Armagnac II - In the heart of Bas Armagnac

Square Labastide d'Armagnac

Here in the Landes region you don't drink whisky or cognac, you drink Armagnac as a digestive after dinner. Armagnac is the oldest eau de vie made in France and has been produced since medieval times. To make Armagnac you need white wine, a column still for the distillation and lots of patience - because most of them are stored for over ten years!

The Armagnac region stretches over three regions, Landes, Gers and Lot-et-Garonne. Within three areas exist, Bas Armagnac, Ténarèze and Haut Armagnac. It is commonly acknowledged that the finest Armagnac comes from the area Bas Armagnac in Landes.

But I'm not finished yet. Within the Bas Armagnac area there is still one more area to consider, the Grand Bas Armagnac, or the golden triangle, which is considered the very best area to make an excellent Armagnac. So that's the place we went to in order to visit an Armagnac producing farm.

On the way we visited the medieval village Labastide d'Armagnac. It seemed surprisingly quiet and free from tourists and cheap souvenirs. When Aliénor d'Aquitaine got married with Henri Plantagenet, Gascogne came under English power and in 1291 Labastide d'Armagnac was founded by the count of Armagnac Bernard VI. The place is very typical with its square format and the covered arcades. The legend says it inspired Henri IV to create the well known square place des Vosges in Paris.

After our Armagnac tasting at Ferme de Labouc - I'll tell you about that in the next post -  we took a quick look at Saint Justin, five kilometres further on, another lovely medieval village. We tried the Hôtel de France restaurant and had a fantastic lunch for 13 euros. Very animated, you could see it was a place with lots of people from the neighbourhood - always a sure sign you have found a good place.

Front restaurant Hôtel de France

Starter

Duck

Merlu

Dessert

Front detail in Saint Justin

Armagnac I - on a mission

Going to Armagnac is always a day well spent in this beautiful region, but nowadays I'm also on a mission. I am working with a Swedish travel agency to set up a program with visits for three days, one day i Pau, the birth town of Bernadotte, the first Swedish king from that family, and two days in the Armagnac area.
I am planning the sort of trip I would like to make myself, with a mix of wine, Armagnac, duck liver and course landaise... and some royal history in Pau. The program is not totally finalized yet, but it will be for the 9-11 of September 2010. Those who know me know I am a seasoned organizer, but this is actually the first time I am organizing outside the friends and family circle, so I am very excited to see how it all will turn out!

I really hope that the program will be something extra, with a very personal selection of sites to visit, emphasizing on meeting authentic and passionate people, experiencing this living agricultural region and of course enjoying life the way we do it here in the Southwest. I want to show off my adoptive country to my fellow Swedes! Autumn here is often very beautiful and warm, the vineyards are full of heavy grapes and the tourists are getting scarce. Perfect time to come here, don't you think?

Armagnac is not only about the alcohol Armagnac, but it is difficult to come here without tasting some Armagnac! It belongs to the same family as cognac, but the production process is a bit different. The big difference is that Armagnac is a small scale production, not industrial like cognac. The best Armagnac come from family owned small producers. And the best area is Bas-Armagnac in Landes.

My village Castets, surrounded by heather and pine trees

The church, close to our house

Castets, the village where I live, is a small village with 2000 inhabitants. It's not a sea side resort, like Moliets, Hossegor or Vieux Boucau, because it is situated nearly 20 km from the coast. When you pass the exit on the motorway you only see the industrial centre, which is ugly, so passing by will not make you make to visit! But if you happen to go there, you will find a nice village with a life all year along. The villages along the coast are full of people during the tourist season, but can be kind of spooky during winter, when many of the houses are shut down.

The town hall

When we came to settle down in Aquitaine, we were first looking into the Pays Basque region, but prices were really extravagant and we started looking further north. Our idea was to find a house somewhere between Bayonne, Dax and Peyrehorade, which is the most southern part of Landes, touching the Pays Basque. But a very smart real estate agent took us here and we fell in love with the house and the garden. I also liked that is was close to the highway, close to a train station and in between two airports. Actually, the emplacement of Castets is ideal for making day trips. It takes us an hour to go to Bordeaux, an hour to San Sebastian in Spain, 1 hour 20 minutes to Pau and 30 minutes to Bayonne. I also love being close to the beaches and having lakes nearby. Castets is a great place to live.

Hiking among the pine trees

If you want to stay here, I recommend the Maison Bitche, a manoir style house in a parc with pool. Or if you want to be in a really quiet place in the middle of pine trees, try the Gahoun a couple of kilometers outside of Castets.

The photos are courtesy of the Tourist offfice of Castets - a good place to get information about current events. They are very friendly and helpful!

Cooking lesson with a great chef

Working in the kitchen

My husband got a cooking lesson as a gift for Christmas. With Jean Coussau, the legendary chef at Relais de la Poste in Magescq. The restaurant has a solid reputation and two Michelin stars for its traditional southwest cuisine. Since two of his best friends got the same gift, they shared a gourmet moment - and the wives stayed at home with the children...

The entrance to Relais de la Poste

When they got back we tried to get some information about their experience. Happy smiles told us part of the story, but we wanted details!

M. Coussau had given them some clues to great food... the most important being to have excellent quality on the ingredients - not a big surprise, but when they saw that he only used Beurre d'Echire, one of the most expensive and well known butters in France, you start to get the point. He, and his chef in charge, also taught them some small secrets... like to put cooked vegetables in a pot with cold water and ice cubes, to stop the cooking process and keep their colour, to use both salt, sugar and butter when cooking all vegetables but the green ones, or how to cut a live lobster and open live scallops.... or how much butter you really need to make a sauce. We compared with the official version in his cook book and you just have to multiply by four to get more or less the right amount...

Scallops and truffles with celery mash for starter

They made a starter with scallops and truffles, a main course with lobster and the cake part - called Russe - of the pistascho dessert. The lesson ended with them enjoying the fruit of their labour with some local wine. 

Bretagne lobster

Triple pistaschio dessert, cake, ice cream and soufflé.

Jean Coussau to the very right. His main chef next to him. The others are happy students.

Barefoot in February

Who wants to swim? I shouted, jokingly. But as both kids answered I do! I felt a bit bad. We had taken the car to the lake in Léon, a cute village about ten minutes from our place. The lake was perfectly still, the sun was shining and if if the temperature didn't pass 12 degrees, it felt warm... and the water looked very inviting!

So when they asked to take off their shoes, I said yes. What is it about sand that makes all children go crazy? Mine have spent thousands of hours playing in the sand and they're still not tired of sand....

Oyster love - how to eat them

Finally, we arrive at that magic moment, with a platter of oysters standing in front of you. I don’t have to worry about opening them, because at our place it’s my husband who opens them. I know that he uses a special oyster knife and a folded cloth to protect his hand and that it takes a while…. Oysters should be alive when you eat them and shut firmly when you touch them.

Back to the platter. First I admire the beauty of the scene and then I tip my head slightly to inhale the nice, salty smell. It looks like I am just enjoying the aroma, which I am, but I also do this to check that they are alright! The smell should be fresh and salty, nothing else. Once you have tasted oysters you’ll understand what I mean. Then I take my lemon and carefully add a couple of drops on each oyster. The lemon is a seasoning, but I also check that each oyster reacts to the acid with a tiny movement. You observe this easiest close to the borders. Maybe I seem a little bit paranoid, but after all the stories I heard about people being sick after eating bad oysters, I do what I can to ensure that my oysters are in perfect health. Until I gulp them down that is.

Now I pick up my oyster and with a special fork I tear at the muscle that keeps the oyster attached to its shell. A knife or an ordinary fork works too, no worries. And then, hop, down it goes! You can also drink it down from the shell… looks very professional!

Lemon is a classic seasoning for oysters, but I actually prefer shallot vinegar… in a restaurant most places serve it as an option. At home, it is very easy to make yourself, check here for a recipe for shallot vinegar and two more sauces. It also contains a description of how to open them.

Course landaise, spectacular cow jumping

Not only Americans love rodeo games of various kinds, the French too! In my region Landes the culture of tauromachie is very strong. The bulls and cows participate in different ways during the village festivals, including corrida like in Spain, course landaise and the game toropiscine. I’ll start by explaining the course landaise, a mix between show and sport, with a total respect for the animals involved.

In course landaise a man meets a cow (of the fierce corrida breed) in a sand covered closed arena. He calls and whistles to catch her attention and triggers an attack. When she’s running at him, he should wait until the last possible moment and move to the side to avoid her OR jump above her in a predefined figure. The cows are not hurt in any way and the best cows participate for over ten years – this has nothing to do with the cruelty of the corrida!

When you see how fast and aggressive these cows are, you cannot help admiring the men that stand alone in front of them. They are not as heavy as the male bulls, but a lot faster! And the toreador has at least a red piece of cloth to distract the bull, while the men in front of the cows have nothing.

Course landaise is an old tradition in Landes. Already in 1457 there were cows and bulls running in the streets in Saint-Sever. Initially the streets or a place were shut off before the cows entered, but at the end of the 18hundreds, the streets were abandoned in favour of built up arenas. It was also at that time the participants adopted their clothing of today, white trousers and a coloured bolero decorated with gold or silver glitter.

It remains the main attraction at the 450 village festivals that take place every year in Landes. I love the joyous atmosphere and the electricity in the air. After all, sometimes a participant is badly injured… every moment the danger is real.

On the photos you see a rope attached to the cow's horns. It is a security measure and also used to position the cow.  Photos by François Quillacq

Shopping in Saint-Jean-de-Luz with the girls

The rain was pouring down, but more was needed to keep us from pursuing our long time set mission to go to Saint-Jean-de-Luz for the last days of after Christmas sales! The idea was anyway to spend more time in the shops than outside...

We did find some real bargains. I bought some short boots for 20 euros, the girls found lovely white tops with dentelles... We did the whole rue Gambetta, the main shopping street, and on a side street we found a workshop/shop called Atelier Manufactoum where they make beautiful things in leather and tissue, like bags, bracelets.... The owner comes from Hermès, which shows in the details and the finish.

We had lunch at the basque restaurant Chez Kako where we sat down at the wooden table in a typical bistro feeling, joyful noise, people almost touching each other at the tables. We had parrillada de poisson, an assortment of three different fried fish with mushroom risotto.... need I say more... 10,50 euros including coffee!

To finish off the day we then headed to the shopping centre i Bayonne called BAB2. I found a lovely blue silk dress, a skirt for five euros... and we had such a good time just chatting and commenting each others outfits... I already look forward to our next time to go shopping, this time for the new spring collections...!

The beach, a world of its own

Marram grass and buckwheat around it

Seriously, when it's raining this much, you need some beach nostalgia more than anything else. Let's go back to the Contis beach and have a closer look! Because at first, when you see that long white beach stretching out, it’s like a desert. Just sand, nothing else. But when you start looking, there are many things to discover, both animal and vegetal.
The Atlantic coastal area in my region, Landes, is to a great extent a protected area. The balance between then sandy shore and the pine forest next to it is fragile. The plants have a hard time growing in the salty air in the sand, but they play an important role to maintain the sand dunes in place and avoid the sand from spreading further inland.

Another important role is played by that disgraceful debris you see washed up on the beach. A mix of dead crabs, wood and algae. It's no pretty sight, but it gives food and protection to a whole world of small animals that live on the beach and to the birds.

The sand beach is a particular landscape, very beautiful when you look closer. Please respect the signs to protect it, do not pick any plants or flowers from the dunes and don’t walk outside the indicated paths - to keep this beautiful place as it is!

Along the coast you can find 300 different kinds of crustacean. Some examples from Clara’s collection.

Sea spurge

Prickly saltwort, I believe

Sea holly

Horseriding in the ocean waves

There are plenty of places to go horseriding nearby and I've been wanting for ages to go riding by the ocean... but most places only accept experienced riders for those outings.

Our guide Philippe

But in September 2009 I managed do make my dream come pretty much true... with Nadine, a friend, and Philippe, the owner of Atlantic Equitation in Contis, situated about two kilometers from the sea. Just by looking at my photo I think you understand that Philippe is a superguide, passionate about his horses and about this region.

On one of those beautiful days he took us through a haven of pine trees with heather and ferns. The calm of the forest, the smell of the pine trees. Heaven.

Then we arrived at the Contis stream, a stream that gathers several small water streams and lead up to the ocean. We took the horses through the water in the stream, with water upp to our thighs, all the way up to the dunes and the ocean... glittering in the sun. Suddenly the salty smell of the ocean, the wind in our hair. The horses walked out in the waves of the ocean and we just.... sat there in AWE, holding on to a very precious moment. There is no picture from that moment, because Philippe didn't want us, beginners, to go galopping on the beach and that was exactly what the horses wanted to do, so I held on firmly to my reins! But for me, this moment will stay in my head for a long, long time...

Here I have my back to the ocean and look at the Contis stream. The water is low so the boats are a bit tipped

We galopped several times on the way back home, but shorter distances in the forest, which honestly probably was enough of an adrenaline kick for me anyway... but I still dream of galopping away on the beach one day!

The next day, another magical sunny day, I returned with the children.

Clara on top of a blockhaus, left by the Germans since they tried to protect the shore during the second world war.

Somebody out fishing

Details of the stone wall that keeps the Contis stream in place. All the streams leading out to the ocean, except one, Courant d'Huchet, are kept in place like this, because otherwise they move south every year because of the Golf stream current.

The Contis lighthouse. The only lighthouse along the Landes coast. During summertime it is open for visitors and if you walk up the 196 steps you have a mighty view as a reward!

Contis is a small sea resort. Perect if you are in for a quiet family vacation, swimming in the ocean, riding on your bike. 

Drink Madiran wine and live longer

Red wine is supposed to be good for your cardiovascular health - in a moderate consumption pattern of course. But did you know that the Madiran wines are supposed to be healthier than the others? They presumeably contain twice as much of the healty ingredients as a normal red wine! This is one part of the French paradox, that Frenchmen stay slim and have fewer heart problems even though their diet is high in saturated fats. The other part, in my opinion, has to do with duck fat, but I'll get back to that.
According to Times, 30th of November 2006, the Madiran wines contain 2-4 times more of procyanidines compared to other red wines. That means that two small glasses of wine daily, is enough to lower a high blood pressure. Le Quotidien du medecin, a French medicine magazine, said in December 2006 that these ingredients are good for your heart too. The explanation to all this lies in the grape tannat.

The wine district Madiran is situated across three departements, Gers, Pyrénées Atlantiques and Landes, north of Pau in Aquitaine. Not in the mountains, but on hills where the vineyards benefit from a mild sea climate and clay mixed with chalk.

In the Madiran wine district, four kinds of grapes are allowed. First the famous tannat, which represent 40-50 percent of the total volume. The grape tannat gives the unique taste and structure to the wine. It is often mixed with cabernet franc and cabernet sauvignon, to obtain more softness and finesse. The fourth grape, fer servadou, is rarely used.

This dominating grape tannat makes the young Madiran pretty rough and tough. They need to be stored for at least 2-3 years before they are ready to be drunk. Madiran is actually the only wine with a compulsory storage of minimum one year. It is easy to get hooked on Madiran wine. The tannat grape has something special and once you get used to it... other wines easily seem.... bland. It is a wine that might seem too much on its own, when you are wine tasting without food, but try combining with some meat and you will understand what I mean by getting hooked!

In the same district you will also find a white wine, Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh, a very nice white wine that is close to the Jurançon wines in taste. That hint of acidity that does it! The grapes allowed are arrufiac, gros manseng, petit manseng, courbu, sauvignon and sémillon. The dry white wines have a hint of acidity and a freshness that I adore. The half dry and sweet ones still have that acidity but coupled with aromas of almond and exotic fruits. The sweet wines are obtained by letting the grapes dry out on the branches, concentrating the aromas... but do not mix them up with the dried Sauternes grapes, rottened by a mushroom... these ones are simply dried.

Tannat photo from Wikipedia

Oyster love - how to order oysters

Let’s imagine you have decided to try oysters – maybe after reading my story. You open the menu.... and realise that just asking for oysters will not be enough. You have to be more specific. Frenchmen are not difficult about food – yeah sure - but they are very precise.

Let me guide you through the three basic parts of determining what oysters to order. First of all you need to know that oysters are classified by size from 0-5, where 0 is the biggest and 5 the smallest. The most demanded size is 3 - not too big, not too small – and also my personal preference. If you hesitate, take the smaller size.
Next step is to understand the other classification, which basically takes into account the part of meat compared to the weight of the whole oyster. On the menu you will see:

• huîtres fines : flat oysters with a quota between 6,5 and 10,5;
• huîtres spéciales : quota above 10,5 ;
• huîtres fines de claire: the oysters have been in clear water for at least one month with 40 oysters per m2;
• huîtres spéciales de claire : the oysters have been in clear water for 4-5 months with 5-10 oysters per m2

Third step is to choose the origin of your oysters. Different breeding places give different taste. Do you want an oyster from Bretagne, from Arcachon, from Marenne-Oléron….? I would say you have to try different origins to see what pleases you the most, but basically the flat oyster comes from Bretagne and the southeast of France and they have a saltier taste with more iodine, while the Japanese oyster is the most common elsewhere. From the Arcachon bay in Aquitaine the most reputed ones come from the Arguin sandbank, the breeding place that is the closest to the open sea.

The best time for eating oysters is late autumn until early spring. In summer the oysters get milky due to their reproduction and the taste is not so good. If they suggest oysters called Quatre Saisons, because you can eat them all year, you should know that they are genetically modified and cannot reproduce. Personally I prefer to follow the seasons and eat normal oysters!

Sorry, this got a bit long…. I’ll make a new post to talk about the next step, what to do when you finally have that platter of oysters in front of you...

Open Japanese oyster photo from Wikipedia

Merqueyssac, 150 000 hand-pruned boxwoods

Or when somebody completely goes nuts! You can really ask some questions about where the idea of creating this came, but the result is awesome. This is a truly magical place. And the view is incredible.

I'm talking about the Merqueyssac garden, close to Roque Gageac, in the Dordogne region. According to tradition the garden was designed by the famous gardener Le Nôtre. But it is the owner of the castle from 1861, Julien de Cerval, who created most of today's garden by planting tens of thousands of buxboms. He was a passionate lover of gardens and inspired from travels to Italy. After his death, the gardens grew wild and it took a hefty renovation project to restore them and open them for the public in 1997. And five fulltime working gardeners just for the ongoing pruning work...

I was quite hesitating about going here. A garden, how interesting can it be? Especially with the children. But David at our hotel in Sarlat insisted and told me I would not regret going there. He was right, I believe almost anyone can be fascinated by the madness of the project and the beauty of the resulting romantic garden on top of a spur overlooking the Dordogne valley and some of the most famous villages around.

We walked through the gardens all the way to the view point, about a kilometre. From that spot you have a vast view over Roque Gageac, Beynac, Domme and the Castelnaud castle. Sublime.

Seemed silly, but I really appreciated the little bus that came to pick us up and took us back to the castle. There we passed the café terrace that looked lovely. Next time I would love to come back on a Thursday evening in summer, when they lit up the whole garden with thousands of candles along the pathways.

Official site for the Merqueyssac gardens

The gardens measure 22 hectares and includes over 6 km of walking paths. Open every day the whole year. The gardens are situated in Vézac. Possible to walk around with a light buggy, like I did. And the children loved the labyrinths created by the buxboms...

Photos of the gardener and the candles: Laugéry.