Nicolas Deltort (ActuSport34, 24 janvier 2009)

Pdf article (photos N. Deltort)

View from the terrace

Our little gîte was positioned on a high plain north of the city of Pézenas. The tiny village, Fouzilhon, in the Hérault département, is situated on a hill with a medieval church positioned on the summit. The old house formed part of an ancient terrace of houses, evidently built haphazardly over the centuries with that shabby-chic quality that is signally french.

Inside we found the usual: curiously uneven and uncarpeted floors, high ceilings, a strange agglomeration of mismatching furniture, a fairly new IKEA kitchen (of the type referred to in french property classifieds as cuisine américaine, but I have yet to see a kitchen in the USA quite like one of these), first class coffee-making equipment, dark unexpected cubbyholes, lumpy noisy beds, beautiful vistas from blue-shuttered windows, and flies, everywhere.

This would be our family home for the next week.

Despite the flies, which we never completely managed to get rid of, it proved to be an excellent base for the bulk of our family time together dans le Midi; there was a large above-ground pool, situated on a terraced slope facing the house, a sun deck above that, and an area for barbecuing and outdoor dining, all with spectacular views over the vine-clad plateau which surrounded us.

Choosing olives in Grau d'Agde market

During our time there, apart from the inevitable and essential trips to Lidl, Carrefour, and various local markets, we paid several enjoyable visits to the beautiful & quaint town of Pézenas, once made famous by the playwright Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (1622-1673) better known as Molière (the nom-de-plume he used probably to save his family the embarrassment of a relative associated with the theatre).

He was based here in the 1650s and although Jean-Baptiste was born in Paris, Molière was effectively born in Pézenas, as Pagnol is famous for quipping.

We discovered this gem of a town whilst on holiday in this region with the Shilling family last year. We had gone there in search of moules-frites, and were very successful. But after dinner, and literally just around the corner from where we were sitting, we had also stumbled across a labyrinth of narrow winding lanes, overlooked by grand edifices, tall timeworn buildings containing a vast selection of tiny bazaars, boutiques, emporiums and galleries displaying local arts, crafts and cuisine.

Ambling through the lanes of Pézenas

From time to time a wander up one of these alleyways would lead you to an open plaza with street musicians, bars, bistros and cafés spilling out on to the cobbled road where old and young mingled together, all a joyful hubbub and hullabaloo. It was a totally un-British phenomenon. There were crowds of people but it was not crowded. Moreover it was around 11pm and the place was sill thronging with families, singles, youths, senior citizens, tourists and locals happily dining, shopping, civilly drinking, laughing, thoroughly enjoying the night and each other’s company.

Unfortunately last year we only discovered Pézenas on our very last night! We kicked ourselves that we had been so close – even shopped at the Lidl on the outskirts of the town several times during our stay – and yet had missed the magic of the centre.

Like St Guilhem-le-Désert and Carcassonne, the French have managed to retain in Pézenas that sense that nothing has really changed for centuries. You would not be surprised to turn a corner and find Molière and his acting troupe entertaining a crowd with L’Avare.

It is in fact an historic Roman market town so it’s been around for nearly two millenia. It was probably famous for its fish; the inhabitants to this day are known as piscenois (cf. French piscine – meaning ’swimming pool’ orginally from the Latin piscis – a fish). Hey! Yes, I know. That’s enough etymology.

Well, we made up for it this year.

Jazz trio entertaining near the Hotel de Ville

We went a several times by day and by night, enjoying the sights and sounds; some great jazz one evening as we sat and ate dinner, a brilliant young lady vocalist, some traditional accordion music another time down one street, which – despite the fact that the accordion is to hell what the harp is to heaven – seemed quite pleasant and appropriate after a pastis and a decent helping of cassoulet.

Like other towns nearby a popular, bustling market is held one certain days during the week, virtually taking over many of the streets and squares and selling about anything you care to imagine along with some useful and tasty things.

Nearer the centre of town there is a large pétanque area where you can witness all the generations demonstrating their skills with the metal boules, causing them to make what I used to think was a “p’tunk!” sound giving the game an onomatopœic name. However it actually comes from the old Langue d’Oc tongue mentioned earlier; a phrase [peds ancas] meaning ‘feet anchored’. [Profuse apologies! Inadvertantly dipped into etymology again.]

One of the Pézenas highlights for Lucy, Grace and Emily was an offbeat little ice-cream parlour selling its special glaces à pétales – ice-creams and sorbets deftly sculptured into the shape of flower petals – which became a regular dessert!

…dans le verre à Pézenas a ajouter à sa sélection de vins “S’Alqueria 2006″.  Angel Plata – Sommelier – as vu naitre mon projet et as pu  dégusté ce vin depuis les cuves, l’ élevage et jusqu’à sa mise en bouteille.

Cela permettras aux amateurs français de pouvoir découvrir mon vin et de pouvoir se le procurer via internet !

Le nez dans le verre, caviste et vente de vin en ligne Languedoc – Roussillon 

Le Nez dans le Verre

Caviste des vins du Sud
04 67 09 47 67 

Angel Plata
info@lenezdansleverre.com
 

Bonne dégustation à tous, régalez vous….. Força USAP….IVO

A bright and pleasantly acidic, tart, refreshing white wine, Picpoul  has been called the Languedoc’s equivalent to Muscadet. Like Muscadet, it is made from grapes grown near the sea.

But let’s try to stop comparing it to other things. Picpoul is great in its own right, and one of the Languedoc’s best-kept secrets.

Here are 10 facts about Picpoul, from the Occitan origins of its name to its Republican credentials and the, um, sex connection.

The lip-stinger

1. The name: “Picpoul” (or Pique poule) means “lip stinger” in Occitan, referring to the acidity in the grape must before it is fermented. Simple wine, but the full appellation name is a real mouthful. “AOC Coteaux du Languedoc, Picpoul de Pinet”. Picpoul was awarded the AOC classification in 1985.

2. The grapes: white is the most common, though both blush and black grapes are to be found. As early as 1618, the botanist J.B. Maniol cited Piquepoul as one of the six finest grape varieties in the Languedoc in “Sylve Plantarium”.

3. Colour: crystal clear with green highlights, though more golden from some older vines.

4. Nose: soft, delicate, with hints of acacia and hawthorn blossom. Its aromas are very citrus – grapefruit, fresh lemon zest, a touch of pineapple on the finish.

Or as one producer puts it: “Le Picpoul fait apparaître des arômes de fleurs blanches et d’agrumes, de la finesse et de l’onctuosité, une trés bonne longueur en bouche.”

5. Goes well with: fish, shellfish, oysters on a hot summer’s day. It neutralises the salt and iodine in crustaceans, and is excellent with other traditional Mediterranean dishes, rich cheese, charcuterie and even chocolate.

6. The village: Pinet is a municipality, population 950, some six miles from the town of Agde and the coast and six miles from the town of Pézenas.

7. Growing conditions: a dry microclimate, and the end-of-season humidity helps the grapes fill out and finish ripening.

8. Bottles sold annually: 6 million. The main export markets are mainly EU (Britain, Benelux, Norway, Sweden) although increasingly to North America, Japan, India and Russia. While it’s sometimes mentioned in UK supermarkets and wine shops, it’s much less visible in Ireland.

9. The Republicans: In 1860 Baron Paul Dubois, Doctor to the Empress Eugenie, marries his daughter to a man from the Hérault. The Emperor Napoleon III has the marriage celebrated in the Tuileries. They serve up copious amounts of Picpoul at the feast. Having tasted it, the Duke of Morny declares: “The spirit of this wine reconciles me with the Republicans of the Hérault.”

10. Did we mention the sex yet? The website for one Picpoul producer, Domaine de la Grangette, includes a page with the title “How to come”. The more frequent English equivalent would be along the lines of “How to get there”. Not quite the same thing at all.

SPREAD THE LOVE Spring has arrived! How can I tell? Well for one thing, the wisteria that is threatening to throttle my neighbor’s bamboo has unfurled a few pendulous, purple flowers. Also, lemons and juicy citrus fruit are abundant at the market. This last indicator leads me to my latest obsession – preserved lemons. I can’t get enough of that salty, bittersweet tang that preserved lemons lend to dishes. The bountiful Meyer lemon tree that my late grandfather planted 30 plus years ago is essential for making an especially intense preserved lemon (there is a fabulously simple recipe in The Zuni Cafe Cookbook). I chop up the pungent peel into EVERYTHING: risotto with roasted asparagus, root vegetable stew with Moroccan spices, relishes of all types, just to name a few dishes. And to wash this all down perfectly is my “staff pick of the week” the 2007 Montpezat Sauvignon! This is an ideal wine to usher in springtime. Warmer, sunnier weather dictates a lighter, fresher white that can at once be a lovely sipping wine yet complex enough to showcase spring’s tender young greens. To further entice you, The Wine House is offering SPECIAL PRICING: on sale for $9.95 a bottle or $88 per case ($7.34 per bottle – that’s almost 40% off by the case!!!). It’s simple really; we want to make it easy for you to enjoy quality wine everyday of the week!

A little background on Montpezat: Christophe Blanc is a third-generation winemaker for his family’s 100 acre estate. The estate is situated near the medieval town of Pezenas, located in the heart of the Languedoc. Christophe, though quiet and understated in a large crowd, gets animated and passionate when he talks about his wines one on one. He is meticulous and disciplined, overseeing all aspects of making wine. I remember a lovely evening spent at a tiny pizzeria in Nimes drinking his hearty, full-bodied wines along with a group of wine industry folk. David and I enjoyed Christophe’s wines and he took notice. Christophe’s eyes twinkled, and asked if we wanted to taste something new. Of course we did! Out came a bottle from underneath the table. Christophe was demonstrably excited and proud of his wine offerings. I’ve been a fan of his reds, so I was happy to find the same intensity ending up in his white wine.

The 2007 Sauvignon is a weighty white with lots of amplitude and girth for the varietal. That being said, it is all tank-fermented so the body is attributable to the quality of the grapes. Neither grassy nor assertive, I perceive flavors of lemon custard and citrus peel with an ever so slight note of tropical fruit. That lemony rich fruit glides along the palate and finishes with fresh acidity and verve. At my last Friday Night Fish Fry, I enjoyed the palate teasing freshness of the wine while I prepared the salad. For dinner, the pasta with juicy prawns sauteed with shallots, garlic and touches of saffron was enhanced by the citrusy flavors of the 2007 Monpezat Sauvignon. Anything too floral or oaky would have destroyed this dish. Versatility is the name of the game here. In anticipation of upcoming holidays and celebrations, it makes sense to have a stash of this delicious white! Believe me, I’ve tasted a lot of sauvignon blanc from all parts of the globe lately and have not found anything close to this in terms of price, value and character. Anya Balistreri

Today my host family and I went on an outing to Pézenas (map). The drive from Montpellier is about an hour long, and the countryside has lots of interesting sites. We drove past the Etang de Thau, the “pond” where our study abroad program is going to have a cruise in a few weeks. The étang is known for its oysters, so we could see all the oyster farms as we drove by. On the other side of the étang we could see the city of Sète and Mt. St. Clair, both of which I visited in January. If you’re interested, you can see the photos of Sète on my web albums page.

Just like Arles, Pézenas is a little tourist town. That means that it’s not very busy in the off-season. Félix had a hard time getting out of bed this morning, so we didn’t even get to Pézenas until after noon. By the time we arrived we were all starving so we found a little café and decided to eat outside since it was a nice day. For an entrée (remember, “entrée” means “first course” in French), I chose a fruits de mer (seafood) salad. I expected it to have shrimp on it (which it did), but I was not ready for BABY OCTOPUSES. Little purple baby octopuses with their curled tentacles. Interesting.  Add that to raw salmon, raw shrimp, mussels, and clams, and you get a very peculiar salad. I do like seafood, so I wasn’t hesitant to try it, and it was pretty good. Here’s the shortlist of new meats I’ve eaten in France: rabbit, duck, goose (well, the liver at least), shrimp with head and eyes attached, mussels, and octopus. Oh, and we sat at that café for two and a half hours. Couple the French penchant for taking one’s own sweet time with the lazy atmosphere of a Sunday and you’ve got an afternoon that runs as slow as molasses. I do complain about the slowness of customer service here (just try getting through the post office in less than 30 minutes), but I know I’m going to miss relaxed meals like that one sometimes.

Pézenas is famous for berlingons, a type of hard candy. They’re pretty hard to describe, so I found a picture here that shows you what they look like. Berlingons come in any flavor you can imagine. We stopped at a small confectionary and got to see how they make them.

We spent the last part of the afternoon at the Molière museum. Molière is considered to be the greatest playwright in French history. He wasn’t actually born in Pézenas, but he had a theater troupe here for some time and lived in the town when he wasn’t in Paris or traveling around France. Molière fans from all over come to Pézenas to see the historic sites, so you could think of it as the Stratford-upon-Avon of France.

The main Molière attraction is the “3D Experience.” It’s an hour-long show where you wear 3D glasses and walk from room to room learning about Molière’s life. The 3D movies (five in all, one in each room) are extremely well done, and each room is very elaborately themed. Considering all the extravagant details put into the show’s execution, I thought for a second that it could be a ride at Disneyworld. But then I remembered it was a show about a 17^th century French playwright and not a show about Pocahontas and her forest friends. Not exactly something you’d find in Fantasyland, but very impressive quand même.

Another successful daytrip. I’m starting to feel like a pro when it comes to the south of France. I’ve been to Montpellier (obviously), Palavas, Sète, Arles, Nîmes, Les Baux, Carcassonne, Vaucluse, Nice, Marseilles, and now Pézenas. So many fascinating cities in France, so little time!

Because we haven’t had our media discussion class in, well, almost two months, the study abroad office decided that we’re going to have to do some work to make up for it. I just knew it would come down to this, especially since the students voted to continue the strike until Tuesday (at least). They’re absolutely right, though. I should be doing something to get credit for class. Yes, it’s nice not to have to go to class, but it can’t be all fun and games all the time. The paper has to be a media analysis of two chapters from these certain books they chose for us. I took a very similar class at the U, Mass Media and Popular Culture, so I understand communication theories pretty well. The only trick is that I’m going to have to write the paper in French. Try explaining semiotics in a foreign language. Yeah. That’s what I thought.

The weather has been beautiful lately, but a bit windy. Not a cloud in the sky this afternoon, so we had lunch outside in the jardin (garden). My host mom made shrimp and lamb on the grill, which was delicious, and afterward we had a cherry clafoutis for dessert. Their garden is beautiful – the mimosas are in full bloom and the flowers are starting to grow.

Friday I went to the weekly conversation night at Book ‘n’ Bar, an English-language bookstore and café in Montpellier’s cité medivale. How it works is that you find a person who speaks French, and then you talk in French for a half hour and then in English for a half hour. I would have liked to talk with another young person, but it was almost all middle-aged people. I ended up talking with an Italian woman who spoke fluent French, fluent German, and was working on English, her fourth language. After a while our conversation merged with the nearby conversations and we ended up having one large discussion. Unforunately, one old man with a handlebar mustache decided he was going to take over the conversation – sharing his ideas of what utopia is, how Bush is a war criminal, how young people don’t rebel enough, etc. It made me feel bad for the French-speakers in the group because he was using a lot of difficult vocabulary and idioms. I eventually just got up and left. Next time I go back I’ll make sure to get there early and try to talk to someone my own age.

Tomorrow we’re going to Pézenas, a little village about an hour southwest of Montpellier, toward Béziers. The famous French playwright Molière lived in Pézenas, so we’ll be going to see one of his plays and to walk around and see the city a little. It’s too bad that my camera hasn’t gotten to France yet – I would have loved to bring it along to post pictures. With any luck, it will arrive by Thursday so that I can have it when I go to Morocco.

Short post today – quiet weekend. Check back soon to hear about my trip to Pézenas.

…ist eine kleine Stadt in Südfrankreich, ca. 35 km vom Mittelmeer entfernt. Dieser Ort ist eine Fundgrube für Leute die sehen können. Der historische Kern birgt Überraschungen en masse. In der tourifreien Zeit in jedem Falle einen Besuch wert. Achtung: Im Sommer meist überlaufen  …hat auch sonst kulturell einiges zu bieten. Die letzten Fotos habe ich gestern dort gemacht…

http://www.ville-pezenas.fr/

I’m addicted to photo-editing.

These pictures were taken at Pézenas, a medievalesque city with a huge open market, located in the South of France.

The lady is selling honey and the writing on her basket reads, “AIDEZ-MOI !!!! JE VAIS ME MARIER” which translates to “Help me! I’m going to get married!”

More pictures on Facebook and Smugmug.

Kleiner spontaner Abstecher in die südfranzösische Region Languedoc-Roussillon: Im Ort Pézenas gibt’s ab Juni eine neue Möglichkeit, den größten Komödiendichter Frankreichs, Jean Baptiste Poquelin alias Molière, näher kennen zu lernen. Wie ich gerade von der bestinformierten frankophilen Österreicherin, Christel Sarry vom Französischen Tourismusamt “Maison de la France” in Wien, erfahren habe, sperrt dort in einem Hotel aus dem 17. Jahrhundert das ungewöhnliche Molière-Museum “Scenovision” auf.  Gezeigt wird das Leben des Komödianten in 3D und fünf Akten – mit Videos, Sounds und vielen Bühnen-Spezialeffekten.

Christel betont, dass auch die Altstadt eine Reise wert ist – und Essen und Trinken kann man hier sowieso so gut wie überall in Frankreich. Ein Tipp, den ich mir als Molière-Fan unbedingt notieren muss.

Der Meister hat hier übrigens einige Zeit gelebt, weil er von den höchsten Pariser Kreisen wegen seiner kritischen, subversiven Stückinhalte vertrieben wurde.

Mehr Infos unter
www.pezenas-tourisme.fr 

und natürlich bei Christel Sarrys Kollegen im Maison de la france
http://at.franceguide.com/