaise and the castle behind us we climbed winding roads to reach the viewing spot of Les Roches D’Oetre.

This high rock overlooking the valley was very reminiscent of Yat Rock near my home town of Ross-on-Wye.

 

It gave the chance for Sylvia to pose for some pictures.

The journey continued to the little town of Pont-D’Ouilly a pretty little place that is well known for sporting activities.

Here after a visit to the baker’s shop ……………………………………

………..we picnicked by the river watching the kayakers doing their stuff.

The final stop on the tour was Clecy, the capital of the region.

 

We returned to the cottages to ready ourselves for tonight’s treat, a gourmet meal in one of the best restaurants in Falaise, La Fine Fourchette.

The meal was delicious, well presented and the service exceptional. After a champagne cocktail[not for Matt & I as we were driving] and a pre-starter of mussels in a pea puree[tasted a lot better than it sounds] the starters arrived. Rather than describe all the dishes here are some photographic memories of the evening.

Joshua showing no ill effects after finishing his ‘escargot’ starter.

Matt looking expectant as Naomi finishes her oysters.

The palette cleanser of apple sorbet and calvados served prior to the main meals, absolutely delicious [Not like our other experience with calvados!]

 

Naomi’s lamb main course, chosen as lamb is so expensive in Nebraska.

Sylvia’s fish and noodle dish [foreground] and Lorna’s duck.

Josh’s “Floating Islands” dessert.

My rice pudding, with Matt in the background now worried that the large dessert may negate the ‘oyster’ effect.

After a final drink of local fruit in alcohol [again the designated drivers missing out], it was time to end a most enjoyable evening.

If ever you are in Falaise, I can thoroughly recommend La Fine Fourchette.

Normandy – Day 9 – Churches on Sunday.

It was an early start today for some of the housemates as today was the day that Victoria & Oliver and Briony & Thai and their families were departing for Disneyland Paris. Poppy has been looking forward to this more than anything else and can’t wait to see the dollies [It’s a Small World], the pirates and to shoot Buzz Light-hero. Oliver has planned every meal in each fast food outlet down to the precise minute of the day and Joey just smiles and says “yea”. I’m sure that they will have a really good three days.

As it was Sunday it was the day to visit some churches with the first stop the pretty market town of St.-Pierre-Sur-Dives.

The 11th century market hall [shown here behind Sylvia] was completely destroyed in the war but was faithfully reconstructed using the same techniques with not one nail being used in the entire building. On Mondays the market is famous for selling live chickens,ducks and turkeys , a good reason for visiting on a Sunday!

The picturesque town hall sits on a flower lined square backing onto the Benedictine Abbey that was the principle reason for the visit. Unfortunately a service was in progress when we arrived so we were not able to view inside. We may come back another day as it’s not too far from the cottages.

The next stop was to be one of the main centres of the region Lisieux, a town where thousands of pilgrims flock each year. The Basilica sits high on a hill overlooking the town and is quite magnificent.

We parked the car in the town and walked up the hill towards the church passing shops selling medals and candles . The basilica is very modern only being consecrated in the 1950s but the artwork inside is absolutely beautiful.

The basilica is dedicated to the life and works of St. Therese who lived in town for almost all her short life becoming one of the most important saints within the catholic church. After leaving the basilica we followed the walking trial around the town which took us past another church…….

…….eventually ending up at the cathedral,

The others had decided to visit a chateau in the morning and as it was now approaching lunch time we thought that it would be a good time to follow suit. The short trip from Lisieux took us down some narrow lanes before arriving at the chateau St-German-De-Livet, which was closed for lunch!!

The grounds were open however and this gave us the opportunity to take some lovely photos of the outside of the so-called “floating chateau”. We therefore decided that no internal viewing could surpass these views and moved onto our next destination. Two French women who sat outside and informed us that the site was closed were most perplexed when we drove off without partaking in the organised trip.

After a fairly long drive up and down some steep roads we arrived at our final destination of the day the cheese making town of Pont-L’Eveque. The architecture in the town is made up of the typical timber framed buildings many of which have survived the war.

The principal reason for visiting this town was to sample the local made cheese but as was the story for most of our day, no where was open to buy any. A short walk through a flea market followed by a croque monsieur for lunch completed the visit, and of course there was another church.

A photo on the bridge to prove our visit and then a leisurely drive back to the cottages.

Once again the weather had been splendid so on our return we had a small swim and prepared for the evening meal, a much smaller affair tonight as we were missing seven of the party. After dinner Patrick attempted to teach us how to play Mah-Jong using a set handed down to him by his Grand-Father. I think we managed it in the end. The evening was completed by a geeky post on Oliver’s facebook page confirming that they arrived safely at Disney.

Normandy – Day 8 – Market & Barbeque

Today started with yet another culinary treat, this time courtesy of Matt and Naomi.  For their breakfast treat they had chosen the very PC named ‘One Eyed Suzie's’, which consist of bread toasted on the griddle with an egg fried in a hole in the centre.

This was then topped with grated cheese and served accompanied by bacon.

Absolutely delicious and the second one tasted even better than the first!!!!

Markets are still very much a tradition in France with every town having a specific day for their event, Saturday being Falaise’s turn. Tonight we had decided to have a barbeque and our task was to source some kebabs, so the market seemed the obvious starting point.

In addition to the usual fruit and vegetables the market included clothes stalls and even local artisans such as this chair repairer.

Inside the market hall was a farmer’s market featuring local produce such as this superb selection of cheeses.

As we approached a meat seller we were summoned by the butcher who obviously realised that we were tourists. After ascertaining that we were from Wales, he kept repeating  “Abertawe,Abertawe.”  [The Welsh name for Swansea]. It transpired that he regularly attended the annual French market here and loved the city. His sales technique certainly worked on us as we purchased a large quantity of meat for tonight’s feast.

In order to work up an appetite for the meal tonight we decided to have a walk around the village of Fresne itself.  The village is quite delightful with beautiful cottages adorned with flowers.

The walk also took us along the edges of wheat, barley and corn fields where I took this lovely picture of Poppy.

The walk was around a couple of miles and on our return it was time for the men to light the barbeque. In addition to the meat we had purchased the meal consisted of burgers, some ribs, and chicken legs coated in Diarra’s speciality barbeque sauce.

The girls had prepared salads and Helena had made some Rice and Peas, a typical West Indian dish.

Sitting in the garden eating delicious barbequed food under a wonderful French sky was a perfect way to end the first week of our French break.

Normandy – Day 7 - “Food Glorious Food”

One of the great advantages of holidaying with such a well travelled bunch of people is the diverse cuisine that they bring to the vacation. Today was to be a day to enjoy the cooking skills of Diarra and Thai for breakfast and dinner respectively.

Diarra’s dish was Salt Fish and Bake. Salted cod which had been brought from home was soaked to remove most of the salt was stewed with  onions, garlic, peppers and shallots to produce a very tasty mix.

To this was added hard boiled eggs to make the dish complete.

 

Alongside the stew was served a fried bread roll again made from first principles by Diarra. Firstly the dough was mixed and kneaded.

After allowing it to rise for about an hour, it was made into small  balls.

These were then fried off in a pan of vegetable fat to make a doughnut type bread – absolutely delicious!

 

The final dish both looked and tasted terrific.

The breads were great both with the salt fish  and with jam or marmalade – a real success.

After such a hearty breakfast, no lunch was necessary so Sylvia and I accompanied by Helena and Diarra decided on a visit to a cheese museum at Camembert.

After the customary photo stop at the village sign we had a walk around the exhibition which included the history of the cheese, a brief guide to the manufacturing process and a display of cheese labels. [By the way what do you call a collector of cheese labels? – answer below]

 

After a walk around a taste of the cheese was called for because as the famous French gastronome Brillat-Savarin once said “ A meal without cheese is like a beautiful woman with only one eye”. We sampled both the pasteurised and raw milk versions, the latter being very much stronger than the first.

We returned to the cottages to find preparation for Thai’s evening meal already in progress. Tonight's supper was to be Ginger & Shallot Crabs served with noodles.

The crabs above provided the sauce while the meat came from the crab legs being washed here by Thai.

These were stir fried with a combination of shallots, ginger and onion again a wonderful combination. Unfortunately noodles were not obtainable in any of the three supermarkets visited by Thai and Briony so were replaced by spaghetti, but this did not detract from the superb flavours.

And judging from the piles of shells at the end it was enjoyed by all.

These were just from Naomi!!!! A great day for food lovers in France.

A collector of cheese labels is a TYROSEMIOPHILE,  did anyone get it.

Normandy – Day 6 - “It’s a long way to Mont St. Michel”.

The day started with more promise than yesterday with no rain but still a very strong wind. The forecast for the remainder of the day seemed good so two parties set out, the majority heading north to visit the beaches while Sylvia and I decided to go South West to visit France’s second most popular tourist attraction, Mont-St.-Michel.[See previous blog entry – A Normandy Quiz]

There appears to be no direct route from our cottages to the Atlantic coast, the choice being either to head North to Caan and then back down or a tortuous route heading in basically the correct direction. We choose the latter.

We only made one slight mistake in our navigation but as this entailed the first proper “u-turn” of the holiday we can forgive ourselves. The countryside was beautiful and we had plenty of time to enjoy it as we encountered a series of slow moving vehicles. Sitting on the wrong side of the car when driving makes overtaking on these roads almost impossible so we had to be patient.

Mont-St-Michel rises magnificently from the sea and can be seen from miles away, the first views are certainly impressive. It had taken a journey of around three hours to get here.

The area leading to the island is very commercialised with many restaurants and fast food establishments and the traffic got very busy as we approached. We parked about 3/4 miles away from the entrance alongside several hundred other cars, and made our way to the Abbey.

On the way we swopped cameras with another couple to take the standard photographs. The sun was shining but the wind, coming off the sea gave a chill to the air.

 

Inside the place resembled a Disney attraction and it was difficult to believe that this was over a thousand years old. The narrow streets leading up the winding steps to the Abbey were crowded spoiling slightly the experience. Even getting across to the shops was difficult as one has to push through a moving line of people, which made getting something to eat an almost impossible task! We therefore decided to make our way back and find somewhere on the return journey, after a last photo opportunity in the sunshine.

Mont-St-Michel is a wonderful place to view from the outside but far too busy to really  appreciate the inside.

  

We took the quick route back stopping at a service area to get a snack which we both thoroughly enjoyed.

Talking of enjoying food, the two youngest members of our party seem to love the evening meals, competing as to who will make the biggest mess.

 

Round One to Joey I think!!!!!!