As the daylight dims and the cool air blows, travelers in France from late November to early January—and beyond in some areas—will find a bright and warm mix of regional, national, commercial and religious traditions throughout the holiday season.

Christmas Eve, rather than Christmas Day, is the privileged family time in France for presents and an abundant dinner, followed for some (relatively few) by midnight mass in some of the country’s magnificent medieval churches and cathedrals. There are then generally leftovers of fine food and drink and, hopefully, family spirit, too, to enjoy on December 25th.

Let’s take a tour of the Christmas season in France through Alsace, Champagne, Lille, Lyon, Provence, Nice and Paris.

(The dates in this article are for the holiday markets and events of 2014 however these are all annual happenings that take place about the same time, give or take a day or two.)

Alsace

One of the most recognizable features of the Christmas season is the Christmas market, rows of chalets (wooden or make-shift shopping huts) set up as early as mid-November in public squares and along major streets to sell folklore, craftsmanship, much food and drink, and Christmas or gift knick-knacks of all kinds.

The tradition of Christmas markets likely originated along the Rhine, leading Strasbourg, which dates the origin of its market to 1570, to call itself “Capital of Christmas.” While otherwise known as capital of Alsace and seat of the European Parliament, Strasbourg pulls out all the stops when it comes to the holiday season.

The most animated of Strasbourg’s Christmas markets surrounds its Notre-Dame Cathedral, whose tremendous steeple dominates the cityscape.

Head due south from Strasbourg and you enter Alsace’s wine route whose bare vines contrast in December with the cheery main streets of picturesque villages, such as Riquewihr and Kaysersberg, that ward off the frost with the warmth of Christmas decorations, mulled wine, gingerbread, small biscuits called bredele and a Bundt-type cake called kouglhof (spelling varies).

Eventually one reaches Colmar, another hotspot for Christmas markets, and beyond that Mulhouse. Mulhouse, a major player in the European textile industry from the mid-18th to the early 20th centuries, produces each year a new Christmas fabric (this year an adaptation of a late-19th-century motif) that decorates the city and is translated into various derivative products.

For more specifics visit the official tourist information sites of Alsace, Strasbourg, Colmar and Mulhouse.

Champagne

Champagne may call to mind the celebration of New Year’s Eve more than Christmas, but Reims, the largest city in the region and home to some of the world’s most elegant champagne houses (i.e. producers) also unfurls an extensive Christmas market along Place Douet d’Erlon, center-city’s main pedestrian drag, and neighboring streets.

The official tourist information site of the city of Reims is found here.

Lille

Lille isn’t quite the North Pole but it’s about as close as one gets while still in France. Never one to miss out on a good party (accompanied by beer rather than wine), Lille gets into the seasonal spirit at its two central square: Place Rihour, which is transformed into an 80-chalet village from Nov. 19 to Dec. 30, and Grand’Place , where a 59-foot pine stands along with a Ferris wheel offering a view over the city. The market fills the square from Nov. 19 to Dec. 30. See Lille’s official Christmas market site here.

Lyon

Lyon’s dazzling Festival of Lights (Fête des Lumières) isn’t directly related to Christmas but nothing announces the winter holiday season better than long nights brightly lit. From December 5 to 8, France’s third largest city is lit by more than 70 different major creative light installations, a brilliant event that draws the oohs and ahhs of 4 million visitors.

For more about Lyon’s Festival of Lights see here.

Provence

North Americans sometimes have trouble associating Christmas with warmer climes since our own Christmas decorative and culinary traditions are rather Alsatian-Germanic in nature. But the nativity story takes place in a bald Mediterranean landscape whose white stone hills have more in common with Provence. In fact, some of world’s must ancient Christian traditions developed in Provence.

While Americans fully enter the Christmas season the day after Thanksgiving, Provence tradition would have it last from the Feast Day of Saint Barbara (Sainte Barb) on Dec. 4 to Candlemas (Chandeleur) on Feb. 2. According to legend, if one plants a plate of wheat at home on Dec. 4 and if by Dec: 25 it grows to a healthy green tuft then abundance will follow in the next harvest. As to Feb. 2, a date Americans are more likely to think of this as Groundhog Day, that’s Candlemas on the Catholic calendar, commemorating the purification of Mary after childbirth and the presentation of Jesus in the Temple. That’s the date when crèches are taken down.

Where better to consider Christmas in Provence than in Avignon, the town that the Catholic Popes called home during through most of the 14th century, when they temporarily abandoned squabble-ridden Rome. One of southern France’s most expansive Christmas markets takes place (this year Nov. 30-Jan. 4) on Avignon’s main square, Place de l’Horloge, around the corner from the Popes’ Palace, the town’s major tourist attraction. Among the many manger scenes set up around town, one of the most outstanding typically occupies a portion of the lobby in City Hill, which is also on Place de l’Horloge.

Beginning about the third week in November, crèches begin to be set up in villages and cities throughout the region. And in those crèches you’ll find dozens of figurines called santons. Santon comes from the Provencal word santou, meaning little saint, though few of these figures are now sainted. Santons of the holy family are naturally central to the crèche, but the vast majority of them represent characters of folklore and everyday life in the ideal, traditional Provencal village. While traditionally made of clay and hand painted, other materials such cardboard, cork, or even paper are used by some santonniers, as their creators are known. These cute, naïve and/or humorous figures are typically thumb-size, so taking a dozen home in your suitcase is no problem. Doll-size and baby-thumb-size santons also exist.

Santons are so anchored in Provence that shops sell them year-round, but to buy them in the Christmas spirit the best place may well be Marseille, where they’re said to have originated. Since 1803 Marseille has its Foire aux Santons, an annual traditional nativity fair where santons and other crèche features can be bought. This year’s fair will be held Nov. 15 to Dec. 31. Aix-en-Provence has had its own santon fair since 1934 (this season Nov. 20-Dec. 31), Arles has been celebrating all things crèche since 1958 (this season Nov. 15 to Jan. 12) and the small town of Carpentras also has a nice market for these precious figurines.

In Avignon as well as in other crèche-proud towns of France, one can follow a special route (le Chemin des crèches) to discover different animated and illuminated nativity scenes. Other regions also have crèche-routes outlined though villages, so don’t hesitate to inquire about crèche routes wherever you may travel during the holiday season. Whether travelers partake in it or not, they’re certain to hear along the way about the Provencal tradition of the 13 desserts of Christmas, which ends the Christmas Eve meal known the big supper (le gros souper). The desserts, numbering 13 in honor of Jesus and the 12 Apostles, consist of dried fruit and nuts, fresh fruit and sweets.

For further details about the above-mentioned towns and cities see the official tourist information sites of Avignon, Marseille, Aix-en-Provence, Arles and Carpentras.

Nice

Though the Riviera holds back on its winter exuberance until the February Carnival/Mardi Gras season, Nice hosts the largest Christmas village of the coast west of Marseille. From Dec. 6 to Jan. 4, Place Massena is given over to 60 chalets, a skating rink and lights galore, while concerts and other events are held on Place Garibaldi on weekend and school holidays. See here for official tourist information about Nice.

Paris

There’s no sweeter place to hunt for Christmas pastries than Paris, where you’ll find some of the best traditional and creative yule logs or buches de Noël, feasts for the eyes as well as for the mouth. The yule log is a log-shaped cake traditionally made of sponge-type cake and chocolate buttercream and then more cream. They can be found throughout France, but their greatest expression graces the fine pastry shops and tea rooms of Paris, where now anything goes as long as it’s got the general shape of a log and a gazillion calories. Though most come in family-size versions, the solitary or coupled traveler will find single or double portions as well.

As a whole, Paris doesn’t display the same seasonal fervor as, say, New York, but its major department stores take to the holiday spirit as eagerly as anywhere. This is particularly the case at the department stores Printemps and Galeries Lafayette, behind the Garnier Opera on Boulevard Haussmann, where families and shoppers (or gawkers) of all ages come to admire the year’s display of lights and window dressings.

The City of Light itself has Christmas markets at the bottom of the Champs-Elysées near Place de la Corcorde (Nov. 15-Jan. 5), at the Montparnasse Train Station (Dec. 4-31), Trocadéro, outside Saint-Sulpice Church (Dec. 1-24) and Saint-Germain-des-Prés Church (Dec. 6-Jan. 2) and in Montmartre (Dec. 5-Jan. 4), as well as the town of Versailles (Dec. 5-26) and other near suburbs. The English version of the official Paris information site is found here.

Bonnes fêtes de fin d’année!

© 2014, Gary Lee Kraut

A slightly different version of this article also appears in the Nov.-Dec. 2014 issue of Travelworld International magazine

The post A Christmas Tour of France appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

Seven miles northwest of Colmar, in one of the small, colorful tourist-friendly towns along the Alsace wine route, Olivier Nasti works with his wife, his brother and his sister-in-law to operate the 4-star hotel Le Chambard and four food businesses that conjugate Alsace’s past, present, and even some present perfect: a gastronomic restaurant (1-star Michelin since 2005  – [post note: Le Chambard received its second Michelin star in 2014]), a traditional Alsatian bistro Le Winstub du Chambard, a contemporary take on a flammekuche or tarte flambée, and a bright kougelhof pastry shop/tearoom.

Before describing each of these ventures, I note that it’s quite possible to visit Kaysersberg (pop. 3000) without getting involved in any of this Nasti business. I might have asked the local tourist office to supply summer photos with sunny skies, leafy vineyards, geranium boxes overflowing at the windows of half-timbered houses, and naked knees moving down cobbled streets.

But I’ll use my own shots from a visit in February on a day without snow to decorate the town. If you can see the charm beyond the grey of my own views you can well imagine a sweet stroll along by this stream,

… and a pleasant little hike up to the castle ruin,

… for a rewarding view over the old town

… and out to the vineyards.

A museum celebrates the life, humanitarian mission and Nobel Prize of Dr. Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965), who was born in Kaysersberg. A small cemetery contains the graves of French soldiers from WWII, including conscripts from French colonies at the time.

A plaque indicates the role of the 3rd Infantry Division of the U.S. Army in liberating the town on Dec. 18, 1944.

The ubercharming and proudly kitsch village of Riquewihr is three miles north of Kaysersberg along the wine route. Another three miles beyond that is the handsome town of Ribeauvillé. For those without a car (and unwilling to bike) to explore the wine route of Alsace, Kaysersberg is reachable from Colmar by public bus (from various stops, including the train station) in about 25 minutes or by taxi in 15 minutes. Riquewihr and Ribeauvillé are then also within easy reached by bus.

Though not a January-March destination in any book, the trade-off of no sun for no crowds is often in a traveler’s favor.

Nasti family ventures

While Olivier Nasti is chef and primary face of these ventures and is clearly in charge, he is seconded in these ventures by his brother Emmanuel, who orchestrates the dining room and the wine list at the gastronomic restaurant at Le Chambard. Olivier’s wife Patricia focuses on the hotel and the winstub, Emmanuel’s wife Corinne oversees the reception, and Corinne’s brother Olivier Lammert manages the Nasti off-shoot concept restaurant Flamme & Co. Originally from Belfort, 50 miles south of Kaysersberg, the Nastis took over Le Chambard in 2000.

Hotel Le Chambard

The 32 rooms and suites at Le Chambard are warm and sleek, without an Alsatian knickknack in sight. They’re housed in an 18th-century main building and add-ons in the back. A small spa with sauna, steam, Jacuzzi and pool is open 8am-7pm. Massage and well-being treatments are available by appointment.

Restaurant Le Chambard

Olivier Nasti’s technical mastery in the kitchen and the freshness of his supplies were evident in an evening-long succession of courses including, in order, smoked eel, snails, scallops, cod, pigeon and foie gras. That mastery earned him the title Meilleur Ouvrier de France in 2007. The MOF competition largely honors chefs with great technical skill, in working the fresh products of course. Olivier Nasti’s cuisine is natural, fluid and balanced, most evident to me that evening in his scallops with truffles and Jerusalem artichoke.

His is a clarified Alsatian cuisine, delicate without trying to be too subtle. This isn’t a cuisine of fantasy or innovation but rather a clear-headed cooking built on a foundation of regional products and dishes. The foie gras baeckoffa, for example, is light and distinct in its taste while remaining within the canons of that regional stew.

Service, led by Olivier’s brother Emmanuel, was kind if rough on the edges. Emmanuel Nasti’s extensive wine list can be seen here. A wine-paired meal allows visitors to take a wide tour of the Alsace wine region, naturally including growers in the surrounding vineyards.

Count 84-124€ per person plus beverages.

Le Winstub du Chambard

A winstub is an Alsatian bistro traditionally serving local dishes and local wines. Fronting Le Chambard, Olivier Nasti’s winstub holds strictly to tradition with red-and-white checked tablecloths, green-stemmed wine glasses, wooden chairs with curved pierced backs, and kougelho(p)f molds (shaped like a deep bundt pan) and Alsatian earthenware on the shelves,…

…, a setting for regional offerings from snails to onion pies to foie gras, from pikeperch to choucroute and fish, from choucroute and sausage to baeckeoffa (a pork and/or lamb stew and potato stew), from munster cheese to kougelhopf glacé, and from muscat to riesling to sylvaner to gewurztraminer.

Le Winstub du Chambard is classic and moderately priced, a fine slice of regional tradition, one of many such restaurants that a traveler encounters in the region.

Flamme & Co.

Flammekueche (flammekuche) or tarte flambée is an Alsatian pizza of sorts that’s traditionally made with very thin bread dough baked in a rectangle topped with fresh cheese/cream, bacon bits and lightly fried onions. Additional cream mixes and toppings are possible but the lion’s share of flammekueche is speckled with bacon and onions.

Enter Flamme & Co. This isn’t the only flammekueche restaurant to offer varieties on the traditional theme, but it is fully dedicated to expanding the concept of what a flammekueche can be.

There’s a Flamme & Co across the street from Le Chambard, however I tested at its urban outlet in the center of Strasbourg the following day. It’s operated by Emmanuel Nasti’s brother-in-law Olivier Lammert.

The flammekueche variations are quickly baked here in a beech-and-oak-burning oven. My tasting companion, a Paris-based food writer, and I tried most of the menu through the afternoon in a meal that served as both lunch and dinner. Among the many we tried: bacon, snails and parsley; scallops, cream of cauliflower and lamb’s lettuce; sliced duck breast and marmalade; herbs, parmesan and Spanish ham, and others.

I referred to flammekeuches above as Alsatian pizza, as anyone would, but they might also be considered Alsatian crepes considering that sweet as well as savory flammekueche’s are available here. For me, the Strasbourg Flamme & Co, unlike the Kaysersberg outlet, was trying too hard to be young and trendy; put another way I felt too old for the lighting and music and looky-here paper placemats, though the design of the place is appealing enough. I nevertheless enjoyed the goods themselves; the toppings were fresh and authentic enough—and far be it from the editor of France Revisited to be opposed to Alsace revisited.

Kouglof un curieux pâtissier

As with any quaint Alsatian town there’s an abundance of pastry shops in Kaysersberg. Kouglof, a pastry shop/tea room, is another Nasti venture, again an attempt to update traditional fare without losing sight of the traditions at its heart. In this case the tradition is that of Alsace’s most recognizable pastry the kougelho(p)f or kouglof, a brioche with raisins and nuts baked in a particular round mold.

© 2012 Gary Lee Kraut

Kaysersberg Tourist Office, 39 rue du Général de Gaulle, at the center of the old town. The tourist office can provide a list of vineyards and wine cellars in town and in the surrounding area.

Riquewihr and Ribeauvillé have a joint tourist information website.

Le Chambard, hotel and restaurant. 9 rue du Général de Gaulle, 68240 Kaysersberg. Tel. 03 89 37 10 17. Le Winstub du Chambard is at the same address. Le Chambard is a member of the Chateaux & Hotels Collection association.

Flamme & Co. 53/55 Grand’rue, 67000 Strasbourg (as well as across the street from Le Chambard in Kaysersberg). Tel. 03 90 40 19 45. Closed Monday.

Kouglof un curieux pâtissier, 50 rue du Général de Gaulle, 68240 Kaysersberg.

Nasti News. General information about the various Nasti ventures.

Côté Cour Côté Four. 11 rue des Serruriers, 6800 Colmar. Tel. 03 89 21 19 18. In 2012, the Nasti brothers extended their reach into Colmar by taking over Côté Cour Côté Four, a brasserie to one side, a bakery to the other.

Official Alsace tourist information website.

Also read Just a Glimpse: Colmar.

The post Nasti Business in Kaysersberg, Alsace appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

Anyway, I hadn’t come to Colmar to recommend the season but rather to briefly visit the town before going to Kaysersberg on the Alsace wine route to examine the Nasti family ventures there. Colmar is capital of Upper Rhine (the southern portion of Alsace) and unofficial capital of the Alsace wine region.

If I were inclined to let the way-off-season fully color my description of Colmar then it’s unlikely that I’d ever get over the view of Christmas trees that should have long been removed, leaning over on their stands on a ledge over the Lauch River by the covered market, looking like someone’s sad childhood memory. But I’m not that kind of guy.

Inside the covered market the market was very much alive. And throughout the old town, the pastel colored half-timbered houses were still unmistakably Alsatian, even if the geranium boxes, a regional signature, had been brought in for the winter. The Pfister Mansion (1537) and the House of Heads (1609) continued to speak of the wealth of merchants of centuries past.

I wore a coat while visiting the Unterlinden Museum, which occupies a 13th-century Dominican convent and which led me to think not of cold nuns but of hallucinating gangrene peasants. Why? Because Matthias Grunewald’s altarpiece, the museum’s piece de resistance, was created 500 years ago for a hospital in Issenheim that especially housed those suffering from poisoning from ergot, a fungus that develops in rye plant and thus transmitted through rye bread, a disease known as Saint Anthony’s fire.

The Issenheim Altarpiece is an extraordinarily expressive work of faith and disease, of hope and pain, and of pride and frailty. A traveler needn’t be especially fond of altarpieces or of early 16th-century religious art to be drawn into its scenes and colors and characters, especially with a knowledgeable guide or audio-guide. The altarpiece is the Mona Lisa of Colmar, both for its fame and for the fact that both works were created at about the same time in two very different cultures.

In February the Bartholdi Museum looked as though no one much cared anymore that Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904), who was born here, created the Mona Lisa of New York Harbor—The Statue of Liberty, aka Liberty Enlightening the World (1870-1886), whose copper skin hangs on a frame designed by Gustave Eiffel. A maintenance workr opened the doors and turned on the lights for me. I suspect that the museum doesn’t look very sprightly during the opening months of March through December either, just with better lighting. Still this is the chance to learn something of the man and to see a plaster cast of Liberty’s ear.

Furthermore, the seven monuments that he designed for Colmar can be seen when exploring the town. His most famous work in France is the Mona Lisa of Belfort—the Lion of Belfort (1870s)—in which a wounded lion, struggling to rise, represents the town of Belfort in its resistance to Prussian attacks during the France-Prussian War. The original is made of stone, while a bronze copy stands on Place Denfert-Rochereau in Paris’s 14th arrondissement. Bartholdi’s statue of Lafayette and Washing stands in the shade on Place des Etats-Unis in Paris’s 16th arrondissement.

Also closed during my visit, with no maintenance man in sight to let me in, was the Gothic Dominicans’ Church that houses Martin Schongauer’s The Madonna of the Rose Bush, 1473, Colmar’s second most popular chef d’oeuvre. I nevertheless give it a shout-out here ‘cause she’s so purty.

In February it was too early in the year to watch folk dancing in the streets or to sit outside in the cafes of the old town. But it was the season to enjoy a nice selection of coffee (and pastries) at the Colmar venue of the regional roaster/coffee (and tea) room with the politically incorrect name Les Cafés au Bon Nègre, upstairs at 9 rue des Tetes.

I stayed at the 4-star Hotel Marechal, a fine old-fashion romantic Alsatian hotel alongside the narrow Lauch River near the center of the old town. I could tell that I wasn’t in a standardized hotel as soon as I tried to find my room in the maze of hallways upstairs. The 24 rooms, named for composers, each has its own eclectic and more or less baroque style. The larger doubles, some with canopy beds, and the suites have Jacuzzi bathtubs. Prices varying in keeping with the wide variety of sizes, from 105€ to 255€ per night, plus 15€ with breakfast.

The hotel’s restaurant A L’Echevin has a sliver of seating overlooking the river. While there is more innovative cuisine served elsewhere in town, the setting and the classically polished cooking makes it a worthwhile stop whether staying at the hotel or not. The wine-paired tasting menu that evening maintained its good quality throughout (calf’s sweetbreads and crayfish with morel sauce; gilthead on a tomato and olive pie; duck breast with turnips and mashed celery; chocolate cake with strawberries and a green pepper sauce served with white chocolate ice cream). I hadn’t come to Colmar intent on reviewing the restaurant and so was pleasantly surprised by the quality.

Hotel Le Maréchal –  Restaurant A L’Echevin, 4/6 place des Six Montagnes Noires, 68000 Colmar. Tel. 03 89 41 60 32. See the hotel’s website for the current menu. The restaurant is open daily.

Unterderlinden Museum, 1 rue d’Unterlinden. Open May to Oct. daily 9am-6pm, Nov.-April daily except Tues. 9am-noon and 2-5pm. The Unterlinden is currently under renovation and expansion into the former public baths of Colmar, taking place from May 2012 to November 2013, but that’s not expected to affect the visibility of the altarpiece and other major pieces of the museum.

Bartholdi Museum, 26 rue des Marchands. Open daily May-Oct. and daily except Tuesday the rest of the year.

Dominicans’ Church, Place des Dominicains. Open April-Dec. 10am-1pm and 3-6pm, open without pause Fri. and Sat. from May to Oct..

Colmar Tourist Office, 4 rue Unterlinden.

© 2012, Gary Lee Kraut

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Known as the TGV Rhine-Rhone because it navigates between the two rivers, the new tracks specifically connect Dijon (Burgundy) with Mulhouse (Alsace), further linking two other high-speed lines: Paris-Lyon and Lyon-Mediterranean.

In addition to quickening inter-regional and international train travel, the three different branches—eastern, western and southern—also form an attractive come-hither for travelers looking to expand their horizons in France. Trip-planners, whether DIY or professional, can now take advantage of the more direct way in which Alsace (and Germany beyond) is now linked to the Mediterranean. The eastern branch links Alsace and Dijon via Belfort-Montbéliard and Besancon (Franche-Comté), little-known regions worth exploring. For those living in the Paris regions, these regions are now more accessible for weekend getaways.

Trips are now shortened by 90 minutes between Mulhouse and Marseille, as well as between Dijon and Strasbourg. Dijon is now only an hour and 25 minutes from Basel, Switzerland, and Lyon is just under five hours from Frankfurt.

Domestic trains feature first- and second-class seating, an organic and fair-trade bar menu, and an on-board bike storage area. International routes will include new Euro Duplex trains.

All aboard!

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1. Carnival in Nice
Nice’s Carnival, the 3-week period of parades leading up to Mardi Gras (March 8), is not the bacchanalian event that I expected when I was recently on the Riviera. Not that I thought it would be party city, but I did expect hints of spring break in Cancun here and there. Instead, I learned that the day and night parades are happy feasts for the eyes through rather subdued. Fun for whole family, I’d say. Here’s a spot-on report about it by a writer who has more than a few spring breaks under her belt.

2. Nice: A bar with a view
The pink dome of the Hotel Negresco is a landmark in Nice, but you can be turned away at the entrance when you want to go to the bar and you look like, well, me.

The lesson learned isn’t, however, that I’ll forever snub the Negresco (though that’s a thought) or that I should upgrade my wardrobe (though that’s worth considering) but that one needn’t wallow in rejection but instead enjoy a seat on the balcony of 7th-floor bar at the Clarion Grand Hotel Aston, which has a grand view over the city.

4. Colmar and Kaysersberg, Alsace
Colmar, I learned, is not the ideal February destination. It’s cold, the museum dedicated to the works of Bartholdi, creator of the Statue of Liberty, is closed, as is the Dominicans’ Church, home to the Madonna of the Rose Bower, so are some restaurants and a few hotels, the Unterlinden Museum is freezing, and the Christmas decorations still standing by the covered market look terribly sad.

In March and beyond, however, one can:
– take an excellent guided tour of the Unterlinden Museum and its masterpiece The Altarpiece of Issenheim without the crowds (keep your coat on).
– see a plaster cast of the Statue of Liberty’s ear in the Bartholdi Museum,
– have a fine dinner and the Jacuzzi bathtub at the old-fashion and romantic (in a 30th anniversary kind of way) Hotel Le Maréchal,
– take a bus to visit nearby a village such as Kaysersberg, again without the crowds, visit winemakers, eat kougelhopf (regional brioche), and enjoy a gastronomic meal at Olivier Nasti’s Le Chambard, then spend the night there.

The post Four French lessons I learned in February appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

Even when historians speak of Alsace-Lorraine they’re mainly speaking of the former, since all of Alsace was included in that once-disputed region but only a part of Lorraine.

Furthermore, there isn’t much of the way of distinctive Lorraine cuisine to promote outside of the region. Even in Paris, the only mention of Lorraine that you’ll ever find on a menu is quiche Lorraine.

Unlike L’Alsace, a winning, cliché-heavy restaurant on the Champs-Elysées that does an excellent job of promoting Alsatian cuisine, the brasserie La Lorraine, off the Champs on Place des Ternes, ignores its namesake in favor of brassy, upscale Parisian brasserie fare. And along the street in front of Paris’s Gare de l’Est, the East Station, from where trains to Alsace and Lorraine depart, the brasserie La Strasbourgeoise (named for the capital of Alsace) is another good choice for Alsatian fare while Le Bistro Lorrain is a…. pizzeria.

Truth be told, there isn’t much in the way of Lorraine cuisine even within the region, where the harsh soil has allowed for little culinary fantasy beyond pork dishes, including the pork-and-cabbage stew/potée Lorraine, and the famous, bacon-enhanced quiche Lorraine. There’s a good amount of perch and trout from the rivers but no special fish dish that has left a mark outside of the region. And with all due respect for its wine (vin gris de Toul and Moselle), its local beer-making traditions, and its spring water from Vittel, none of those drinks is cause alone to travel, as satisfying as they may be.

Lorraine as a name remains unevocative in part due to the historical incongruence of its cities: there’s photogenic Nancy, marked by Renaissance flourish, 18th-century refinement, and Art Nouveau curves; there’s Metz, which brings together French classicism and German monumentalism; there’s Verdun, which calls to mind the horror and sacrifice of the trenches of WWI. Each of those worthy destinations (to be explored in future articles in the Northeast France section this site) is easily accessible from Paris. Since 2007 high-speed trains from Paris can rush a traveler to Nancy or Metz in 1:30 or to Verdun in 1:40, but it’s unlikely that the traveler will think of himself as going to Lorraine but rather to Nancy or Metz or Verdun.

Nevertheless, inside Paris’s Gare de l’Est the boutique En passant par la Lorraine… attempts to evoke an unevocative region with what little there is to unify it: the mirabelle plum and a 16th century folk song.

En passant par la Lorraine is the name of that song. It’s a little ditty about a woman passing through Lorraine in her clogs and it has given the shop its name and its kitsch little clogs for sale. The mirabelle plum has given it most everything else.

If visiting France anytime mid-August through September, be sure to put on your list of food experiences a trip to any market to pick up some mirabelles, sweet yellow-golden plums that are likely to come from Lorraine, which assures about 80% of the world production. Also keep an eye out for mirabelle tarts in the bakeries.

Since En passant par la Lorraine… doesn’t sell fresh produce, you won’t find any fresh mirabelles here, or even a mirabelle tart, but you will find most anything else imaginable one can do with mirabelles. You’ll find them in jams, in preserved terrines, in canned stews, in mustard, in soap, in biscuits, in chocolate, in candy, in liqueur, in beer, and in brandy.

Two other traditional dry cakes from the region decorate the colorful shelves in this shop, Madeleines de Commercy and Marcarons des Soeurs, along with regional beer and brandy (eaux-de-vie), jams and preserves made from other regional fruits (particularly blueberries/myrtilles), and various fruit-flavored bon-bons (notably bergamots de Nancy), all with a regional bent.

For heated and/or refrigerated regional fare, you’ll have to go across the street from the train station and one region to the east to the deli-caterer Schmid, which considers itself “The ambassador of Alsatian gastronomy in Paris since 1904.” There you’ll find the staples of Alsatian culinary regional identity: choucroute (sauerkraut, served with potatoes and a choice of sausages, bacon, and/or pork), kuglehopf (a molded cake with raisins), Munster cheese, and strudel. Though 400,000 of Lorraine’s Mirabelle trees are “protected” by the appellation “Mirabelle de Lorraine,” plums don’t stop at the regional border, so Schmid offers the aforementioned mirabelle tarts. Canal Saint-Martin, a 10-minute walk from here, is the place of choice for a picnic in the area.

Both Lorraine and Alsace are known for their Christmas markets, which begin around December 6, the Feast of Saint Nicolas. An alleged relic of Saint Nicolas, his phalanx, was brought from Italy in the late 11th century to the Lorraine town that now goes by the name Saint Nicolas de Port. Eventually Nick was named patron saint of Lorraine. It’s nevertheless neighboring Alsace, evocative as it is, that most highly promotes its Christmas markets. In December stalls selling Alsatian food and products are set up in front of Gare de l’Est, led by sausages, Gewürztraminers, and Rieslings.

Lorraine is far more discreet. So the shop En passant par la Lorraine… is your best bet for information—and at least some bon-bons—if curious about the region or before taking the train east. Chances are 50-50 that you’ll come across manager Jean-Paul Lacroix, himself an excellent ambassador from the region. He can tell you (in English) the history of these various products, such as how candy made from bergamot oranges from Sicily came to be used in a specialty of Nancy. If asked politely, he might even sing a little song, as he did for me: En passant par la Lorraine/Avec mes sabots… oh oh oh, avec mes sabots.

© 2009, Gary Lee Kraut

Practical information

-Boutiques

En passant par la Lorraine… Gare de l’Est, 10th arr. Metro Gare de l’Est. Tel. 01 40 35 47 80. Open Mon.-Sat. 7am-8pm. En passant… has other shops, all in the Lorraine region.

Schmid 76 boulevard de Strasbourg, 10th arr. Metro Gare de l’Est. Tel. 01 46 07 89 74. Open Mon.-Fri. 9am-8pm, Sat. 8:30am-8pm.

-Restaurants

La Strasbourgeoise 5 rue du 8 mai 1945, 10th arr. Metro Gare de l’Est. Tel. 01 42 05 20 02. Open daily noon to midnight.

L’Alsace 39 avenue des Champs-Elysées, 8th arr. Metro Franklin D. Roosevelt. Tel 01 53 93 97 00.  Open 24/7.

La Lorraine 2 place des Ternes, 8th arr. Metro Ternes. Tel. 01 56 21 22 00. Open 7am-1am.

The post Looking for Lorraine in Paris and Finding Alsace along the Way appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

* * *

During my backpacking days in the early 80s, I developed a fondness for the bustle of European train stations, the excitement of currency change, the stock-broker-like fascination for the names up on the big board, the grandchild-like fascination with the old ladies in southern Europe who would watch your luggage for a small fee as you explored the city or went searching for a place to bed down, and the mild-to-pronounced seediness of the station neighborhood.

Each major station was different in that it represented that city or region or country yet clearly was connected with other places, people, and culture. Not only was the train station of Berlin or Paris or Belgrade or Rome specific in its own right, but the atmosphere of each lent itself to imagining stations, and all that went with them, elsewhere: Brussels, Amsterdam, Vienna, Rome, Prague, etc. Everywhere I went the grand station announced: You have arrived—and tomorrow you can be someplace totally different.

The early 80s was, in a sense, the tail end of post-war train travel, particularly in France with the arrival of the high-speed train or TGV that opened between Paris and Lyon in 1981. Extensions and new lines from Paris would follow: south to Nice, Montpellier, Bordeux; west to Brittany; north to Brussels and to London; east to Champagne, Lorraine and Alsace.

Paris is unique in Europe in that it sustains four train stations for long-distance regional and international traffic—Nord/North, Est/East, Lyon, and Montparnasse—and two for less distant regional traffic—St. Lazare and Austerlitz.

With each new tentacle of the TGV the corresponding train station in Paris has been renovated and modernized. The renovation of Gare de l’Est, the East Station, is the most recent of these.

Like other stations, Gare de l’Est and its surroundings have surrendered to progress the excitement, seediness, and currency exchange of French train stations as I remember them from the early 80s. What it has now is history, and a smooth ride to Lorraine and Alsace, and, for me, an easy walk home.

The post Train Stop: Paris Gare de l’Est appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.