Tour de French Cuisine-Stage 10 Limoges to Issoudun; French lentils

 

After a rest day on Monday the Tour has now traveled by plane to Limoges located in the Limousin region toward the center of France. Limoges brings to mind one thing with me, tiny boxes and china. It is the white Kaolin clay found in the 18^th century in Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche just outside of Limoges that is used as the base of Limoges china. Limoges porcelain has a recipe of 50% Kaolin clay, 25% feldspar and 25% quartz and gives it the extreme whiteness and translucence and what gave Limoges its high prestige and value it has earned.  Limoges also has a history of making another piece of art, enamels and cloisonnes.  Created by soldering thin pieces of metal to a base to outline a design and normally done on gold which worked better then on copper. Painted enamels are created by painting directly on the enamel that covers a copper plate.  The Musee Municipal de l’Eveche-Musee de l’Email has examples of Limoges enamels dating back to the 12^th century. My grandmother collects Limoges boxes and she has given me a few over the years, since it is perfect for the Tour de France the Eiffel Tour and the Arc de Triumph have a place of prominence in the house.

 

 

Near the Vallee de la Creuse and the Foret de Chabrieres is the town of Gueret.  The count of Lantaire founded a monastery here in the 8^th century, located at the base of the Grandcher hill. Gueret became the capital of the county of La March in 1514 and has been the administrative center ever since. The nearby Foret de Chabrieres has an animal park where you can see wolves as well be there for feeding time at 4pm. I think I would maybe avoid the feeding time, but I am pretty sure that they must have a fence between you and the wolves.

 

 

Just 105 kilometers from the start is the small village of Bonnat. This picturesque village has never been part of the Tour de France since it began in 1903. Bonnat was a part of the 100 year war that began in 1337 with the Church Saint Sylvain being built to help ward off the English. It now stands in the center of town and is a protect monument, all the way down to the furniture inside the building.

 

Passing through the small village of Nohant-Vic near the Indre Valley has a lovely little square with century-old elm trees. Nohant was home to novelist Amandine-Aurore-Lucille Dupin who went by the pseudonym George Sand.  After moving to Paris she began to write for Figaro and then later her first novel, Indiana which was written in 1832.  She continued to write novels and plays later completing 70 novels, and 25 plays and had become an inspiration to many women writers. She died in 1876 and was buried on the grounds of her family home in Nohant and now is a museum that can be visited daily. The Maison de George Sand is the country estate that was built in 1760 and dedicated to the memory of George Sand and the many visitors she had including Chopin, painter Delacroix and Fromentin and many more. The house has remained much unchanged since the 19^th century  including the room on the second floor where she passed away on June 8, 1876.

 

 

The finish town of Issoudun sits in the Indre department of the Centre region of France. Going all the way back to Gaulish times and later, during the Middle Ages Issoudun became the base of many battles. The most famous was between Phillip Augustus and Richard the Lion Heart in 1195. The most visible site in Issoudun is the Tour Blanche, a tower built at the end of the 12^th century by Richard the Lion Heart and located in the middle of the gardens of the town hall. The round 92 foot high tower houses a museum with a guide tour of the vaulted hall and a room devoted to the Hundred Years War and a view over the town and the surrounding country and valleys.  In 1917 the US Air Service built the largest training center in Europe just outside of Issoudun, the 3^rd Aviation Instruction center. At the time of the Armistice in November 11, 1918 it housed student pilots and instructors and over 9,000 ground personnel and thirteen fields and was the largest airbase in the world.  The airbase was closed on June 28, 1919 and today a monument remains on Route 960 to immortalize Issoudun’s part of the First World War

 

Another landmark in Issoudun is the factory for the luxury brand Louis Vuitton that was established in 1854. Louis Vuitton the man was born in 1821 and traveled from his home on the edge of France in Switzerland by foot to Paris. When he arrived in Paris he picked up a job as a Layetier (a trunk-maker) later catching the eye of Napoleon III of France and became the Layetier to his wife Eugenie de Montijo. Louis Vuitton the brand was introduced in 1853 and began with making flat bottom trunks instead of the round trunks that most of them were at the time that made it more difficult to stack. Almost immediately others started to imitate the LV style. Louis Vuitton passed away in 1892 and the company went to his son George. In 1987 Louis Vuitton joined the group Moët et Chandon and Hennessey and has become the largest luxury brand group in the world.

With the Tour traveling through the Loire Valley there is so much to offer in the way of food. The Loire Valley is known as the “garden of France” and with its massive size and stretching from the Atlantic coast to the center of France there is something for ever pallet. One of the best things to come out of the region is the Champignons de Paris, a button mushroom that was first grown for the markets of Paris. When it was discovered that the cliffs along the Loire made for a perfect growing spot they became a specialty of the Loire. A wonderful way to enjoy them is to roast them over a wood fire (or oven) filled with butter, garlic and parsley.

 

The Berry region of the Loire is known for its goat cheese. The log shaped ash covered Ste-Maure de Touraine AOC and the Pouligny-St-Pierre AOC is a narrower pyramid shape and is nicknamed the Eiffel Tower, mottled and blueish outside with a white within are some of the favorites of the region. The cows milk cheeses include Feuille de Dreux is a soft flat cheese with a chestnut leaf on top, and washed rind Port-Salut and Cure Nantais are some of the ones that you can find from the region.

 

What goes better with cheese then wine? The Loire Valley varies in wine from the Muscadet of Nantes near the Atlantic coast to Vouvray just outside of Tours in the central part of the Loire valley. It may be the central vineyards of the Loire that has some of my favorite wines. Home to Sauvignon Blanc which is the perfect match to the Crottin de Chavignal goat’s cheese, Vouvray produces still and sparkling wine from Chenin that are anywhere from dry to very sweet depending on the vintage. Some of the best Sauvignons that come from the central vineyards of the Loire Valley are Sancerre, Pouilly-Fume and Menetou Salon and each have many producers in their specific area.

 

French lentils are known around the world and can easily be found, normally they are in the US supermarkets as a style of lentils, but if you look you can actually find lentils grown in France and sold in the states as well. Lentils are grown in more than one place in France, the Puy de Dome lentils of the Auvergne are some of the most well known but the same lentils are grown in the Berry province of the Loire Valley as well and are known as the Berry Lentils.  Lentils are a very easy item to cook and add to any meal and the flavors are easy to change by just adding other ingredients. The Romans called lentils the “poor man’s meat” it is high in fiber, protein and vitamin B.  Lentils cook up very easily and make a great pairing with fish, chicken and pork.  I make a very easy and standard lentil recipe and you can add your own flavors to it as well.

 

You will need:

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 carrot, coarsely chopped

1 teaspoon of herbs de Provence

1 cup of lentils

2 cups of broth

Salt and pepper

 

Chop the onion and cook in some butter over a medium heat until tender and slightly translucent. Add in the carrots and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add in the herb de Provence, sauté a few minutes until fragrant, add in the lentils and the *broth. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and cover for 10 to 25 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

 

*depending on what you will pair it with, depends on the broth. If I am pairing it with fish I normally use a vegetable stock, but a chicken stock would work as well.