A SUMMER ADVENTURE IN SOUTHERN FRANCE
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A “FOODLOGUE” FROM TULLY HALL
PART ONE
Tully Hall spent 11 days in an old stone house built on a hill overlooking the Mediterranen Sea jjust outside of Nice on the Cote d'Azur. His aunt and uncle arranged a house swap for the stone house in the town of Saint-Blaise with their home in Costa Rica for this chance of a lifetime! Tully's uncle is a gourmet cook and the meals they ate were marvelous!
The Adventure Begins…
Sunday, August 8th
I’m here in the international terminal waiting for my boarding call for my non-stop flight to London. The trip through security was a breeze. I found my gate and made my way to the nearest bar.
My copy of The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury is calling to me from beneath my passport and boarding pass; as though it is reminding me that the flight to Europe is not the only journey I can make today.
Sunday, August 8th
It’s 8:30 at night and we are somewhere between Boston and Montreal at about 37,000 feet above the earth. I know that at some point I’ll need to try and get to sleep, but part of me just wants to try and stay awake as long as I can. It’s a small part, but it’s there nonetheless.
Monday, August 9th
Made it to Heathrow without further issue. After security I found a breakfast stop that looked promising called Huxley’s Bar & Kitchen. A very energetic Frenchman jokingly offered a double whiskey on the rocks (it was 9am….I think). He didn’t know who he was dealing with. I took him up on his offer and paired my morning medicine with an order of Scottish smoked salmon, scrambled eggs, toast, and a pot of Earl Grey.
Looking forward for the air travel part of this journey to be finished. Wish I could have pulled off the train trip from here to nice.
Next time…
Tuesday, August 10th
It’s beautiful today. Gentle breezes blowing through the mountains. Partly cloudy skies are keeping the sun mostly at bay. Birds chirping, bees buzzing, and the occasional chiming of the church bells down one of the valleys in the town of Saint-Blaise..
Was able to say up till about 10pm (I think) before passing out in my room. I’m living in the basement bedroom next to the bathroom. Very tricky stairs to climb down and very low ceilings at times. Adventurous!
Dinner last night was green beans and duck medallions. The duck had been cooked in its own fat and was superb. The beans had been doused with duck fat as well, so were equally excellent. Salad was served in the French way with a wide array of unpasteurized cheeses. Knowing that I would soon be dead from all of this, I ate lots of everything. Never ending wine, and a dessert of homemade lemon sorbet with fresh raspberries on top; the recipe was one of the home-owners’.
Going to spend most of the day enjoying the weather and reading my book. Maybe I’ll go for a walk. Not sure. Don’t care. Just going with it.
The original stone oven for the house, built in the 1600s.
Morning view
Tuesday, August 10th
While waiting for other family members to arrive, we drove down the hill to the village of Saint-Blaise. It is a VERY small village center. We did find a small bodega with bread and wine and milk, and a very black cat stretched out on the floor. The wonderfully friendly woman behind the counter greeted us warmly and ,after some quick back and forth French ,she told us that we could have found lettuce there if we had come earlier in the day.
Harry and I loaded the goodies in the car and sat on a shady bench in front of the Town Hall and the church (the source of the charming bells we hear every hour echoing through the hills and valleys) to wait.
The clouds had turned a bit dark by then and the occasional deep rumble of thunder would roll through the hills but no rain. Eventually I received an email they had bypassed Saint-Blaise and gone straight to the house.
So we headed up the switch backs to the house. The first bottle of wine was opened to greet the newly arrived family members. A wonderful rosé. Rosés are popular this time of year because of their light body and sweet flavor, and that they’re served chilled.
While dinner simmered in the kitchen, we all stepped on to the back patio and munched on olives, pistachios, and little meat snacks. Wine continued to flow, and the view to the West darkened as storm clouds continued to look threatening but not actually do anything.
We ate dinner out front under the grape vines and colored lights. A runny but delicious Epoisses torte (ham, tons of epoisses cheese, and chopped red apples served in a pie crust), leek and orange soup, and more homemade lemon sorbet for dessert.
The dinner table covered by the grape vines and an array of colored lights. Beyond the tree line is the valley toward Saint-Blaise
Wednesday, August 11th
Wednesday was more productive than Tuesday. Had breakfast with everyone and we all got ready to head out for the day. We drove to a place called Vence. A very old city with, apparently, an interesting chapel to see. Found parking and walked through the narrow cobblestone alleyways to the very center of Vence. Along the way we passed a movie scene being filmed, as well as a very French scene (in my mind at least). A woman hanging out of her 3rd story window, cigarette in hand, drying laundry on the line between buildings, chatting with a woman across the 10’ wide alleyway. I love these moments; these very French moments. The moments that I know will always stick with me. Scenes that I will most likely never see anywhere else.
We made it to the quite uninteresting chapel in the center of Vence and met up the family stragglers and made our way to the restaurant in front of the chapel where we sat and had lunch.
I had the 28€ menu and chose to start with the foie gras, followed by the roast lamb chop (served with real pommes frites), and topped off with their cheese plate for dessert. All washed down with 50cl of their Provence rouge. C’est magnifique! Too expensive for the quality of the food, but magnifique nonetheless.
Lamb chops.
Headed on to a nearby village called Saint Paul, home of La Fondation Maeght featuring an exhibition of Alberto Giacometti. Good stuff of his, and not a lot of foreign tourists. Mostly French tourists. Probably due to the economy.
After the museum we headed to the Carrefour super market, which is quite literally more akin to an indoor strip mall with a Walmart. You want it….they have it. Picked up more wine, cheese, and other necessities our resident chef’s next creation, and headed back up the winding mountain road to the house.
Dinner that night was a ground lamb, pine nut, and something pizza, along with something green (a side dish). Everything was, as usual, second to none. The wine kept flowing and the conversation only stopped because we all got tired.
A narrow alleyway in Vence
Friday, August 13th
Around 13:00 we all meandered on our own timetable to the kitchen to make ham and cheese sandwiches on baguettes with Havarti cheese and zesty Dijon. Accompanied by some plain chips and a Heineken, Susan, Evelyn, and I sat on the back lawn enjoying our lunch and planning the rest of the afternoon.
We all retired for a nap after our strenuous morning and woke up around 15:30 to head in to Saint-Blaise center for more wine (we were….gasp….out), and to take in some local culture. The epicerie was closed until 4ish (part of the French 2 to 3 to 4 hour lunch breaks) so we went to the local moulin à huile (oil mill). This mill dates back to the 18th century, and was making olive oil “the old fashioned way” (water wheel, then donkey around an axle, then electric motor) as recently as 1980. Olive oil was the main crop for Saint-Blaise.
Olthe olive oil press. The donkey and then electric motor axle at the mill.
After the quick tour we headed back down the hill to Saint-Blaise center and found the epicerie just opening. We stormed the gates and bought four bottles of wine. Then remembering that one cannot live on wine alone, we moused around and collected a few select cheeses, a couple baguettes, lettuce, and nectarines.
Dinner tonight had been started early this morning by uncle. He made his Moroccan Chicken dish. A whole chicken stuffed with a lemon, cooked in a tagine (a stoneware “pointed hat” looking container) set in the oven for about 2 hours. Garnished and cooked with tomatoes, olives, leeks, onions, garlic, parsley, and a load of other seasons. Side dishes were white rice, and sliced carrots with garlic. Again….delicious!!
After dinner we ate cheese with slices of baguette and/or fruit, and a salad course. My favorite cheese is the Époisses. I can’t do it justice, but it is gooey and smokey, and has a rind of fermented wine. Tomorrow night I think we’ll just eat bread and cheese.
After cheese, we noticed that for the first time since I’ve been here we were going to have some semblance of a sunset. It was mostly obscured by clouds, but it was definitely the right choice to move back to the back lawn for dessert and coffee. We sat there for hours just watching the sun go down and sky get darker. Tomorrow brings a new set of adventures. I don’t know what they are since my head was in the clouds tonight and I couldn’t be bothered to listen in.
Moroccan Chicken before being covered to marinate for the day.
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Moroccan chicken ready to be served. So many flavors….so delicious!
Sunset
Saturday, August 14th
Today was another close to home day. The treacherousness of the roads and the distance just to get out of the mountains is rather prohibitive. The morning forecast said rain all day, and the day started with drizzles and overcast.
So we drove a few kilometers to the village of Aspermont. Considered one of the villages perches (perched villages) of the Cote d’Azur region it had spectacular views of the valley and river below. Lots of narrow, stone lined, alleyways with charming homes throughout. There were the remnants of a battlement and where the Château had been atop the battlement, a small cement basketball court had been set up for the local school children to play in, and the local dogs to poop in. On the South side of the battlement was a great view of the Mediterranean.
While in Aspermont we stopped at the small open air market that sets up every Saturday. Fresh veggies, amazing cheeses, and cured meats for sale and sample. We bought some more cheeses and sausages for dinner tonight before heading back to Saint-Blaise for our lunch reservation and a highly recommended restaurant. The place is only open if they have reservations so we had to stop by a couple days before to let them know we would be there.
We arrived in town a little earlier than our reservation, so we went to the epicerie first to buy wine. Needing to stock up for the rest of the weekend (tomorrow is the Feast of the Assumption, and we’re told most of France shuts down).
Our reservation was for 1pm and we were ushered into the dining room and ordered a bottle of Rose for the table. We ordered from the prix fixe menu (we all ordered the rabbit) and left us to wait for the first course.
The appetizers arrived- sliced ham with cantaloupe cubes. We munched and sipped enjoying the ambience of this very cozy restaurant. It was around this time we realized that the menu was a full seven courses. The next dish to arrive was a big bowl of chick-peas with chopped up onions, a few slices of carrot, and some olive oil. I would have been happy if that was the main dish, it was that good. Next came a large plate of ravioli with, what I think, was beef bourguignon. Small raviolis (about the diameter of a quarter); just right. Not these monstrosities that you get at modern Italian restaurants these days, and tons of it. The plate that it came on was gigantic! The best part about these perfect raviolis was they weren’t heavy. They didn’t make you feel like you were going to pass out after eating a few. Eventually we had to push the plate away because there was more to come.
Next on the table was the rabbit. Served with green beans, a stewed tomato with parmesan and bread crumbs, the BEST broiled potatoes ever; golden brown and crispy on the outside and perfectly fluffy on the inside. The rabbit was perfectly cooked and excellent. After this came the cheese course. A tray of 6 or 7 cheeses along with some baguette pieces arrived. Trying to maintain our composure in front of the French, we only took one bit of three of the cheeses we wanted to try and allowed the mother to take the tray off to the next table.
As if all this wasn’t enough, dessert came next. We were offered a selection of ice cream desserts, and thinking that these were going to be small cups of a flavored ice cream, we placed our order. What arrived a few moments later was nothing short of partially frozen excellence. No mix of words could allow me to properly describe what these tasted like, so you’ll have to settle for the photo.
After lunch we rolled out of the restaurant and drove back up to the house for a nap. Climbing out of the car at the bottom of the driveway I was holding my camelback in one hand, and the large canvas bag of wine bottles in the other. I stepped out of the car, turned to close the door, and slipped on the rising edge of the driveway next to ours. As I toppled backward in slow motion, two things went through my head; first I was thankful that my camera was in the front pocket of my jeans, and second save the wine. My arms shot out from my body and my back hit the ground.
Everything was fine; I was safe and more importantly the wine was safe!
After that amazing prix fixe luncheon, dinner tonight, if there is anything, will be bread and cheese.
A man walking down the hill in Aspermont
Rabbitt
Raviolis
Our delicious desserts. Mine is on the right
The end of another great day.
Read Tully's next report in the September issue of Food Entrepreneur
