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There is a well-established network of local and highspeed intercity trains in France, and of course France is justly proud of its impressive high speed train services - TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse).

However there are a number of preserved "tourist" railway lines, which whilst they may at first seem to be for the railway enthusiast, do really offer some great opportunities to view parts of the French landscape from quite a unique (and usually leisurely) perspective.

Some of the best include:-
le Chemin de Fer de la Baie de la Somme in Picardie, running around the bay of the Somme near Abbeville on the Channel coast (steam and diesel)

Chemin de Fer de Provence route which runs from Nice up to DIgne (04 Alpes, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur) in Provence through stunning scenery back from the Mediterranean coast - the full journey takes 3½hours each way but you can get off at numerous intermediate stations - at weekends some journeys may be with a steam engine (Train à Vapeur).

Chemin de Fer de Vallée de l'Ouche in Burgundy's Côte d'Or, northwest of Beaune (31 Côte d'Or, Burgundy)

Chemin de Fer de la Mure south of Grenoble, runs from St-Georges-de-Commiers (38 Isèe, Rhône-Alpes) to la Mure using vintage electric engines through some dramatic scenery.

Chemin de Fer du Vivarais in the Ardeche, running from Lamastre (07 Ardeche, Rhône-Alpes) to Tournon along the valley of the River Doux - mainly steam with some vintage diesels.

Chemin de fer Touristique du Haut-Quercy "Le Truffadou" - steam and diesel on a strecth of track in and near Martel (46 Lot, Midi-Pyrenees)

Train Touristique de l'Albret runs on an old SNCF line from Nerac (47 Lot-et-Garonne, Aquitaine) to Mezin on a tourist train - about 90 minutes running from April to October.

On a different level altogether, SNCF (French National Railways) is rightly proud of its recent world record for a train at 574.8 kilometres per hour (about 360 mph) - so much so that you can see video footage of the record run at www.record2007.com/site/index_en.php - dramatically produced. However, the new trains which are now running on the TGVEst Europeen to Strasbourg, Luxembourg and all points east will work at a mere 200mph!

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A recent missive from the “Seigneurs de Cahors” helped to unravel some of the varying terms used for oak barrels in France.

The “Seigneurs” or “lords” is a self-selected group of some of the best Cahors producers – but whilst I will agree that they are amongst the best, there are other producers outside the hallowed group who produce great wines.

The Seigneurs of Cahors include Chateau de Mercuès, Chateau Haut-Serre, Chateau Leret-Monpezat, Chateau les Bouysses, Chateau de Caix, Chateau de Chambert, Chateau du Cedre, Prieuré de Cénac and Chateau Triguedina.

However, back to barrels and barriques. As it is France, there is inevitably quite a lot of regional variation in names and sizes. The most common is the Bordeaux barrique (as pictured) used for ageing (and sometimes) fermenting wines especially to impart the softening and oaky flavours that contact with oak (especially new oak) can bring to a wine. In Bordeaux this is usually a barrique of 225 litres. However, in Burgundy a 220 litre barrel is known as a “pièce”, although sometimes this is 228 litres in the Côte d’Or. You will also find a demi-pièce which holds half of the equivalent quantity.

On a larger scale come the pipe (400 litres), the tonne(or tonneau) at 1000 litres and ultimately the foudre which can be over 11,500 litres. These larger containers tend to be more for storage, as the larger the barrel gets the less contact the wine has with the wood. The larger foudre tends to be quite ancient and will impart no real “woodiness” or “oakiness” to the wine.

The smaller the barrel and the newer the oak, the more intense the impact on the wine will be. Many winemakers will use a proportion of new oak barrels with some that have been used for one or two harvests to get just the right amount of “oak” character in the wine.

Also the French being French, they will usually choose French oak from the massive forests of the Allier or the Troncais for example. American oak is sometimes used, but tends to have a more powerful oaky flavour than the more subtle French oak. There is a whole industry and mythology around the whole process of oak cultivation (sylviculture). cutting and drying the staves, toasting and making the barrels (tonnellerie). There is now cheaper oak available from Eastern Europe to complicate matters, and seeing as how a quality oak barrel from a good supplier can cost €700 or more, then price has to be a serious consideration for the winemaker.

For more info on the wines of Cahors see www.frenchduck.co.uk/cahors.html and www.vindecahors.fr

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This photo of a section of the Alsace wine route, taken just a few days ago really raised my spirits in what has been an English summer which can only be described in the range of “disappointing” to “disastrous”. Amid reports and experience of a very damp June in France and late ripening in the vineyards it was good to see a picture of a vineyard looking like it should in the middle of summer. Of course it also serves as a reminder that the Alsace climate boasts one of the lowest annual rainfalls in France, mainly due to being situated in the “rain shadow” of the Vosges mountains to the west.

The Alsace Wine Route winds its way from north to south, for more than 170 kilometres, along the eastern foothills of the Vosges. This delightful itinerary runs across a succession of undulating hills, through pretty villages with narrow streets of flower-decked, half-timbered houses, clustered around their church steeple.
Visitors can easily explore the heart of the vineyards, along numerous vineyard paths leading to the crest of each slope, where signs explain the work of the winegrower and the diversity of the grape varieties.
They are welcomed into winstubs and tasting cellars to instantly discover the traditional appeal of the vine and the wine.

I keep an eye on a site called Trek Earth which is a photo repository, and which includes a France section see – http://www.trekearth.com/ which is where the above photo comes from. I often see photos on the site which are very evocative of the magic of France.

For more on the Alsace Wine Route (la route des vins d’alsace) see www.vinsalsace.com – but if you planning on spending any time on that site I suspect you may want to turn the sound off!

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Watching the Tour de France last week, I noticed that one stage finished in the town of Briancon (05 Hautes-Alpes, Provence-Alpes–Cote d’Azur, which claims to be the highest city in France, and features an impressive defensive Citadel designed by Vauban. Napoleon’s treasured Military architect.

2007 is the three hundredth anniversary of his death, and hence numerous events are planned to celebrate this master of military invention. His physical legacy is of course the list of imitimidating fortresses to defend le Hexagone - the defensible boundaries of France from the northern border with Belgium down to the Alps, along the Mediterranean and up the Atlantic Coast. However, his military reputation initially was more concerned with planning and implementing sieges - so in many ways he was a poacher-turned-gamekeeper - if you are good as breaking sieges, then who better to design defenses to repel them? The hallmark of Vauban is his impressive use of massive angular pentagonal walls which prevented attackers targetting one section of wall without being at risk of counter-attack from an adjacent section. The classic examples are the Citadel at Lille, Briancon and Besancon, although many other examples exist.

My favourite is on the island of Belle-Ile off the coast of Brittany, where the fortifications adjacent to the small harbout of Le Palais are most impressive. More familiar to visitors to France will be the fortifications at St Malo and la Rochelle. Vauban left his mark on most of the land and sea frontiers of France, although he was born in Burgundy which hosts only one of his constructiona. On the Côte d’Azur, Antibes, Villefranche, Cannes and St.Tropez. Toulon, Marseille, Collioure on the Mediterranean;

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If you are not able to get across the Channel this summer then you might like to take a look at the London Royal Academy exhibition "Impressionists by the Sea" which runs until 30 September 2007.
The English Channel coast of northern France and the Normandy and Brittany beaches were within easy reach of Paris, and often provided scenes for paintings by the likes of Manet, Monet and Boudin. As impressionists they found that the play of light in coastal scenes gave them more opportunity to experiment with their art.

"Painters initially portrayed the coast in Romantic terms, focusing on the evocation of the sublime forces of nature and the depiction of picturesque scenes of local fishermen. By the 1860s, however, stylish holidaymakers began to appear in paintings, as many of local resorts, such as Deauville and Trouville, became fashionable."

For more info see www.royalacademy.org.uk where you can also download a podcast about this exhibition, and enter a prize draw to win a luxury break in Normandy!

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The Languedoc-Roussillon region has a lot to offer the visitor, but one of the more unusual offerings has to be the Museum of the Mundane - Musée Internationale des Arts Modestes (or MIAM) in Sete (34 Hérault, Languedoc-Roussillon).I rather like the term of "modest art", The museum features objects which are (or have been) part of daily life, often with little real use, but which are aesthetically pleasing or interesting - often very simple and always lacking any intellectual value! - so examples will include a King Size model of Elvis Presley, plastic elephants and a fantastic jumble of the useless but interesting. (The website is quite fun in a rather obscure, French way). The objects come from all over France and other parts of the world.

On a more practical note is the Museum of Firefighting (Musée de Sapeur-Pompier) at St Hippolyte du Fort (30 Gard, Languedoc-Roussillon) in the foothills of the Cevennes (where there is also a Silk Museum (Musee de la Soie)

"The firefighting Museum enables us to discover all there is to know about firefighting from 1830 to nowadays. A 750 square metre exhibition of vehicles, equipment and exclusive collection of costumes and accessories covering a large period of time;"

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Dr Roger Corder's Book The Wine Diet was a great hit last year, expounding the virtues of the reds wines of South West France, particularly Madiran AC, as being good for your health because they contain high levels of procyanidins which can reduce the risk of heart attacks.
He writes in the Telegraph (20 July 2007); ".... moderate drinkers suffer lower rates of heart disease, but only those people who limit themselves to two or three small glasses (around 125 ml) a day with food can be assured of these preventive benefits.....It is better to drink small amounts of wine everyday than to drink only occasionally. But it's also healthier to drink your wine with food, not without."
To be honest I cannot imagine that you would really want to drink a Madiran or Cahors without food, as these wines are based on relatively tannic grape varities as Tannat and Malbec. These are wines to be savoured not glugged!
Our favourite remains the Gold Medal-winning Madiran AC Cuvée Charles de Batz from Domaine Berthoumieu available in the UK from Noel Young Wines

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Normandy is rightly famous for its cheeses - indeed think of Normandy and I immediately think of apples, cows and lush green fields, thatched cottages and cream - cider and Calvados (apple brandy), Camembert, Pont l'Eveque and wonderfully creamy butter.
Livarot is another of the great cows milk cheeses to come from the region, nicknamed the Colonel due to the straps of rush which hold it together and which look like military stripes.
It does of course belong to the family of seriously smelly French cheese, and has a strong distinctive taste and when properly ripe has a glutinous texture - yet it dissolves in the mouth.

This is definitely the type of cheese to be purchased from a proper cheesemonger rather than most local supermarkets. Online you can buy from the Teddington Cheese Company who describe the cheese as:"a full and assertive flavour, a supple texture and a pungent aroma.... excellent on the cheese board although it is best tasted after milder cheeses. It is best enjoyed with a full-bodied red wine, a glass of Normandy cider or even a nip of Calvados."

Livarot holds its annual cheese festival in August - see our events schedule

See map

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A Côtes de Duras Sauvignon was one of the first wines we purchased when we set up Allez Vins! – yipes that was 20 years ago.

It was for me something of a discovery that you could get clean crisp Sauvignon Blanc without having to pay Sancerre prices. OK they often lack the minerally complexity of good Sancerre, but they are good little wines. As the by-line on the Côtes de Duras logo says – “A small appellation, but a great terroir!”

Duras (47 Lot-et-Garonne, Auquitaine) in South West France lies to the south of Bergerac, east of Bordeaux and north of the Côtes du Marmandais, and all produce Bordeaux blend wines (Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot for the reds and rosés; Sauvignon, Muscadelle and Sémillon for the whites) – but it is probably here in Duras that the best Sauvignon Blancs are grown.

We imported the wines of Chateau la Petite Bertrande in the 1990s – then a modest little domaine with some really excellent wines. They now have a new and rather good website which has a lot of decent information.

“12 hectares of sauvignon, sémillon and muscadelle, constituting the traditional grape varieties of the region, give dry white wines of great quality.
Regarding the reds, they are elaborated from 13 hectares of merlot, cabernet-sauvignon, cabernet-franc and malbec. After a wine making process separate as we go along the harvest and according to their maturity, this blend gives to these wines a balance and a fullness of a great regularity as vintage years go by.”

Their dry white Sauvignon is excellent, but then too so is the Red Cuvée Classique, which is oak-aged and surprisingly good. They also make an oaked white Sauvignon Blanc, but I am not a great fan of this style of wine which seems a contradiction between the fruity crispness of the grape and the rich, butteriness of the oak.

One opportunity to taste their wines will be at the 2007 Côtes de Duras Wine Festival which is held on 12 August – see www.frenchduck.co.uk

They also have a gite on the vineyard which is available to rent.

For more on the Domaine see www.chateau-lapetitebertrande.com

For more on the wines of the Côtes de Duras see  www.cotesdeduras.com

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The village of Cairanne (84 Vaucluse, Provence) in the southern Rhône Valley holds its 33^rd Annual Wine Festival on Sunday 22 July 2007 (4pm-10pm) – the usual shindig with plenty of wine stalls, a Provencal market with over 50 stands, some music and plenty of opportunity to try out the local wines.

An interesting aspect is the invitation to the producers of another wine region to be the "guest appellation" and for 2007 it is the turn of Bandol AC, from the mediterranean coast east of Marseille - rich heavy reds which major on the Mourvedre grape.

Cairanne has an excellent co-operative Cave de Cairanne - Leon Stolarski stocks some of their range, and I can particularly recommend the Cuvée Voconces - "Aromas of stewed fruits and Christmas cake and smoky "garrigue". Rich, dark, sweet and sour fruit flavours, a hint of peppery spice and a superb finish. Quintessential Cairanne."
There are also a number of really good independent producers - A recent recommendation from a French wine merchant whose tastes I rate was for the wines of Domaine de Delubac - Cairanne, Côtes du Rhône Villages AC  Les Bruneauavailable in the UK from the Halifax Wine Company: "Red and black fruits with a peppery and spicy personality - lots of rich, elegant complexity and a big mellow aftertaste. I think this is brilliant."

The red wines of Cairanne are rich and spicy beiong grown on the hillsides around the village - with a minimum of 50% Grenache in the blend together with Syrah, Mourvedre and the other southern Rhône varietals.

For more on the Cairanne Wine Festival see www.vignerons-cairanne.com/

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An interesting article in the Independent (14 July 2007) (Bastille Day) about one of my favourite cheeses, and the battles that are being fought over the methods of making traditional raw milk Camembert.

Unfortunatelty in this instance the steamroller that is the EU cannot be blamed, as it is internal squabbling between small local producers and the big dairy companies.

Camembert is the king of Normandy cheeses, made from cows milk to produce a soft round cheese with a soft white rind.

The raw milk version has a richer flavour and better texture than the pasteurised version, which is the most common. However, because the milk in the tradtional version is unpasteurised, there is a small risk of food poisoning, particularly for the young, old and infirm. Fortunately to date, the raw milk version has not been banned in the interests of health and safety, but this spat between producers cannot help.

However, here is some advice from the Independent:

* How do you know when a Camembert is ready to eat?

The traditional saying in Normandy is that "a ripe camembert squeezes like a woman's breast". But there is a more scientific test.

* Cut into the cheese and look at the width of the crusty layer in the centre. If it is "as thick as a knife blade", the camembert is perfect. If it is thicker, the cheese is not quite at its best. If there is no crusty layer, it is a little too ripe.

* A Camembert should always be stored upside down, to preserve the beauty of the top of the cheese when served. Ideally, a camembert should never be put in the fridge. If you do, take it out at least an hour before eating.

* Gourmets say that the best time for eating Camembert is during the late spring and early summer. This means that you will then be eating, via the cow and the factory, the rich flush of Norman spring grass.

For more info on Camembert, see the website of producer Fromagerie Gillot

Recommended Reading: French Cheese (Eyewitness Companions)
French Cheese / Les Frommages 2002

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As French Duck, we tend to pick up on things which are duck-connected, and whilst this is in no way relevant to our main focus on France, French Wine, French Food, travel, events etc, we were surprised to discover that the old-fashioned yellow plastic bath duck has now been superseded by a range of funky or even punky plastic ducks.

A UK company called in Kings Lynn stocks an impressive range – but happily the traditional yellow version is still available but in supersize – 10 times normal!!

For more info see Totally Funky

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Whilst the mid-summer in the UK has been pretty miserable and very wet, bad weather has not been confined to this side of the English Channel, and many wine regions in France are now reporting serious concerns, particularly about the onset of mildew on the grapes. Up to 60 days of frequent and heavy rains in Bordeaux, South West France and elsewhere have led to very damp conditions which provide an ideal environment for parasitic mildew to develop on the leaves and young bunches of grapes. Even spraying with the distinctive “Bordeaux mixture” of copper sulphate and lime does not have much effect when the rain dilutes its effects as soon as it is sprayed.

Certainly my visits to the wine regions of France this summer have been disappointing weatherwise, and unless the weather improves soon there may be a serious shortfall in the 2007 vintage. Really good weather from now until September could rescue the quality of the resultant wines, but not the quantity. However, the 10 day forecast for Bordeaux still seems to threaten rather changeable conditions rather than the reliably hot and sunny weather you would normally expect in mid/late July.

Alsace was also severely affected by localised hailstorms in June, which were so ferocious that cars were damaged by the hailstorms.

Just another reminder that owning a vineyard is seldom an easy option – pests, diseases, marauding animals, weather, the 35–hour week, customs bureaucracy….. all seem to conspire against you!

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It appears that Champagne is being “reinvented” by the marketing people as offering a way to lose weight – by choosing the sugar-free version of the famous fizz!

Although it has been around for many years, health fanatics only now seem to have discovered the “Brut Zero” or “Brut Nature” or “Non-Dosé” versions of Champagne, as opposed to the more familar Brut or Demi-Sec.

Technically “Brut” in French means raw or crude, but in Champagne terms it is taken to refer to Champagnes with only a little added sugar. In its natural state Champagne is a dry acidic wine which can mask an otherwise highish level of residual sweetness – as much as 3 teaspoons of added sugar making a glass of Champagne come in at up to 89 calories per glass. Part of the process after fermentation both to top up the bottle and to determine the final level of sweetness is the addition of a sweet syrup (the "dosage" or "Liqueur d'expedition") which can transform the wine into something more medium or sweet.

The terms can be a little confusing, as in ascending order of sweetness the classification is as follows: Extra Brut, Brut, Extra Dry,Sec, Demi-Sec, Rich or Doux. Non-Dosé hence refers to a wine where no sugar is added.

Apparently demand for this “diet champagne” is booming

Champagne Tarlant produces a “Zéro” made from the 3 classic Champagne grapes of Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay, but with part of the blend being fermented in new oak to add richness and harmony.

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The fortified medieval city of Carcassonne (11 Aude, Languedoc-Roussillon) is an impressive sight at any time, but at 10.30pm on Bastille Day (14 July) it becomes an even more awesome sight. To celebrate France's national day, there is a spectacular light and firework show which lights up the facade of the old city.

During more than 25 minutes you can admire flames of blue, white, yellow, green red, gold and a grandiose crowning piece. More than 1200 impacts in 6 seconds over 600 metres of frontage.

LINKS:-
Carcassonne Tourist Office

RECOMMENDED READING
Michelin Green Guide - (in English)Languedoc Roussillon Tarn Gorges Green Guide
The Rough Guide to Languedoc and Roussillon (Rough Guide Travel Guides)
Terry Darlington's Narrow Dog to Carcassonne - recounting his canal barge trip taking a narrow boat from the UK to Carcassonne

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The City of Bordeaux has been officially recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage site, and so joins a large section of the Loire Valley and the medieval city of Carcassonne as some of France's most prestigious and important sites - see the others at www.frenchduck.co.uk
For me the most significant aspect of Bordeaux has always been the Quai des Chartrons Chartrons - a curved facade of wine trading houses and warehouses along the banks of the Garonne river set back from the cranes and ship wharves - not so long ago seeming very delapidated, but recently spruced up. This is in many ways the heart of Bordeaux's prestige, being the port from where wine (both local and from the Haut Pays) was exported to England, northern France and Holland over many centuries.

Certainly in recent years the city seems to have become more vibrant and less stuffy.

"With over 350 historic monuments in a protected area of 147 hectares, as well as 3 churches (Saint-André, Saint-Michel, and Saint-Seurin) that were already listed as World Heritage sites on the pilgrim road to Santiago de Compostela, Bordeaux had a number of assets to convince the jury.

Bordeaux's successful bid as a World Heritage site also relied on several ambitious urban renewal projects begun in 1996 under the impetus of mayor Alain Juppé. These include development of the quays along the Garonne River, the restoration of many façades, and a light rail transit system."

For more info see www.bordeaux-tourisme.com/

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It was Andrew over at www.spittoon.biz who reminded me of the wines of the Grassa family at Domaine du Tariquet from Gascony in South West France.

I admit to having been a little snooty about Tariquet - I am generally somewhat suspicious and dismissive of big wine companies (with a few honourable exceptions), prefering the more romantic concept of small independent wine makers and their families crafting their wines with great care and personal attention to every stage from grape to bottle. And Tariquet is BIG - the largest independent vineyard in France based in Eauze (32 Gers, Midi-Pyrenees).

My other prejudice arose from tasting one of their hallmarked wines - an oaked white called "les 4", an oaked blend which I felt was too "New World" with too much oak dominating the freshness and fruitiness of the wine.

So prompted by Andrew's posting I revisited some of the Tariquet wines - and was pleasantly impressed with the quality - the Tariquet Rosé (a blend of merlot, syrah and the local tannat) was particularly impressive - the syrah adding real depth of flavour making it an excellent summer wine but equally well-capable of providing an excellent companion for roast lamb.

Maïté Dubuc-Grassa and her brother Yves Grassa (Winemaker of the year IWC 1987) have in their twenty years of activity become leading French wine makers: they grow 900 hectares (2224 acres) of vines (making them the largest independent vineyard in France) which produce 7 million bottles of wine to be sold in more than 45 countries around the world.

The Famille Grassa signature style relies on the winemaker capturing the first aromas of the grape, a process which involves meticulous care at every stage. Using state-of-the-art technology and facilities (Tariquet owns the largest pressing room in Europe), Yves Grassa has created a fine, unique and fruity style of wine that bears the Tariquet signature and corresponds perfectly to the taste of today's consumer.

In the UK Advintage Wines stocks wines from Tariquet including the Rosé at £5,00 per bottle ("The palate shows a lovely combination of wild raspberry and flowers, but full-bodied at the same time. Excellent with tapas, summer dishes, Italian food as well as spicy dishes"(

For more info see www.tariquet.com/
Advintage Wines

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