Totally forgot to mention that I loved the Capucins from the Bras brothers. Cornets made from sort of pancake batter filled with delicious combinations of ingredients. Like Roquefort with pear and sauteed shallots, beef with potatoes and leeks or fois gras with salad and cranberry sauce.
Millau Market
If you happen to be in the neighborhood of Millau. Enjoying the weather, nature, sporting or the food. Check out their farmers market every Wednesday morning. An ideal place to have breakfast or buy some goodies for a picnic.
Tons of sweet local fruits, honey, jam, quiches, cheeses and breads. All home made and sold by their proud makers from Aveyron.
I recommend the delicious quiches with tomato, jams and South French sweet bread ‘Fouace’ made with orange blossom water. It’s something like the Dutch Duyvekater (sweet white bread made with melted butter, lemon zest and milk). Can’t wait visiting this place again. The French sure know what good food is.
Let the wine tasting begin
Yesterday, we visited two chateau’s with two different concepts:
First we visited Chateau d’Arsac. A Chateau renovated by Phillip Raoux a contemporary art lover, the fourth generation of wine distributors and now also a producer of red and white wines from the Margaux area. A beautiful area where the Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, and Merlot Grapes are cultivated.
What fascinated me was his refreshing view on running his chateau. Next to buying a Chateau in a good area with a great climate and good soil for his vineyard, he made an oldskool vs contemporary art location.
His love for art can be seen in his Chateau, warehouse for the barrels and his sculpture garden. This way of running the Chateau makes the introduction to drink wine, very accessible for the New generation wine lovers.
It was very surprising to hear that the youth from Bordeaux lost it’s touch with their pride for their famous wine culture. Nowadays youngsters drink to get drunk fast instead of challenging their tastebuds and enjoy the experience of drinking good wine.
Phillip Raoux came with a concept to experience wine by opening his Chateau to the public and opening La Winery with a large collection (more than 1000) of its favorite wines for individual buyers, organizing wine tastings for beginners and restaurant the Wy.
The nicely furbished restaurant (with art of course), serves a menu with french and other cuisines. The Wy offers you the possibility to walk to La winery after ordering your meal and look for a bottle of wine which fits your dish, and not for restaurant prices. Like this formula.
After a lovely meal there’s a possibility to have a walk through the sculpture garden where you find Mr Raoux investment in art. Every 15ct of his sold bottles goes to art. Noble gesture.
In general a good concept to experience wine by visiting the vineyards, the barrel warehouse, do the wine tasting, check the Winery out and the restaurant where you drink the wine in combination with food in a pleasant environment.
I can give a positive verdict on experience …about the dishes…need to come to the resto more often ;)
Le Petit Commerce
Crime: Menu for two with salad des moreu* (cooked salted cod), des moules cooked in their own ‘juices’ like what the garçon said, razor clams, crevettes en sardines. The best options of the house with a bottle of cold white wine.
Scene: Le petit Commerce, 22 Rue du Parlement Saint Pierre, Bordeaux open every day
Investigation: Le petit commerce, a well know seafood restaurant in the hood is located in the centre Ville. In a narrow street with a bunch of restaurants and bars. Le petit commerce has a simple interior inside and simple terrace in the sun with excelent service. It is always packed with locals and tourists, so make sure you’ll make a reservation in advance.
The restaurant offers a lot of seafood, check their menu in the picture. Everything is Made as simple as possible. No sauces. Just good seafood prepared with some high quality oil and herbs. An oldskool concept, but the vibe was refreshing. Maybe because of the relative young personel and company logo. House styles can make a difference in presentation ;)
The Friendly Bordeaux people don’t speak a lot of english. Actually a large part of France, mais n’est pas de problem. Unless the menu is in French haha, so order the best from the house according le garçon and be surprised.
Loved the mussels, razor clams, shrimps and salad. The sardines were delicious too, but the bones are a hassle haha. Verdict, a very good place to experience seafood and to get your tan on in the sun. I’ve enjoyed the place and am going to recommend this joint. Very ideal for lunch when sightseeing in town and a nice place to have a late summer dinner before heading to the bars in the neighborhood during the weekends.
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* the salad had the following ingredients, so I think it’s easy to make.
- In water cooked salted cod, cool, shred and add
- Parsley
- Black olives
- Chickpeas
- Lemon juice
- Olive oil
- New potatoes
- Lettuce
Exploring Saint Emilion
After lunch at the Winery we continued our trip to Saint Emillion 40km east from Bordeaux. (Arsac was west from Bordeaux)
The road to St. Emilion was beautiful! How the vineyards where arranged on the hills where like a work of art. And how awesome is it to drive a long the vineyards with signs like Pomerol go left and Bordeaux turn right.
After driving through the touristic village of St. Emillio we arrived at Chateau Haute Sarpe for a wine making session with Rodolphe and Pierre. These guys offered the possibility to create your own wine. I was LIKE uhm how? Well, I learned that in the Bordeaux area producers blend their grapes to get the best taste. Why? As curious I am, food lover yet amateur in wines, I fired my Q’s.
Like many vineyards in the Bordeaux area, producers have a lot of samples (pieces of land with different soil, altitude, temperature etc) where they have their grapes. Each year will be a big surprise for the producers which samples they could use for the wines and with which other grapes they could be blended to make wine with a pleasant ‘bouquet’.
I love red wine, but dislike the tanin flavour unless the flavour is balanced well. So creating your own wine is quite cool. We got some bottles, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon to blend. After making blends of 25/75, 50/50, 75/25 it was difficult to choose between a less tanin flavour with a less pleasant smell or a wine with a lot of tanins and the smell of fruits.
So, after making 30/70, 20/80, 35/65 blends and getting a bit crazy, I choose the safe way… 25/75…yess boring haha Picked in 2010, blended and bottled in 2011 and best to drink in 2013 ;)
Fan of Haute Sarpe wine or Merlot? Visit Rodolphe and Pierre with their B-makers concept. Not a fan of Merlot? Visiting Chateau Haute Sarpe is still cool since the guys are fun haha
Sunday Market, Bordeaux
I love strolling on markets when I’m abroad and like to be surprised by what people like to share. Their goods, stories and culture. Love the craft and passion.
After surfing the nets on Saturday, I found out that Bordeaux has an awesome farmers market. A nice way, I my opinion, to have breakfast and get to know a city and its locals. So, you won’t find me at the hotel buffet.
For breakfast I treated myself with sourdough bread, good butter, caneles, fresh apple juice and macarons for on the road. To early for oysters man…
Visit Quai des Chatrons, Bordeaux on Sundays :)
Le Point Bar
Crime: Plat du jour, le piece Boucher (piece of meat from the butcher) with sauce de poivre, pepper sauce and red wine from the Cotes du Rhone area.
Scene: Le Point Bar, 38 Rue Lanoue Bras de Fer, Nantes, Ile the Nantes
Investigation: After visiting the Ile the Machine Jules Vernes style we went of to check some architecture. Being a little bit hungry we turned on our radars. We bumped into an oldskool Bar with a huge print of OBEY’s sumo dude sticked against the window with “vente” = for sale.
At first we thought it was a gallery and looked inside. Aha we should go here for some steak, since the place smelled like it and everybody there was eating steak frit. Reference for good food: Go where the locals go and order what they have ;)
We got an enormous piece of steak and I was like, uh for lunch?? Well, the meat tasted good and better with the wine from Cote du Rhone, a full and fruity wine without the after taste of tannin which is dislike.
So, if you are very hungry and could use some protein before continuing your tour Ile de Nantes, check this place out with good, friendly service and a lot of locals with a good vibe.
Les Bouteilles, Nantes
Les Bouteilles
Crime: Seabass on a bed of creamy rissoto with mushrooms and yellow courgette with a glass of white wine, a 2006, MEO-CAMUZET, BOURGOGNE HAUTES-COTES DE NUITS CLOS SAINT-PHILIBERT MONOPOLE WHITE and a cheese platter with a glass of red wine, a 2009 Crozes-Hermitage from Emmanuel Darnaud. Both wines were very nice.
Scene: Les Bouteilles, 22, Rue Armand Brossard, 44000 Nantes 02 40 12 10 38
Investigation: After a walk on Ile the Nantes and not in the mood for one of Nantes best crepes for diner we continued our quest for food. 9PM and we were getting delusional and was about to eat crappy stuff in the neighborhood of our hotel La Perouse. Link.
Finally we bumped into Les Bouteilles. A small restaurant decorated with wine bottles and packed with locals. It was 9:15pm we need to go in here…
With our eyes focussed on one of the plats du jour, the grilled entrecôte, we got very disappointed with the news that the table behind us had the last pieces of meat haha So, we went for the sea bass with a tasty risotto.
But more impressive was the service, the wines they served and their cheese platter. With the little knowledge of french (I’m still practicing) I manage to ask the waitress for the names of the 5 cheeses we’ve tasted.
Clockwise:
1. Saint Nectaire - a soft french cheese with a very light and subtle taste
2. Saint Marcellin - a french cheese with a very crumbly texture with full of taste
3. Morbier - little bit a la Port Salut
4. Ubiato - a hard and salty Italian cheese which tastes like gran p…
5. Gorgonzola - this gorgonzola was the most ‘powerful’ gorgonzola I’ve tasted. Great on bread, because the flavour is quite spicy.
If you go to Nantes, please visit this place!
