France Adventure – Tuesday, May 27, 2014 – You will practice your French with me and I will practice my English with you!

Bienvenue à Saint Émilion!  Hello, everybody.  Welcome to Saint Émilion and to Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog.  Our plans for today are close to the gite, not so much driving after spending hours in the car yesterday.

The perfect way to start a relaxing day in the French countryside is … you guessed it … go to the boulangerie, or at least the little shop in Saint-Christophe-des-Bardes that passes for a boulangerie.

Here’s one of Mary’s favorites, pain au chocolat.

Just as I arrived at the shop in Saint-Christophe, the church bell was ringing.  Check out this short video.  I was standing on the street next to the church, so you also hear the sounds of passing cars.

Our tasting appointment for today was at Château Figeac, a prestigious estate in Saint Émilion.  We had a Figeac in Jackson years ago and it was pretty expensive back then.  I remember that it was delicious, but the price has gone up sharply and it’s out of our price range now.

The entrance to Château Figeac is a modestly marked unpaved drive on the road between Saint Émilion and Libourne.  If one didn’t know that Château Figeac is a world class Saint Émilion wine estate, it would not make much of an impression on a passerby.

On the other side of the trees, things get more interesting quickly.  

A typical grand Bordeaux château is beyond centuries old gates.  The family still lives in the château.

These are oak fermentation vats.

Stainless steel tanks are used for blending prior to bottling.  You can also see barrel cleaning occurring with high pressure steam.

Here’s an old wine press.

Quite a contrast with a modern, computer-controlled press.

The barrel aging room at Château Figeac.

This is the modern underground cellar for bottle storage, kept dark most of the time.

This is the bottling line.

What a contrast with the domaines of Burgundy.  The tasting room at Château Figeac has a 150 year old tapestry hanging on the wall.

Gwen, our very nice tour guide, handled the tasting.

After leaving Château Figeac, we went for lunch in Saint Émilion.

Saint Émilion is a fascinating place but it is definitely on the tourist beaten path and daytime is when it is busiest.

Saint Émilion is an ancient town, a medieval town.  It is perched at the precipice of a broad plateau.  The plateau is on limestone and the community is crisscrossed by more than 100 miles of underground cellars and tunnels, the artifacts of limestone that was removed to build the towns of the regions.

A nearly vertical cobblestone passage links the top of Saint Émilion with the market square and the streets below.

Here’s a short video that gives you a view and description of the town, the plateau, and the plains below.

Lunch was at Chez Germain in Saint Émilion, right in the thick of things, but the food was really great.

A specialty in France is moules et frites, steamed mussels and fries, and I love ‘em.  They’re certainly available here in the U.S., too, but they’re practically fast food in France.  

A steaming pot of mussels, crisp fries, and a cold glass of rosé, now that’s hard to beat.

Mary had a croque monsieur, a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, usually with Emmenthal cheese.

Back at the gite and after going for a jog, we had a visitor and made a new friend.  We learned later that he lives at the next estate.

Dinner was at Les Marronniers in Montagne, the same place where we had lunch a couple of days ago.  

It was a bit cool, but we enjoyed the terrace with our jackets on.

Our server, Aurélie, was delightful.  I told her I wanted to order in French to practice my language skills.  She gleefully replied, “You will practice your French with me and I will practice my English with you!”

Despite the cool temperatures, we enjoyed a refreshing aperitif of a crémant de Bordeaux.  The ambience was an interesting combination of casual and elegant, pretzels and Ritz crackers with sparkling wine.

Les Marronniers is on the edge of town in Montagne, which is pretty small anyway.  The surrounding vineyards seemed nearly at our fingertips.

The table nibble was rillettes de porc, similar to what I knew as potted meat when I was growing up.

After a salad course, Mary had l’entrecote avec son os à moëlle, similar to a ribeye with bone marrow in a red wine reduction sauce along with a side of frites.  This was Mary’s first experience with beef bone marrow.  Here she is to describe the steak and the marrow. 

When I decided to order this dish, I told Brian I just wouldn't eat the bone marrow.  Once it arrived, however, it looked better than I thought and I decided that I shouldn't be a coward. So I tasted it and it was delicious!  It had a soft texture, smooth but not like gelatin.  It really added a meaty savoriness.  It enhanced the steak like a great sauce. We just haven't had a bad meal here at all.

I had a specialty of southwest France, confit de canard, duck confit with parsley potatoes.  This is a dish we’ve made at home and my favorite duck preparation.  Mary and I make a pretty good duck confit, if I do say so, but it is quite a project, time consuming, rather expensive, and we don’t do it very often.  This one at Les Marronniers was as good as I’ve ever had, fork tender, succulent meat that pulls off the bone, salty and savory, just delicious.  We blogged about duck confit way back on September 18, 2011 if you’d like to read more about it and how it’s prepared.

Since Les Marronniers is a creperie and a restaurant, it’s only right that Mary had the crêpe au chocolat, amandes caramélisées, chocolate crepe with caramelized almonds.

The wine was local, a Château Calon 2005 from the Montagne-Saint Émilion appellation.  It is 70% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 15% Cabernet Franc, a typical cépage of the area.  

It was pleasant, aromatic of red and dark fruit, berries and plums.  The palate showed medium body and nice balance.  The initial impression was fruity, but a little hollow in the mouth and not long on the finish.

  

We both thought it was a good but not remarkable wine.  We enjoyed it anyway because it was local, paired with local food, and in a wonderful, relaxing setting. 

As you can see, we managed to finish it, leaving only the sediment from the bottom of the bottle.

This château is on the narrow, rural road from Montagne back to the gite.  I didn’t inquire about the name, but it is very beautiful.

That’s our post for today.  Thanks again for reading us.  Keep checking back.  We have more to share at Cépage et Cuisine as we continue our wine, food, and cultural travels.  In the meantime,

Cheers!

Mary♥Brian