Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Gascogne produced Cyrano de Bergerac, the literary
soul of the Frenchman: chivalrous, generous, reckless, brave,
boastful and, in the end, tragic. He never gets the girl of his
dreams. One supposes the men of the Bordeaux console
themselves with their marvellous wines.
The Pyrénées
So far from Paris are the mountains separating south-
west France from Spain, you would expect major cultural
differences. And you get them. The Basque people are still
demanding independence in their mountainous Spanish
homeland on the south-west extreme of the Pyrénées, high
above Biarritz. The local French support them.
The originators of the red beret, now a stereotype of all
things French to outsiders, the Basque people have inl uenced
the cuisine as well. Red peppers, vegetables cooked with
garlic, fresh and salted i sh. Once the Basque people hunted
whales in the Bay of Biscay. Hot-blooded adventurous people
they remain.
At the bottom of the mountains, in Béarn, is the hearty
country fare of a
poule-au-pot.
(The famous
béarnaise
sauce
was actually invented in Paris, though named for this
region.) And
coni t
is another: salted meat or game cooked
and preserved in fat. On the other side of the Adour river is
Armagnac, home to a grape brandy aged in wood barrels,
like Cognac, but ever-so slightly sweeter. They even make
pastries with it.
The local cheese,
fromage des Pyrénées
, is red-skinned
when made from sheep's milk and black-skinned when made
from cow's. Both are AOC.
The Languedoc
Once France was divided by two languages, each indicated
by the way they said 'yes'. The
langue d'oil
to the north used
the word
oui
and those in the south used
oc
. Today the
Languedoc includes the Mediterranean coastline, west of
the Rhone river, to the Pyrénées. They are most famous for
their thick bean stew
cassoulet
and
bourride
, a i sh soup rich
with garlic and olive oil.
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