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French Country Travel Life Tipster – Part One
French Country Travel Life Tipster …uh…that would be….DA BG – right? Yer ole pal with the lowdown on all things marvy and French. Particularly the French Country Lifestyle variety.
However, as knowedgeable, experienced, not to mention modest as I am, There are other scribblers who can and do wax “francophonic” after sampling some o’ these here Treasures of France.
One being the poetically named quill- weilder Winsor Dobbin.
He shares Two of his latest “discoveries” with us now:
Albi
Just a short drive from the major city of Toulouse in the Midi-Pyrenees region, Albi is one of France’s last remaining secret treasures. The birthplace of the artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and explorer Jean-Francois de la Perouse, it is home to a remarkable cathedral, superb museums and historic buildings. The city centre was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites in 2010.
Even better, Albi is surrounded by vineyards (think names including Gaillac and Cotes du Frontonnais), and is also home to one of France’s hottest chefs.
Albi’s history dates back to the Bronze Age, but it blossomed after 51BC following the Roman conquest of Gaul. The building of the Pont Vieux (Old Bridge) in 1040 saw the city expand and construction of Sainte-Cecile Cathedral began in 1282 (although it was not completed until the 16th century). It is the largest brick cathedral in the world.
Unlike many French cities, Albi’s rich architectural heritage has been retained and a walk around town is a step back in time, with the bridge still in use after almost a millennium.
Older than the much better known Palais des Papes in Avignon, the Palais de la Berbie, which was once the bishop’s palace, was completed in the 13th century. One of the best preserved castles in the country, it is now the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum, home to more than 1000 works of art.
Albi is a town that lends itself to leisurely exploration. You can easily cover most of the attractions on foot or on the petit train, (a small tourist train on wheels that is ubiquitous throughout France). There are also several river cruises on offer on the Tarn, using gabarres, flat-bottomed barges once used by local merchants.
There are more than 20 hotels in and around the town, including the Hotel La Reserve, a luxury Relais & Chateaux property on the road to Cordes, the Grand Hotel d’Orleans and Les Pasteliers. There are also several chain options, including a Mercure and a couple of budget Ibis lodgings.
When it comes to dining, it is impossible to go past L’Esprit du Vin – where rising star David Enjalran has earned a Michelin star for dishes such as pigeon stuffed with pig’s trotter and oysters.
Cahors
Pretty Cahors in the Quercy district is famous for the “black” malbec wines that have been grown in the region since the Middle Ages. It dubs itself the global “Capital of Malbec”, and Chateau de Haute-Serre and Chateau de Lagrezette are two local producers that welcome visitors.
The mediaeval quarter of Cahors, with its many narrow streets and alleyways and the unique 14th-century fortified Pont Valentre bridge, make it popular with history buffs and it hosts a major blues music festival each July.
Surrounded on three sides by the River Lot, Cahors was founded in the 1st century BC and was once home to a large Roman amphitheatre.
The Valentre bridge, the symbol of the town, was completed in 1378 after 70 years of work and the Tourist Office offers several walking tours that take it in, along with the Saint-Etienne Cathedral, a national monument that dates back to the 12th century and is surrounded by several attractive gardens.
There is a petit train (May to September), while street markets are held on Wednesdays and Saturdays in the shadows of the cathedral – and are considered one of the best country markets in France.
The Hotel Grand Terminus, near the railway station, is also home to the upmarket Le Balandre, regarded as Cahors’ finest dining room.
We also much enjoyed the atmospheric Auberge de Vieux Cahors, while Le Marche comes highly recommended and Le Vinois is surrounded by vines.
Read more HERE.
THROW ME A BONE HERE, PEOPLE!
What are ya thinkin’?
French Country Travel Life Bread Update
This French Country Travel Life Bread Update will not change your life. Will not make you thinner and/or more attractive. However, it may add a few interesting factoids not convered in my previous French Bread Post. After all, I would not be DA BG, if I didn’t keep you current – would I?
As you know, the currency of record here in Western Europe is the EURO. Always worth more than the U.S. dollar. (sometimes not by much) Before the “big E” arrived on the scene, France had a currency cleverly named “the franc.” Then the price of bread was around 2 francs to 2.50.
When the Euro replaced the franc, One euro was equivelant to 6.5 francs! Happy days for bakers! But not for bread buyers. Now you have a deeper understanding of why the French are not in love with the Euro.
The last time a French Government pulled a fast one like this – it created a social protest know as The French Revolution. Yes, dear reader, it was all about bread! The common folks had none. The rich folks had it all. Enter Robespierre and the gang.
My fellow baguette lovers at lepetitfrancais.com have the grainy details:
In 1788 and 1789, speculation in the movement, storage and sale of grains combined with adverse weather conditions led to a severe bread shortage throughout France. Prices for this staple increased beyond affordability, especially for the poor and peasant classes. While the rich had plenty of fine bread made from pure white flour, the poor either starved or subsisted on an inferior product made from poorly milled bran grains.
Mass starvation eventually provoked revolution. The storming of the Bastille was more a call for bread than it was an uprising to free enemies of the crown. The people cried out for bread and searched the bakeries to no avail. There was no bread.
Once calm was restored, the constituent assembly authorized bakers to make only one kind of bread – “bread of equality ” (pain d’ egalite) – made from flour that was ¾ wheat and ¼ rye with the bran included. White flours were banned and rationing was introduced. The victory of the republic and the abolition of feudal priviledges did permit the return of white breads to the table. It eventually became the everyday bread.
After Napoleon seized power, he was determined not to make the same mistakes made by his predecessors. His government issued decrees that established standards for French bread, specifying ingredients and baking methods. These Napoleonic decrees also elevated the status of professional bakers; establishing quality control for flour milling, mixing, and dough kneading; and ended the speculation in grains by farmers and commodity brokers.
Later, governments added to the Napoleonic decrees, specifying ways to knead and aerate the dough and establishing shape and size criteria for any loaf designated an authentic French baguette.
Read more HERE.
THROW ME A BONE HERE,PEOPLE!
What are ya thinkin’?
French Country Travel Life Language Encore
French Country Travel Life Language Encore! That’s right! There’s more than just one way to speak French! Sorry to burst yer bubble. Especially after you’ve been diligently listening to those French Language “immersion tapes” Or maybe (for the guys) dutifully memorizing the “phrase of the day” taped to your mirror while shaving.
Those methods, depending on your devotion of course, can yield results. Especially if you are lost, want to get your sweater dry cleaned, but first must find a Samoan dentist.
Of the three ways to speak French that I know of, the first one is the way they speak here where DA BG hangs his corkscrew. The other is the way they put their own indelible stamp on it in Quebec (even inventing words when necessary) and the third is the “encore.” The one I’m hippin ya to today…if it’s not already on your linguistic radar screen. It’s called : “Verlan.”
And someone much mo beddah than me in this area ( a”cunning linguist” in fact) has the “Verlan facts.” She’s also prettier than me. Dear Reader – meet Katerina Forrrester:
“Verlan is a French language argot, which originated from the Parisian banlieue as a social protest. Allowing young people to speak amongst one another, and not be understood by authority figures; such as the police or keuf. It is now widely spoken in France and has fallen into common use, especially amongst young people.
It works by splitting the syllables of a word, and then reversing them to get the new, slang word.
This is where the word verlan originates. It’s the inversion of the word l’envers, which means ‘back’ or ‘the inverse’.
Interestingly, words that end in a silent ‘e’, will retain the same sound when inverted. They will also usually drop the final vowel sound to a word.
As in our French rapper example from above, meuf is derived from femme. If we split the syllables, we get fe-mme. Then we invert the syllables, which allow us mme-fe. Which then brings us to meuf!
It is important to stress that there is no formal way to write verlan, therefore the written form will usually try to follow normal French written patterns.
Here is a small list of common disyllable words used in everyday language:
Teubê – bête – stupid
Zarb’ – bizarre – strange
Mifa (mif’) – famille – family
Meuf – femme – woman
Keum – mec – guy
Cheum – moche – ugly
Teuf’ – fête – party
Keuf – flic – police
Single syllable words are usually just back-to-front:
Ouf – fou – crazy
And so it seems, no matter how hard the L’Académie Française try tostandardise French, it’s the users of a language that shape its future.
What may have began as a language shift of self-identification, in a certain demographic, has now moved to a larger speech community, with a similar purpose.
They are a generational group, fighting for a hold on ‘their’ French language, and refusing the archaic and strict systems of the French government. Fighting oppression was definitely something I learnt from the French. The English language evolves at such a rate that most English speakers are unaware of the power of everyday language.”
(ed: this article originally appeared on myfrenchlife. org(minus my pithy intro, bien sur.) do visit them .)
THROW ME A BONE HERE, PEOPLE!
What are ya thinkin’?
