The Jura Region of France

About the Jura Region of France

The Jura is one of France’s delightful, undiscovered regions. Part of Franche-Comté, it offers leafy forests and rivers in the northern part, UNESCO World Heritage Sites and wonderful vineyards producing the distinctive Jura wines, lakes and low mountain ranges and finally the attractive ski resorts of the Haut Jura. Plan a trip to the Jura.
Getting to the Jura

• If you're coming from the U.S.A. you will probably fly to Paris. From here you can either take the TGV high speed train from  Paris Gare de Lyon to Dole (2 hours) and hire a car, or drive from Paris. The distance from Paris to Dole is about 370 kms (230 miles), taking around 3  hours 20 mins depending on your speed.

Check out the details of the journey from Paris to Dole.

• If you are coming from the U.K. there are two ways to get to the Jura. Take your car and the ferry across the Channel. The drive from Calais to Dole in the Jura is around 610 kms (380 miles) and takes around 5 hours 20 minutes. The best route avoids Paris and goes through Champagne via Reims and  Troyes.

Jura's Neighbors
Jura shares a border with Switzerland to the south east and the east and the mountain range in Switzerland is also called Jura. Jura is very close to Burgundy, so if you're on a wine trip it makes a great extra after exploring the wines of the Cote d'Or. Being close to Beaune, Jura is also a good addition to a sightseeing vacation.
Cities in the Jura
Jura has many delightful small towns and beautiful villages, all within an easy distance of each other.

• Dole is a delightful neo-classical town classified a Ville d’Art et d’Histoire (Town of Art and History) where Louis Pasteur was born.
• Lons-le-Saunier. The Capital of Jura  is a quiet spa town with grand townhouses and public buildings. Clocks on the theater in the attractive place de la Liberte chime out the beginning of La Marseillaise – the most famous citizen of Lons, Rouget de Lisle, composed the anthem during the early 1790s in Revolutionary France. The town also has La Maison de la Vache qui Rit, a museum dedicated to the locally produced, but internationally famous, Laughing Cow cheese.

• Arbois is the wine capital of Jura. It has a good selection of gourmet restaurants and food shops and the family home of Louis Pasteur.
• Salins-les-Bains is a spa town with a famous saltworks museum and two great fortresses protecting it.
• Château-Chalon, perched high up on a cliff is one of the Plus Beaux Villages de France (Most Beautiful villages in France). On the route known as the Routes des Vins du Jura, it’s known for the vineyards tht first produced vin jaune, the Jura specialism.

• Poligny at the south end of the Culée de Vaux valley is the cheese capital of Franche-Comté with four top fromageries (cheese shops) in the town.

Why visit Jura
Jura beckons with a beautiful rolling landscape, great sports and a top gourmet reputation. Here are a few of the best reasons to visit Jura:

• Outdoor sports from swimming and canoeing, kayaking and walking to the family ski resort of Les Rousses on the Swiss border, with downhill and cross-country skiing, snow-shoeing and tobogganing.
• Beautiful villages with old abbeys like Baume-les-Messieurs, designated a ‘Plus Beau Village de France’ (Most Beautiful Village of France).
• Small spa towns with good treatments.
• Wine Tourism: The Jura is known for its excellent AOC wines, but especially for its vin jaune. The Tourist Office produces a good map with wine routes marked and wine-tasting cellars. If you're near Arbois, I recommend the Domaine de la Pinte which produces biodynamic wines which you can taste before buying.
• The Food of the Jura makes another great reason to visit. Bresse poultry is world famous and the only poultry with an AOC distinction (since 1957). Cheese include Comté, the king of the Jura mountains, Morbier from small-scale farmers and Le Bleu de Gex, mild and ivory and blue. The Laughing Cow, first produced in 1921, is not gourmet but international. France's top chocolate makers include Hirsinger in Arbois.

 Top Attractions in Jura
The region is packed with things to see and do, incuding:

• The Great Saltworks at Salins-les-Bains, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
• The Royal Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans, a remarkable collection of industrial buildings and another UNESCO World Heritage Site
• The Fort des Rousses Comté maturing cellar housed in the second largest military fort in France. You can take a tour to see where over 50,000 rounds of cheese are matured.
• The box-canyon at Baume-les-Messieurs with its waterfall and underground lake.

Where to stay in Jura
There’s every kind of accommodation in Jura, from upmarket bed and breakfasts to delightful hotels including:
Grand Hotel des Bains, a hotel right in the middle of Salins-les-Bains with a good restaurant and direct access to the heated saltwater pool and main spa.
Au Moulin des Ecorces is located in a former mill just outside the center of Dole with a wonderful view of the town.
La Chaumière Just 3 kilomters outside the center of Dole, this Michelin-starred restaurant with rooms really does deserve its reputation.
Domaine du Val de Sorne, just south of Lons-le-Saunier, is a golf resort hotel in Vernantois in its own grounds and surrounded by hills and vineyards, an 18-hole course and a 6-hole pitch and put.
Chateau de Germingny at Port Lesnay. Once the hunting lodge of the marquis, and a hotel since 1830, today's property is one of the top hotels in Jura. With large, individually decorated rooms and a renowned restaurant, this is the place for a treat. South of Besancon, it’s ideal for vising Salins-les-Bains, Arbois and the various grottos in the area.

The Auvergne Region of France

Why visit the Auvergne

The Auvergne in the very heart of France,  is one of the country's hidden destinations, for long kept apart from the rest of the country by its mountains, forests and wild countryside. Today it remains a region still largely untouched. Romanesque churches with black Madonnas, gorges to drive through and valleys to walk through, rivers to fish and swim in and remote plains for cross country skiing - this is the Auvergne, a beautiful region where the skies are pure and full of stars at night.

About the Auvergne Region of France

The Auvergne is the very core of the vast Massif Central in the center of France. It's a region of contrasts, stretching from Moulins in the rich Bourbonnais region of the north to Le Puy-en-Velay and Aurillac in the much poorer and rural southern Haute-Loire. It’s a wonderful and wild part of France formed by now extinct volcanoes, or puys, that run from the Puy-de-Dôme in the north west to the Cantal in the south west, making this the largest volcanic region in Europe.

Heavily forested, dramatic mountainsides are punctuated by river valleys: the Allier, the Loire which rises on the slopes of the Gerbier de Jonc, and the Dordogne which rises in the Monts-Dore.

Still relatively undiscovered by tourists, it’s a place to walk the high plateau and scramble down to the rivers, to look at some of the most beautiful scenery in France and to visit towns with pure medieval architecture. It is also one of the great starting points for pilgrimages to Santiage de Compostela - from Le Puy-en-Velay. Made up of the four departments of the Allier, Puy-de-Dome, Cantal and Haute Loire, the Auvergne is very well worth discovering.

Getting to the Auvergne

Clermont-Ferrand is the largest city of the Auvergne and is an ideal starting point for a vacation in the area.

• Clermont Airport is at Aulnat, 7 kilometers (3.5 miles) east of the city center. The airport has connections to Paris Orly or Charles de Gaulle, Lyon, Nice, Corsica and other European cities, but only May to October flights to Southampton from Flybe.
• Clermont-Ferrand is 423 kilometers (262 miles) from Paris and by car the journey takes around 4 hours.

• If you are coming from the UK by car, take the ferry to Calais. From Calais to Clermont, the distance is 720 kms (448 miles), so it’s best to break the journey. Either take the longer route avoiding Paris and stay in Reims or Troyes in Champagne, or consider combining it with a visit to the Loire Valley and its chateaux and gardens.

Cities in the Auvergne
Clermont-Ferrand, the major city of the region, is best known as the home of Michelin tyres. But it’s an ancient city going back to Roman times. It has a delightful medieval quarter where the reputation of Clermont as a villa noire (black city) becomes evident. The cathedral was built of the black basalt volcanic rock of the region as are many of the old buildings in the winding streets. There’s plenty to see like the Michelin Adventure (the surprisingly fascinating Michelin museum); there’s good shopping, an annual International Short Film Festival at the end of January/beginning of February that is the largest of its kind in the world, and a lively and growing nightlife.
Cities north of Clermont Ferrand:
Moulins. On the banks of the Allier river, 90 kms (55 miles) north of Clermont, Moulins is the delightful capital of the fertile Bourbonnais region. It has a medieval cathedral with wonderful stained glass windows, a black virgin, a superb triptych from the Master of Moulins, probably painted in 1498, some notable museums and the famous Centre National du Costume de Scène (National Center for Costume) which has just opened a Nureyev section, showing the great dancer’s costumes and personal artefacts.
Vichy. Known for the puppet government of Marshal Pétain during World  War II and for its famous springs, Vichy, 50 kms north of Clermont-Ferrand is a delightful, rather sedate town with beautiful belle époque, Art Nouveau and Art Deco buildings.
Cities south of Clermont-Ferrand:
St-Nectaire is made up of two parts: the old village of St-Nectaire-le-Haut with a Romanesque church and the tiny spa of St-Nectaire-le-Bas. It’s a strange town, most famous for its St. Nectaire cheese and with its belle époque hotels has a faded grandeur that takes you straight back to the 19^th century.
Aurillac in the Cantal has two great claims to fame: umbrella making and its extraordinary Street Theatre Festival in August. But it’s also full of old winding streets full of boutiques, cafes and restaurants which keep the town lively the whole year round.
St-Flour in the Cantal just 92 kms (57 miles) south of Clermont is a delightful old town with a long history. It was the seat of a 14^th-century bishopric and became important during the Middle Ages. The city  has a cathedral with an impressive interior, and a bishop’s palace housing the Musée de la Haute-Auvergne with furniture and musical instruments. There’s a very good market here on Saturday mornings.
More about St-Flour
Le Puy-en-Velay is dominated by extraordinary monuments perched on the needles of rock that rise up from the town: the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, the terracotta Madonna, the Chapel of St Michael and a vast statue of St Joseph. It was once a deeply religious city, one of the great medieval starting points for  pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. It’s also famous for lace, for lentils and for verveine (verbena) which the local distillery Pagès uses as its best known flavored alcoholic drink.

Major Attractions in the Auvergne

The Chaîne des Puys offers spectacular scenery, mineral waters like Volvic Spring and the National Regional Park of the Volcanos topped by the Puy-de-Dôme which the extremely energetic can walk up.
In the southern part, take the Plomb du Cantal cable car from the resort of Le Lioran for a spectacular view of the mountains.
Vulcania is a superb theme park devoted to volcanoes. Interactive and definitely dramatic there’s a 3D film on eruptions in the Auvergne, a Dragon Ride and more. It’s at the foot of the Puy de Lemplegy, just 26 kms (16 miles) west of Clermont-Ferrand.
More on theme parks in France.
Tourist Train through the Allier Gorges. Take the train that runs from Langeac to Langogne through the fabulous gorges of the Allier and the national park. On the 2-hour trip the train goes through 53 tunnels and snakes beside the Allier river.
Mont Mouchet Museum of the Resistance. Follow the story of the Maquis resistance in June 1944 which held up German divisions on their way north to Normandy and the D-Day Landings.
Sports in the Auvergne. The area has something for everyone. You can go white water rafting, cross-country skiing, ballooning, kayaking, swimming, bicycling and walking along the well-signposted grandes randonées (numbered GR routes). Check in each local town and village for information.

Food of the Auvergne

The Auvergne is not the place for subtle, refined food. This was a peasant culture and the food is suitably robust. The best known dish is potée auvergnate, a kind of pot-au-feu of cabbage, potatoes, bacon, beans and turnips. Chou farci is cabbage stuffed with beef and pork. Equally filling is l’aligot, puréed potatoes mixed with cheese.
Cheese is very good indeed, ranging from the cow’s milk St. Nectaire to Bleu d’Auvergne and taking in Laguiole, Cantal, and Fourme d’Ambert. Local sausages made from pork are also worth buying and there are endless varieties of marvelous honeys from bees living in the forests and fields of the region.
Where to Stay
The most interesting hotel in the region is the Chateau de Codignat 40 kms (24 miles) east of Clermont-Ferrand. It’s a wonderfully romantic castle hotel with a very good restaurant set in the middle of nowhere.
There are a number of very good bed and breakfasts; check with the local tourist offices for lists and information.

Moissac in Tarn-et-Garonne

Why Visit Moissac

Moissac in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in the Midi-Pyrénées region of France is a delightful discovery. It’s a small, rather sleepy place with a boat marina where barges moor for the night. It’s best known for its spectacular St-Pierre Abbey, one of the major stopping places for those on pilgrimages from Le Puy-en-Velay to St James of Compostella in Spain.
Location
Moissac stands where the Canal de Garonne meets the Tarn river, part of the system of central France canals which links the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and near where the Tarn meets the Garonne.
Highlights
The Abbey Church of St-Pierre is a masterpiece. Originally founded in the 7^th century as a Benedictine Abbey church, St-Pierre was remodeled in 1063.
Approach it through a narrow winding street and you’re faced with the superb south entrance, a huge porch with a recessed doorway. Intricately carved columns of warm golden-colored stone hold up a tympanum depicting Christ in the center, raising his right hand and surrounded by the evangelists.

You need to be an expert or theologian to recognize the others: they’re the elders of the Apocalypse described in St. John’s Book of Revelation.

 After the entrance way, the interior, remodeled in the 15^th century, is a little disappointing in scale. But look out for the statuary, like the 15^th century wooden sculpture,  The Flight into Egypt. And up-end the monk’s misericords in the choir for their carved misericords, the small wooden shelf which let the monk rest against during the long hours of prayer and chanting.
Next to the abbey is one of the most beautiful and peaceful cloisters you could ever hope to find. Finished in 1100, it’s a large structure where the monks could walk, talk if they were allowed to and contemplate whatever monks contemplated.

It looks onto the interior garden planted with a large cedar in the middle. Marble columns hold up the roof, each with an intricately carved stone at the top depicting animals and plants, saints and scenes from the Bible.

On the Pilgrim Route
Because of its abbey, Moissac was on the pilgrim route from Le-Puy-en-Velay to St.

James of Compostella in Spain (GR65 walking route). If you want to walk the route, check out the Major Pilgrim Routes of France. Moissac Abbey is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in France under the Routes of Santiago de Compostela classification, along with places like Conques in the Tarn gorges.

Where to Stay
I visited Moissac on a barge trip from Montauban to Agen. But if you want to stay there on an individual vacation, try the Moulin de Moissac, a large hotel and spa overlooking the river and near the marina. 1 Promenade Sancert, 00 33 (0)5 63 32 88 88.
Where to Eat
Le Florentin
8 place Roger Delthil
Tel.: 00 33 (0)5 63 04 19 18
Website in French
Good restaurant with well cooked dishes using local ingredients as well as offering pizzas and salads. Menus from €20. Sit outside opposite the abbey church and time it so that you’re there as the sun sets and the evening draws on. You’ll be rewarded with a delightful son-et-lumière show. Unfortunately it’s only in French, but it lights up the porch and the figures with different colors as the story progresses.
The Auberge du Cloîitre
5 Place Durand de Bredon
Tel.: 00 33 (0)5 63 04 37 50
Sit outside on a shaded terrace overlooking the abbey and eat dishes cooked with local ingredients. Menus from €18
Shopping
Seek out the Verrerie d’Art de Moissac, an atelier where you can watch the owners, Caroline Bufkens and Laurent Malgouyres blow the glass you see for sale (though only in the morning in high summer when its just too hot). It’s in a small courtyard along with other artisans' workshops, signposted from the street at 9 rue Jean Moura, tel.: 00 33 (0)5 63 04 21 46.
Tourist Office
6 place Durand de Bredon
Tel.: 00 33 (0)5 63 04 01 85
Website in English

Museum of the Civilisations of Europe and the Mediterranean in Marseille

Introduction

The Museum of the Civilisations of Europe and the Mediterranean (MuCEM), is housed in a striking modern building in Marseille. Designed by Rudy Ricciotto, it was opened in 2013 at the entrance to the old Port. It's very much a symbol of the resurrection of this ancient Mediterranean port in the last few years. Today Marseille is an exciting, vibrant, lively city. And as it is now only 6 hours 27 minutes away by train from London Stl Pancras (without a change of trains), Marseille is a very attractive proposition for a short break in the sunshine of the south of France.

(See information below.)

The Site

The Museum is housed in both the new building, known as J4, and the historic Fort Saint-Jean, connected by a slender footbridge. There are two entrances, both through the Fort. You can enter via the Panier footbridge above the main road, or by the Vieux Port entrance.

Fort Saint-Jean

Marseille was strategically placed on the Mediterranean, an important port that was run by the Military Order of the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John of Jerusalem during the Crusades. The buildings were expanded in the mid 15^th century by King René of Provence who built the square tower by the water. But it wasn’t until 100 years later that the main fort was built by Louis XIV after a local rebellion by the people of  Marseille.
The fort remained a military building up to the French Revolution when it became a prison. It then remained in the ownership of the French Army who used it for the African Army and the French Foreign Legion on their way to Algeria. During World War II, the Germans established an arsenal for ammunition against an air attack.

In August 1944, the ammunition exploded, destroying much of the old fort.

The French government took over the fort after the war, but it wasn’t until 1960 that it passed to the Ministry of Cultural Affairs which classed it as a historical monument 4 years later.

Fort Saint-Jean Exhibitions

The fort is used for temporary exhibitions, housed in the Georges-Henri Rivière building.

You go through brick arcades and vaulted rooms, passing through the main courtyard and the guardhouse which shows a little of the military history of the building. Outside a series of terraces house different gardens, a Mediterranean kitchen garden, a cluster of oaks, and orange tree courtyard and more. The gardens are still in their early stages but what you get here and from the footbridge is a spectacular view over the harbour and out to sea.

J4

J4, the modern building on the site of an old pier houses the permanent Gallery of the Mediterranean, temporary exhibitions, a children’s area and an auditorium for films, concerts and performances. There’s also a bookstore, a brasserie and a restaurant with a panoramic terrace.

Gallery of the Mediterranean

Housed on level 0, the main exhibition is an ambitious one. Covering all the countries of the Mediterranean from east to west, it takes four major themes using a huge variety of art and artefacts.
The Birth of Agriculture shows the basis of our ancestors’ world. It goes from the prehistory of the Mediterranean through the development of arable farming and particularly the development of the all-important wheat grain. It explains the importance of water and how it was harnessed, shows a hut for semi-nomadic shepherds who took part in the transhumance, taking animals from their winter to their summer pastures.
Jerusalem, Holy City of Three Religions, is the story of this remarkable place. Claimed by Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the exhibits show how each religion regarded the city in the lives of the prophets that they all honoured. It’s thought-provoking, given the present day conflicts.
Citizenship and Human Rights goes into the idea of citizenship: What does it mean? What rights does it give us? What responsibilities do we have? It dips into the idea of free cities and, naturally, places the French Revolution firmly in the middle of the history of France and Europe.
Beyond the Known World starts with the ideas of exploring the unknown world through the instruments that early sailors used, pushing the bounds of knowledge and taking the ships into waters that they thought were full of strange monsters and sea creatures. A little psychology appears in our fear of the unknown section, a fear that was conquered by the lure of treasures from the Indes, of gold and spices, of precious textiles and delicate porcelain. It puts the Mediterranean into context; this was just one world among many and emphasises the importance of Greece and Athens in the ancient world.
The Museum takes you on a whirlwind tour in both time – it stretches over centuries,  and in space – it takes a very wide area. It introduces a lot of ideas and does make you think outside the box. However, it's quite confusing as you walk from idea to idea, so make sure you take a gallery guide with you.

Practical Information

MuCEM
1 Esplanade du J4
Tel.: 00 33 (0)4 84 35 13 13
MuCEM website
Open May-July 4 Wed-Mon 11am-6pm; Jul 5-Aug 31 9am-8pm; Sep 1-Oct 31 11am-7pm; Nov 1-Apr 30 9am-6pm. May 2-Oct 31 late-night opening Fri to 10pm.
Closed May 1, Dec 25.
Admission adult €8; under 18 years free; family €12. Free with City Pass and on 1^st Sunday of every month.
Free admission to outdoor spaces and gardens for both J4 and Fort Saint-Jean.
Bus 82, 49, 60
Restaurants
MuCEM is well served for restaurants, all run by top chef  Gérald Passédat. Le Môle Passédat is the best restaurant on the top floor with views of the Mediterranean. There’s also a bar up here and plenty of comfortable seating. There’s a kiosk for snacks on the ground floor and a café and culinary school at Fort Saint-Jean.
Marseille Tourist Office
11, La Canebiere
Tel.: 00 33 (0) 826 500 500)
Also at:
Gare St Charles
Open Apr-Sep 10am-7pm; Oct-Mar variable hours

Disgusting French dishes to avoid unless you are French

1.  10 Disgusting French Dishes to try once

The French have always been dab hands at turning what we consider the most repulsive parts of an animal into what the French consider a ’delicacy’. Foreigners usually find these dishes pretty difficult to swallow. However, if you’re adventurous, you should try these once. And who knows? You might become a big fan like Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall hopefully did. She was on a trip to France to support the charity Emmaus and dropped into the Marche Raspail to sample a bit of sausage.
For top French food recipes, check out the about.com French food expert's site.
Go to Lyon for a real offal feast in a bouchon (restaurant) like the Cafe des Federations. Lyon regards itself as the gourmet capital of France; forget Paris. You'll be amazed.
Top Lyon Restaurants
Top Attractions in Lyon

Toulouse Sausage. Mary Anne Evans

2.  Andouille or Sausage

Andouille is a sausage made from the intestines and stomach of the pig. Sometimes there are additions: neck, breast, head or heart, all packed into a black skin. Two regions claim to make the authentic andouille, smoked and eaten cold: Normandy (andouille de Vire) and Brittany (andouille de Guémené).
Don't confuse andouille with Toulouse sausage in the image; that is a bit stronger than a normal sausage but quite delicious. It's sold by weight, so you just ask how much you need and the butcher peels it off the massive spiral you see here.

Le Bistroquet in Troyes for andouillette. Ossi Laurila

3.  Andouillette or another sausage

Sausage made from pork intestines (chaudins) often with pork stomach (particularly in Troyes, Champagne, better known for its outlet shopping) and in Burgundy with calf’s mesentery, a piece of peritomeum that joins part of the small intestine to the back wall of the abdomen in a skin. Rouen comes up with a drier version made from pig’s bowels. Andouillette is traditionally served with mustard and potato purée. You’ll find them on most bistro menus.
Andouillette is taken so seriously that it has its own association A.A.A.A.A (Association Amicale des Amateurs d’Authentiques Andouillettes), more simply known as a5 is a gastronomic society founded by Francis Amunategui and 4 other lovers of the delicacy in the early 1970s to preserve the standards.

Typical Offal from a specialist butcher. Mary Anne Evans

4.  Cerveaux or cervelle or Brains

The best brains come from lambs and sheep. Ox brain is firmer and along with calf’s brains, is cheaper to buy, so these two are often used as a filling for pies. It looks pretty vile in a butcher’s window – a handful of what look like large veins, gelatinous and grey with red veins that have to be removed before cooking.
Usually they are lightly dusted with salt and pepper and flour and fried before adding sautéed garlic, parsley and lemon. It’s called Sautéed Cervaux (fried brains) on French menus.

5.  Cuisses de grenouilles or Frogs legs

This dish is dying out in France but you will see it in traditional bistros. Frogs are now a protected species in France, so they come from Asia where they are also considered proper food. What is rather ironic, given the typical British reaction to them, is that new archeological evidence discovered in Wiltshire shows a frog cooked more than 10,000 years ago. The first reference in France is in a cookbook of the 18^th century.
They taste rather like chicken and are usually seasoned, sprinkled with flour and sautéed.

6.  Gésiers or Giblets

Giblets are made up of different parts of poultry (chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese). The word gésiers is used loosely and can refer just to the gizzard, the thick-walled part of a bird’s stomach which grinds down grit and small stones. However, gésiers can also include heart, liver and kidneys plus the external giblets, the head, neck, wingtips and feet. You can buy the external giblets from larger birds separately at the butcher’s to make pot-au-feu and ragouts.
Gésiers are cooked in various ways. They often appear on menus as salads so watch out for the likes of salade de gésiers de volaille which will have green leaves, lardons, tomatoes, eggs and goat’s cheese added to the giblets.

Basashi or Horse Meat. Richard M. Jones licensed under Creative Commons

7.  Cheval or Horse

They may be disappearing, but you can still come across Boucherie Chevalines, or horse butchers shops in France. Some horses are still bred for meat, like the Ardennes and Postier Breton horses. Horse meat was only sanctioned in France in 1811. In 1865 a banquet (Hippophagique, or horse-eating feast) was held in Paris to try to persuade the poor to buy a cheap alternative to beef and pork. The menu included horse-broth vermicelli, boiled horse meat and cabbage and rum gateau with horse bone marrow. The same year the first Boucherie Chevaline opened in Paris.
You might find horse on the menu, usually as a steak tartare or as a cooked steak.

Bofinger Brasserie, Bastille, Paris. Atout France/Stephane Frances

8.  Ris or Sweetbreads

Ris (or sweetbread) is the culinary names for the thymus gland in the throat and the pancreas near the stomach in lambs, pigs and calves. They are soaked in salt water, blanched and cooled before being fried, braised, roasted, poached, grilled or cooked on skewers. You mainly come across them as ris de veau (calfs’ sweetbreads) or ris d’agneau (lamb’s sweetbreads).
Sweetbreads can also refer to testicles (known as Rocky Mountain oysters or prairie oysters in America), but in France they are usually the thymus gland. I would recommend trying these; they are delicious though the texture is a little too soft for many people.
Bofinger Brasserie in Paris serves a great sautéed sweetbread with stir-fried chanterelle and mashed potato in semi-salted butter.

Snails stuffed with garlic and parsley butter. Pool/Wikipedia commons

9.  Escargots or Snails

A well known and much loved dish, the best snails come from Burgundy and are handsome beasts with a streaked colored shell. They are cleaned for 24 hours in a container with no food or water to clear their systems, then removed from their shells and cooked in a good stock, flavored with the likes of thyme, bay leaves and pepper. They’re then put back into their shells and stuffed à la bourguignonne (Burgundy style) with butter flavoured with garlic, shallots and parsley. Around Dijon mustard can be added. Now most people buy them already cooked and tinned with the shells separate and just asemble them for the table.
They’re served very hot in a dish and eaten with fresh French bread to soak up the sauce which, frankly, is the main reason most people order them. They can be a bit rubbery in texture and don’t taste of anything except the sauce.

Tete de Veau. Myrabella/Wikipedia Commons

10.  Tete de veau or calf’s head

The deboned head is first boiled with spices and then cut and served with a sauce, either gribiche which has cornichons, vegetables, garlic, oil and vinegar, mustard and eggs, or ravigote, which is more like a vinaigrette with additions from some chefs such as eggs.
It was originally made with pig’s head, which explains why Revolutionary-minded French fans of the dish eat it on January 21^st, the day in 1793 when Louis XIV was guillotined.
It’s definitely an acquired-taste dish but if you’re with a bunch of die-hard Republicans on that date you might just have to join in.

Tripe from a ruminant's stomach. Mary Anne Evans

11.  Tripeau or tripe

This is the stomach of ox (beef), calf and sheep, usually sold specially prepared or cleaned and looking very white. It’s taken from the first and biggest compartment of the stomach. You can get it from a triperie (tripe butcher). It’s a particularly regional dish; the best known being tripes à la mode de Caen, supported by the Confrérie (brotherhood) of Normandy. In Normandy they add calves’ feet and cook the lot in cider and Calvados and herbs, then serve it with steamed potatoes.

How to get from London, the UK and Paris to Dijon by train, car, and flight

Read more about Paris. Read more about Dijon.
Dijon is a lovely city in the heart of Burgundy, close to many of the great vineyards of the region. It's been the capital of Burgundy since the beginning of the 11th century because of its strategic position on the important north-south and east-west trading routes that connected France to the rest of Europe and beyond.
Tourist Office
34 rue des Forges
Tel.: 00 33 (0)8 92 70 05 58
Website

London to Dijon by Air

Dijon-Bourgogne Airport
717 rue de l'aviation
21600 Ouges
Côte d’Or
Tel.: 00 33 (0)3 80 67 67 67
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There are flights from the UK to Dijon from London City Airport, Aberdeen, Belfast, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
There are flights to Dijon from Paris and other major cities.
Dijon Airport is around 7 kms (4.5 miles) from Dijon city center by road.

Paris to Dijon by train

TGV express trains direct to Dijon leave regularly from Paris Gare de Lyon (20 boulevard Diderot, Paris 12) all through the day taking from 1 hr 35 minutes.
Metro lines to and from Gare de Lyon

• Ligne 1 – La Defence to Chateau de Vincennes
• Ligne 14 – Saint Lazare to Bibliotheque Francois Mitterand

Dijon Ville Station is on Av Foch, with connections into the center on tram B.

Connections to Dijon-Ville Station

TGV trains to Dijon-Ville train station

• Paris to Dijon in 1 hr 35 mins.
• Strasbourg to Dijon in 1 hr 50 mins.

TER trains to Dijon-Ville train station

• Beaune in 25 mins
• Besancon to Dijon in 1 hour
• Bourg-en-Bresse in 1 hr 45 mins
• Châlon-sur-Seine in 40 mins
• Laroche-Migennes in 1 hr 30 mins

• Lyon in 2 hrs 10 mins
• Mâcon in 1 hr 10 mins
• Nevers in 2 hrs 20 mins
• Nuits St-George in 20 mins
• Reims in 3 hrs 20 mins
• Tonnerre in 1 1h
• Troyes in 2hrs 10 mins

Booking Train Travel in France

• From the UK, book on Rail Europe
• From the UK book on voyages-sncf (formerly Rail Europe)

Paris to Dijon by car

The distance from Paris to Dijon is around 312 km (193 miles) and the journey takes a bit over 3 hours

There are tolls on the autoroutes.

• French Roads and Driving in France Advice

Getting from London to Paris

• By train (Eurostar)
  Eurostar between London, Paris and Lille
• By bus/coach
  Eurolines offers a cheap service from London, Gillingham, Canterbury, Folkestone and Dover to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport and Paris Gallieni. Six coaches a day; 2 overnight; journey time is 7 hours. The Eurolines stop is at the Paris Gallieni Coach Station, 28 ave du General de Gaulle, just by the Gallieni metro station near the Porte de Bagnolet (Metro line 3, final stop).
• Eurolines website

IDBus also operates between London and Lille and London and Paris. IDBus also goes from Lille to Amsterdam and Brussels.

• IDBus website

How to get from Paris and London to Lyon by various forms of transport, by train, car, bus and flight. Use this information resource to plan your journey.

A Weekend in Saintes in Poitou-Charentes on the French Atlantic Coast

Why visit Saintes

Once an important capital in Roman times, Saintes today is a modest little town which still feels great with its Romanesque pilgrimage churches.

Arriving in Saintes

We’d arrived late on Saturday night, searching the streets in the dark for the discreet sign that led us to our hotel.
“It’s called Les Saveurs de l’Abbaye – it must be near here,” I muttered, as we circled the Abbaye aux

In fact, this Logis hotel was right next door, our chic little room up under the eaves with a view across the abbey’s glorious Romanesque tower. Waking up to the clang of French church bells, calling the faithful to Sunday mass, was a fitting introduction to the city of Saintes, which astonishingly got its name long before it became an important medieval religious centre, a stop on the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela.

Roman Capital

The Romans first founded this city on the Charente River, in Poitou-Charente, a little way inland from France’s Atlantic coast, naming it Mediolanum Santonum. They made it capital of the region of Gaul-Aquitania which stretched from modern Poitiers down to Bordeaux. In those days, it was an important metropolis, albeit in a far-flung corner of the empire.
The road below our window, rue St-Pallais, is the last stretch of the Roman road which led right across France from Lyons to Saintes. Tucked into the hillside, on the far side of the town, are the impressive remains of an amphitheatre, once large enough to house the city’s entire population, and the last remaining fragments of the thermal baths.

Medieval Churches

It is from Santonum that Saintes takes its name, via a detour in Frankish times, when it was known as Xainctes. Happy accident or no, the name is fitting as most visitors now come here to visit the city’s three magnificent medieval churches.
The Abbaye aux Dames was founded by Geoffrey of Anjou in 1047 and enjoyed an illustrious line of royal patronage. It has become the city’s main heritage centre, its cloister now housing a hotel and one of the town’s finest gift and coffee shops (complete with its own blends of musically inspired teas infused with rose petals and violets). There is also a regular programme of concerts throughout the year. Sadly we weren’t there on the right day, but we walked into the soaring church just at the end of mass. Mark made a beeline for the organ and was invited to have a go, filling the gothic vaults with a cascade of notes as I soaked up the detail of the intricately carved bosses.

Sunday Market

There was a pretty decent crowd at church. There was a much bigger one in the market on av. Gambetta, obviously the place to be on a Sunday morning.
There are markets every day except Monday in Saintes, moving between three different sites, in place St Pierre (Wed and Sat), place du 11 Novembre (Tues and Fri) and av. Gambetta (Thurs and Sun). Between the posies of different varieties of radishes, the jars of honey and the stall selling nothing but charentais – similar to slip-on carpet slippers and mules – were great iron cooking pots filled with sizzling potato and sausage, paella, and gleaming seafood stalls piled high with lobsters, prawns and scallops, noix de St Jacques, their shells adopted as the official symbol of the Compostela pilgrimage. And just at the end of the market, one stall was selling nothing but cêpes, plump and brown and fresh from the forest, smelling of the earth and memories of the finest pasta.
I wish briefly, wandering around, that I had my own kitchen and wonder whether we should buy take-out but I have a list of restaurants that promise much. Later, I wish more fervently that I had listened to my inner voice – nothing on my list of restaurants was open on a Sunday.
We did eventually find somewhere to eat further down av. Gambetta, the Taverne de Maître Kanter, part of a nationwide chain specialising in food from Alsace – perfectly pleasant, if uninspired, just incredibly useful!

The Cathedral of and the Breath of God

We had to wait until next day for the real treat. We spent Monday morning exploring the city’s other two great churches. First came the Cathedral of St Pierre, in the heart of the old pedestrian quarter near the river, the oldest footprint of the three but much rebuilt after fires and religious wars, so that now it stands a gothic monument with baroque flourishes, such as its distinctive domed tower. Golden autumn leaves swirled and eddied in a perpetual twister beneath the sculpted canopy of the west front. I could only think, as we walked through, of Indiana Jones’ Breath of God and crossed my fingers, in a childish fashion, in case I might be smitten from on high.
On the hill further out, near the amphitheatre, past a roundabout with a splendidly confusing sign that offers options of turnings to Canterbury, Salisbury and Timbuctou amongst other holy places of the world, is the Church of St Eutrope. This is now a UNESCO World Heritage sight, not for its soaring Gothic church but for its crypt, the original Romanesque church, an atmospheric masterpiece of sturdy barrel vaults and twisting, enchanted carving, echoing with the footsteps of the pilgrims of centuries.
Souls replete, we went in search of food. With most restaurants still closed on Mondays, we now discovered the delightful Au Coin des Saveurs, down beside a river as peaceful and gentle as a Constable painting. A warm welcome, a laid-back atmosphere, reasonable prices promised much and delivered a delicate scallop brochette with ratatouille, John Dory with a deft balsamic sauce and perfectly sculpted carpaccio of pineapple with mango sorbet.
It left us ready for an afternoon strolling around the old town past the Roman Arc Germanicus, past the Archaeological Museum and the other museums which are all closed on Mondays. I didn’t mind too much, but made a mental note to choose a different day next time.