Sancerre -- Top Rate Restaurant

Although Sancerre is a very small town, it has several restaurants.  One of them Restaurant  La Tour even has a Michelin star.  One of the students arranged an outing to this restaurant.  As you can see from the outside, it looks like the other buildings in town from the outside.  I didn’t see the rest of my group there when I arrived so using my best French I indicated that I was meeting a group there.  I was directed to a lovely round staircase.

When I reached the top, I entered an entirely different world.  It had the appearance of a fancy restaurant in a major city.  It was spacious and was well lighted from its many and massive windows.  Only the impressive view of the countryside below reminded me that I was still in Sancerre.

All of our group but one chose the complete menu, which consisted of five courses.  For the appetizer (called entrée here), I had some type of foie gras.  After the rabbit experience (see blog entitled “When in France, Do as the French Do”) I feel it is better just to enjoy the food and not ask too many questions.  I enjoyed the foie gras.  The other choice was oysters and the several members of my group that had them found them to be good.   

Next we had a fish course.  Again you had two choices – sea bass or monk fish.  I chose the monk fish because the menu mentioned that it came with potatoes and I love potatoes.  I always love potatoes, but have grown to love them even more here.  The monkfish was tasty and the potatoes delightful.

Our meat course was next.  I chose the lamb because the other choice was pigeon.   Yes, I ate pigeon once since I’ve been here and it was good (see blog entitled Sancerre Street Soiree).   Nonetheless, pigeon does not seem like an elegant meal to me.  Those who chose pigeon were happy with it, but I am happy with my choice of lamb.  It was very good and the vegetables that came with it were delightful.  If I had one complaint about the meal it would be that the lamb was not cooked quite enough for me.  This is one problem that I’ve had here in general.  I can’t figure out the secret of ordering meat correctly.  If I say the equivalent of medium it isn’t done enough, when I ask for it done more it is too done.  I’ve got another three weeks to practice. 

Our fourth course – cheese – was the most fabulous of all.  Our waiter wheeled out a cart, which must have been about three feet by two feet, and it was covered with cheese.  You could choose whatever you wanted.  I couldn’t begin to list the different cheeses on the tray.  I just ordered the same as another woman who seemed to know what she was doing.  I had three cheeses and all were good, but the Roquefort that was incredible.  One member of our group asked the waiter to select for him and he received about seven different cheeses.

Finally, we finished with wonderful desserts.  I think it is impossible to get a bad dessert in this town but this was tremendous. I can’t really describe it except to say it was chocolate.  The other dessert selections were also good.

This restaurant would compare with most I’ve eaten at anywhere in the world in terms of quality of food and wine.  The service was superb.  La Tour proves the old expression, “You get what you pay for.”  Everything is great and the price reflects the quality provided. 

The one thing that La Tour lacks is selection.   As I mentioned for the prix fixe menu you are offered only two choices for each course.  There were slightly more a la carte selections, but even then the selection was limited.  For the meat course, I think you had two additional selections over the prix fixe menu and the additional selections were interesting parts of some animal’s body.  For desserts, I think you had three or four choices.  While the selection is limited compared to a U.S. restaurant, the selections would seem appropriately varied as compared to other French restaurants. 

While the selection is limited, the wine, the quality of food and the superb service make La Tour a must if you visit Sancerre.  And, of course, in my view Sancerre is a must visit if you are in Paris or if you want a relaxing week with great wine and food.

Punishment for a Perfectionist?



My Paper with Corrections



You know the old saying, be careful what you ask for as you might get it.  I am experiencing that right now.   When selecting a school for my French immersion, I went to great care to select a school that was serious about learning.  I had concern that some were more about the vacationing than the learning.  I made sure the program I selected was a language school.  Now I am suffering for it.

A while back we had an assignment to use 20 verbs in a story. The verbs were “movement” verbs.  Yes, the French really have this many verbes about movement.  I chose to tell a story about my trip to Italy last fall, at least in part because we did so many different things, I thought I could use all the verbs.  In this regard, I did a pretty good job.  I used 16 of the 20, or 80%.  And I used most of them correctly.

When I read my story in class, it was clear I had a number of errors.  My professor volunteered that if I emailed her the story, she’d correct all my mistakes.  For this I was grateful as I learn best by seeing what I did wrong and for something like this hearing it in class was not enough.  The next day she returned me my original version and a corrected one.  Wow did I make a lot of mistakes! And I thought pronunication was going to be my problem. 

Of course, I needed to evaluate my mistakes.  I went through and marked all the mistakes in red ink so I could see the actual errors.   Here’s what I learned. 

I made 16 careless errors.  Most of these were not putting an “s” on the verb for plural or an extra “e” for feminine.  I made this error 13 times.  I did not know this rule when I wrote the story but have since learned.    Nonetheless, I went to my writing for today and found I had made the error a couple of times.  I corrected them. 

Another 13 involved little words like on, a, to, the, that, pronouns, etc. I seem to have a lot of trouble understanding these.  Six involved verb tense, which we are studying almost every day. 

The bottom line I’m getting to only four involved using the words we were assigned incorrecly.  Okay, when you make 50 errors in a story of only 323 words, you have to really look for the positive.  I’m glad I didn’t have a chance to review until today or I might have found it discouraging. 

All joking aside, this really was a good experience.  I learned a lot.  I so appreciate the professor taking the time to individually correct my writing. Some of these mistakes I won’t make again and some I am sure I will need to have corrected more than once.   Although at times it is difficult, I am glad I chose a school that is serious about learning and has professors dedicated to help even the slow students like me.  Everyone is so encouraging.   

You might also find it amusing that I now have trouble in English.  For example, I typed “verbe” rather than “verb” every time in this document.   So if there are errors in English in this document just assume I spelled them the French way.

I think I need that chocolate éclair.



Chocolate Eclair



A Small Town with 4 Bakeries

 

My Favorite Bakery



One of the best parts of this experience has been the bakeries.   Sancerre has four and I visit one of them each day.  Some days I visit more than one.  I've even been known to visit the same one twice in one day.  

When I first came, I thought the town only had one bakery, which was located in the main square.  The first couple of days I went there to get croissants and baguettes.  (I quickly found another bakery on the other side of the main square but it only sells desserts.)  One morning my first week, I went to the bakery and freaked out when a sign was on the door saying it was closed until September 8, 2011, which was about two weeks.  I wondered how I could do without bread for two weeks.  While I was stressing, a professor came along and I expressed my concern.  She immediately took me to another bakery and I fell in love.

My Friendly & Competent Bakery (The Rustique Bread is in the Middle)

This bakery is a little further from my apartment but so worth the walk.  Okay, so it is only two blocks further.   They have this baguette called rustique that I adore.  I usually get one per day, but she sometimes runs out and I have to choose another type of bread.  For some reason I don’t understand the bread is unbelievably good the first day but is not at all good the second.  So even if don’t  eat the whole baguette in a day I still need a new one the next day.    

One interesting thing is that none of the bakeries put bread in a sack.  They either wrap a small piece of paper in the middle of the baguette for you to hold on to or give the bread with nothing.  This is true whether you buy one or five baguettes.   At first, I thought this was because I was supposed to bring my own bag.  So I bought this lovely cloth bag (just the right size for two baguttes).  I have since realized that everyone in town just carries the baguettes without any bag at all.   So I’ve failed at yet another attempt at being French. 

I also frequently get desserts from the bakery.  I’ve clearly had more desserts in this four weeks than in any two month period at home.  My favorite bakery has marvelous Paris Brest.  For those of you that don’t know, Brest is a city in France and Paris Brest is the special dessert they developed for the Tour de France.  It is round with a hole in the center like a bicycle wheel.  It has a pastry outside and a praline filling.  I’m not normally much for praline but this is pretty good.  (I’ve had three but then whose counting.)

The bakery without bread has fabulous desserts.  They have several good items but my favorite is a cherry and pistachio tart. (I’ve also had three of these, but I may never be able to get them once I leave so I must take advantage of being here, right?)

Amazing isn’t it, I’ve described two great desserts and neither contain chocolate.  The desserts vary by the day.  Some days there are great chocolate ones and I’ve tried some of these. 

The Tourist Bakery

My original bakery has good bread and desserts.  In addition, it has some bakery type things, such as quiche lorraine, which is good. Their Paris Brest is quite good. It is the only one that actually has an area to sit.  It is a tea salon and thus attracts a crowd of those who want a hot drink with their pastry.  I am told their chocolate eclairs are to die for.  I tried to get one yesterday, but was told they’d have them today.  When I got there today, they were closed so I’m delayed in trying their chocolate éclair.

There is a fourth bakery but I rarely frequent it.  I call the tourist bakery.  (Interesting, isn’t it that I don’t consider myself a tourist.  In this town, a lot of people come for the day, walk around (and look at my building a lot because of the tower behind it) and buy things.  So when they crowd the streets or the café those of us who stay in the town for a period of time find them irritating.)  It has these fabulous looking desserts that are wrapped and more suitable to take with you, hence my view that it is for tourists.  It does have a special Sancerre cake that I will have to try.  It does sell baguettes so in a pinch I visit it. 

Today, my visit is just a little over half over and I am starting to think about how different it will be to come back home.  I think I’ll adjust to most things pretty fast, but I am going to miss the baguettes.  I know there are places in DC to buy really good desserts, but I won’t be able to walk to them whenever my sweet tooth needs a fix.  And they won’t have the variety.  Although Panera has fresh baguettes and they are pretty good, I can’t walk there before breakfast. 

Not Your Ordinary School Building

The school building, the Hotel De La Thamumassiere, is one of the town’s old and historic buildings. (It is on the walking tour of the city and the street behind it is named for it.  It was built just before the 1600s.  It was used by the family that originally built it until it was sold in 1901.  (Hotel then just meant large building not an actual hotel as we know it.)  It was the office of a bank until 2001 or 2003 when Coeur de France bought it.  As a result of this continuous thread, the building is preserved well and in many area is as it was in the beginning.  (I don't have pictures that do the outside justice, but there is one at the top of the blog.)



Piece of the Bastille



Last week Gerard, co-proprietor of the school, gave a wonderful tour to the students.  Through this tour,  we were able to learn about the building’s history and see the building from top to bottom.  I mean litterally, we went to the attic and the basement.  (Okay, everything except the little tower.) l will attempt to retell a little of the history and show you some of the items we saw.  However, I did not take notes during the tour so I am basing this one memory so please forgive me if some dates are a little fuzzy.

I mentioned one family had owned the building for centuries.  A man married into the family.  A man married into this family and became royalty and was given the Hotel de la Thaumassiere to live in.  When the French revolution occurred, it was suddently not so good to be royalty.  He worked hard to be a man of the people.  He obtained a small piece of the Bastille when it was destroyed.    He placed this on the outside of the building with a plaque explaining what it was as a way of proving his common man credentials.  It remains there today as does the family coat of arms.

Also on the outside are some gargoyles representing important things.  One is a wine maker and one a wine taster. 

But for me, the real thrill was the inside of the building. I love the mosaic floor, which appears to be from the orgin of the building.  It is beautiful mosaic with pieces from a nearby town that still makes them today.  The school is on the lower floor so I see that regularly.  In one of my classrooms there is a beautiful mantle.  Above the school are three apartments.  The view from their windows is extraoridinare.  In some of the rooms, the old oak floors remain.  Original shutters are on the windows, but are in need of repair.

Attic & Clock Rewinding Mechanism

On another upper floor that is currently being used for storage there is the original bank counter with a marble top.  It is beautiful.  It was noted, of course this isn’t really old as it is only from the 1900s.  I guess when the building is 300 years older than the counter, the counter doesn’t really seem old.

The attic was a special treat for me.  You can see a clock on the outside of the buidling.  In the attic you can see the actual insides of clock.  It still works. It rewinds itself twice per day.  In the pictures you can see the inside and the weight used to rewind it.  How amazing a clock this old still works!

Also in the attic you can see the buildings beams.  They are made of chestnut and to this day there are no bugs in the attic because of this wood.  Also in the attic you can see the clothes line where people hung the clothes to dry and some old French flags.

We also went to the cellar.  In some ways this is like the cellar in my grandmother’s house.  There are nasty steps to get to it, cobwebs and coal.  But in this basement you can see hooks from the 16^th century and the old lighters used to light all the lights in the building before electricity. 

It was fascinating to see all aspects of this building and especially to hear the history of it.  It is fortunate that when the bank was selling the building someone with an appreciation for history of the building purchased it.  Hearing Gerard talk about the building and its history, it is clear he is passionate about  preserving the history.  And his willingness to spend so much time to share it with the students is another example of the many ways Coeur de France makes the experience in Sancerre unique.

Sancerre--My Kind of Town?

I know many of you were concerned about how a big city girl like myself would adjust to the small town.  In fact, I wondered.  I can honestly say I am loving life in a small town.  I think I know more people here than near my house in Washington where I have lived for seven years.  

In addition to the friendly people everything is close.  I can decide at 6:45 pm that I want wine for the people coming over at 7:00 pm and go buy wine from one of many wine shops and be back at my apartment before my guests arrive.  I leave for school five minutes before my classes start and I am never late.   If I’m going to the far side of town it make take 10 minutes.  For someone used to DC traffic this is wonderful.

Sancerre is definitely a small town, population about 1700.  It is situated on a hill in wine country and this is apparent throughout the city.  In additon to being surrounded by vineyards, there are wine shops throughout the town.  Visitors, mostly from England and other parts of France seem to come almost every day to buy wine and walk around the town. 

In addition to the wine shops, the town has 4 pastry shops, two butchers, a cheese shop, a chacuterie (not sure English equivalent), about 10 restaurants, a small grocer, a pharmacy, a hair stylist, a post office  and a few bars.   We have a market on Saturday.   The town also has several  stores for other types of shopping, such as a jewelry store, a book store, a toy store, a store with some clothing items, and a few with a variety of crafted items for sale.  The town does not have a McDonald’s or any other fast food place. (As an aside, I have not been to a McDonald’s since August 25, 2011.)  

The town existed prior to the middle ages.  It has a number of historic sights, including the building in which our school is located, which was built before 1600.  My apartment is in a building that was probably built in the early 1600s.  It is located at the only tower left after all the towers surrounding the town were destroyed when the town lost a battle.

 Just walking around the town is a pleasant experience.   I keep thinking I’ve seen it all and then I take a different route and find a little alley-like street that leads to something new.  As I get to know the town’s people the walks take a little longer as you must stop and chat with those you know. 

You can see gorgeous views of the surrounding country side and the Loire River from many places in town.   You can take little hikes down the hill to bridges, the canal and Loire River.  You can go kayaking in the river.  Mostly I’ve just walked around and taken pictures.  I love all the beautiful flowers.  I can’t envision how the town will change with fall.  I guess I will find out soon.  Fall is clearly coming as the morning s are cool and the vines are turning red. 

Only Remaining Tower (Blue door is Mine)

Like many small towns in the United States, the population is aging as the young move somewhere else as there are not the professional positions that they are seeking here.  But unlike small towns in the U.S., they seem to find ways to survive.  For example, instead of closing churches and combining several churches in one so several communities don’t have one, they just have mass in different villages different Sundays.  An interesting approach!  Sancerre attracts a lot of tourists for day trips, whch helps the economy.  As a resident, I have been known to complain when the town is full of tourists.  And, of course, the vineyards.   I don’t have any definate information but I am sure the school and its students also contribute to the town’s economy.  I looked briefly at the houses/apartments for sale and they are not too cheap so the economy must be doing okay. 

In a future blog, I’ll share more details about specfic items. 



Progress? Perhaps

View of Sancerre When Approaching

My lessons continue to go up and down.  This has been a difficult week.  I’ve worked hard on my homework and still when I get to class find I have made mistakes on half of them.  This is very frustrating to me and I’m not sure what I can do differently. 

I am not sure if I will ever learn to think enough like the French to really understand.  When I was really down about my progress, I happened to visit a couple of stores and had such positive experiences I felt great.

 I visited a bakery and was ready to order the cherry and pistachio tart I saw in the window.  But when I got ready to order I realized the word on the tag was not the word for cherry.  I had the same tart yesterday (okay the amount of dessert I am eating is another story) and was quite sure it was a cherry tart.  I inquired of the clerk whether this was a cherry and pistachio tart

View from Sancerre

and she replied that it was.  I was then comfortable to continue the conversation.  I asked if the word on the sign (pronouncing a word I’d never seen before) was a specific type of cherry.  She understood me and replied yes.  I told her how much I had enjoyed the tart yesterday, paid and told her I’d see her tomorrow.  This may not seem like much but when I came to Sancerre I probably would not have asked for it if the label used a word I didn’t know and I definitely would not have asked about the types of cherries.  

 So I may not be getting my grammar right but I am definitely communicating better.I then stopped at the butcher’s to get some ham, eggs and cheese.  I was confident in asking for the ham and for the first time told him I wanted thick slices.  He confirmed I really wanted them and then made a comment about my French improving.  I said I was learning, but slowly.  His response was I had made a huge improvement since I arrived. Athough I want to learn all the grammar, the reality is that most of the time that I will use French is for traveling. Clearly, my ability to speak French for this purpose has improved immensely. 

Me at My School

This was just the incentive I needed.  I headed off to a private lesson and spent the next 60 minutes working with verbe forms.  My instructor was wonderful and explained every single time I screwed up why I should use one form over another.  I was told today that the French have 16% more words than the English.  I think they also have 50% more exceptions.  (That is a personal opinion and may be just based on the number of errors I make.) 

The bottom line is that I am speaking and understanding French far better than I did a little over three weeks ago when I started this program.  And I am having a wonderful time experiencing a differnet way to live. In addition the scenery is so beautiful.  So when I get down over how hard the lessons are or my slow progress, I remember but I am living in an old French village with beautiful scenery, wonderful people and great wine!

Everyday French Home Cooking

One of the things I’ve truly enjoyed doing here is cooking.  My son thoughtfully got me a book entitled “La Cuisine: Everyday French Home Cooking” with the idea that these would be things that could be made easily and would use ingredients I would find here.  It was a bit heavy to add to my suitcase but I am oh so glad that I did.

Being in the kitchen is especially pleasant because I have a very large window that actually opens.  I can open both sides wide and breathe fresh air as I cook. 

I go to the market,  the butcher and baker to get what I need.  So far I have not used a single thing from a can.  My sister asked me if this made it more expensive.  I’m not sure if fresh is more expensive than cans but I do know eating at home is cheaper than the restaurants.  And I do save money because I can purchase just what I need.  For example, when I’m making a veal chop I can buy just one. 

Results of 1st Shopping Trip -- 3 Stops

The picture above shows one of my early meals.  A tomato and avocado salad made with homemade mayonaise.  I’d never made mayonaise from scratch before but I did her.  I’m not sure I won’t use bottled when I get home.  The meat is a veal chop.  Every meal includes fresh bread from the baker. That is a story in itself.  This meal includes Sancerre wine and some delightful cookies from another baker’s.  Yes we do have two – we actually have four. 

I’m also very pleased with Omelet Parmentier.  As you may recall, I had one in Paris and questioned why a potato omelet was called Parmentier.  A blog reader, Charlotte Berry, provided the answer.  She said “Antoine-August Parmentier, 1737 - 1813, was a French agriculturalist who did more than anyone else to popularize potatoes in Europe.  We had them first here in the America's, but during his lifetime potatoes became wildly popular over on your side of the pond.”

In any case, one of the first things I tried was an omelet parmentier.  It turned out great and I’ve had it several times since for breakfast or lunch.  I get the small potatoes from the market and when any are left over, I have an omelet for lunch or dinner. (The school is closer to my apartment that during the week I have lunch at home almost every day.

Probably my biggest challenge was making a Fromage Blanc & Walnut Tart.  Not because it was hard to make, but I stuggled a bit to get the ingredients and tools I needed.  It started when I saw recipes in the cookbook using fromage blanc.  I had no idea what it was and didn’t immediately see it here in Sancerre.  So when I got a ride to the supermarket, I thought I’d get some.  I had no idea what it was and no one else seemed to know either. I was looking with the cheeses and one of my fellow students suggested that maybe it was just white cheese and any white cheese would do.  However, I continued searching  ultimately found a container labeled fromage blanc.  I bought it.

When I got home, I found there weren’t as many recipes in the cookbook using fromage blanc as I thought.  The one that was most appealing to me was a walnut tart but none of the stores in Sancerre had walnuts.  (Clearly this was a timing thing as the butcher and the market had them the following week.)  A French friend came through with walnuts from her yard.  I wondered

 how I was going to get the nut meat out without a nut cracker or a nut pick.  I cracked them with the rolling pin. (The man in the upstairs apartment thought I was going a little crazy when he kept hearing pounding.)  Unlike English walnuts I was able to pull the meat out and break the shell with my fingers if I needed to.  No need to a nut pick.  These walnuts are also a little smaller than the English ones I usually use.  I didn’t notice a difference in taste.

The tart was good, but I still don’t know what fromage blanc really is.  It is the texture of sour cream but it doesn’t have the sour taste.  I was at a restaurant yesterday that had it as a dessert and I thought about seeing if they just serve as it comes from the container or if they do something to it before serving but the pull of rhubarb tart was too great.  I still have almost five weeks in France so maybe I learn about fromage blanc.

Back to the walnuts, there are walnut trees all round the city with loads of walnuts.  So for my second tart I just went to the road out of the city and picked walnuts I needed.  Okay, those of you from the country may think this is no big deal but for us city girls this is a new experience.  (The chestnuts are now falling so I’ll have to see if I can make something with them.)

In addition to being exposed to some great new recipes, I’ve also learned that you can cook just fine without all the fancy gadgets.  (Several of us even questoned whether we still knew how to open a wine bottle with a plain old corkscrew.  Guess what they still work.)  The apartment has the basics and thanks to the last renters I have a good knife for cutting.   Adjusting the measures for French ones and the oven tempatures was a bit challening until I discovered a conversion page in the back of the cookbook. 

One might argue I haven't learned much about French cooking since this is an American cookbook, but I would say it is French enough that rabbit is in the meat section, not the game section.

Sancerre Wine Tasting -- Henri Burgeois

As the readers, who are wine connisseurs will know Sancerre is best known for its incredible wines.  Like champagne must actually be from Champagne, only wines made from grapes grown in the Sancerre area can be labeled Sancerre wine.

On Friday, I went to a wine tasting at one of the local vineyards.  The grape harvest is underway so the visit offered us opportunnities that you don’t usually get.  In fact there was so much included that the wine tasting was just like a cherry on an ice cream sundae.  I like to have it, but I’d enjoy the ice cream sundae just about as much without it.

We visted Henri Bourgeois, which is a family operation.  Today, it is operated by the grandchildren of the original Henry Bourgeois. 



The Remants after Grapes are Pressed Being Discarded



Our tour was organized by my school and led by Gérard, the co-proprietor of the school.  Gérard is a wine expert and known personally by the Bourgeois family.  In fact a son and grandson stopped to talk with him while we were on our tour.  Gérard did a fabulous job of explaining the continum of winemaking, beginning with growing grapes and ending with actually making the wine.  I learned that intense regulation applies even to the growing process.   For example, you can’t pick your own grapes until some entity tells you it’s time.  He continued by explaining the harvesting process.  It sounds like France is even more aggressive in regulating how workers are treated than the U.S. 

As you can see from the pictures the vineyards themselves are beautiful.  Not all of these vineyards belong to Henry B.  In fact, a few rows may belong to one person and the next few rows to someone else.  While we were there they were picking the grapes. We saw trailers going by full of grapes and lots of activitity. We saw grapes coming from the field going onto conveyor belts to be pressed.  We saw the huge storate vats.  We saw the leftovers being moved by a conveyor belt out of the factory.  In addition, we saw a barrel made from a 400-year-old tree in an amazing cellar.

The wine tasting at the end was nice.  I learned that some roses are good.  If you don’t think so, I’d recommend you try Henri Bourgeois’s Les Baronnes 2010.  (One of the things I learned is rose you want to get the most recent year available.)  For those of you who like a wine that is a little sweet but not too sweet, his Vendange de la Saint-Luc 2007 would be my recommendation. (This one is a little pricey but I think worth it.)  For a more reasonably priced white that would be a good example of Sancerre wine you could get the Les Baronnes 2009.  And for those that just have to have red, I’d recommend Les Baronnes 2008 or La Bourgeoise Magnum 2002. 

One of the great things about Coeur de France is that the school is totally plugged into this community.  As a result every one makes you feel at home and your experience during your time here is enhanced by interactions with the community. 

It has been fun being here as the town is a buzz with activity related to the harvest.  Today as I was walking around, the trailors continued to come by one way filled with grapes and come back empty. The first time I saw the grape vines, which are all around the town, they were full of bunches of grapes.  Now, of course, they are empty.  When you are in this type of environment, the tie to the earth and the changing of the seasons is more apparent than in city life. 

If you want to learn more about Henri Burgeois, try this link.http://www.henribourgeois.com/

When in France Do as the French Do?

I have another one of those experiences to share with you.  Yesterday morning we had our weekly excursion to the market in Saint Satur.  This is a small town (population: 1700) at the foot of the hill Sancerre is on.  It is 1.76 kilometers from Sancerre.  I still have no idea how far that is but I am told it is is about a 45 minute walk.  Of course this walk is not bad going downhill to Saint Satur but I’m told it gets a little long coming back up the hill to Sancerre.  To make it easier for students to shop, the school takes us to the weekly market in Saint Satur on Thursday mornings.



Pouring Fresh Milk for a Customer



In some ways, the Saint Satur market is like a farmer’s market in the U.S.  People are selling fresh fruits and vegetables.   There are also some vendors selling plants.  However, this market also sells meats, seafood, fresh milk, cheeses, etc.  In addition, there are some items that would be at a flea market. This week there were clothes and matresses. 

When I arrived at the market, I recalled a French friend had told me the pate I so enjoyed at her house came from a particular stall at the Saint Satur market.  When I looked, I found  5 – 6 different pates there.  She was there at the same time so I asked her which one she had served me.  She came over and looked at them and pointed to terrine de lapin.  I was shocked and grossed out as I knew “lapin” was rabbit.  When I reacted she and the butcher had a good laugh.  Then I thought oh she was just kidding, but after much questioning (in French) I realized she was serious. 

 

Now I really had a dilemma.  I had planned to buy the pate, which I thorougly enjoyed.  (Truth be told I had 2 – 3 servings.)   I would not have tried it had I been told it was rabbit.  Now knew I liked it so the question was should I refuse to eat it because it was rabbit.  I decided to buy it, but I haven’t yet eaten it.  So I am not  yet sure. 

To paraphrase an old saying, when in Sancerre do as the French do.