Welcome to ‘France et Moi,’ where this week I
am talking to journalist and author Deborah Jacobs about what France means to
her.
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| Deborah L Jacobs |
Firstly, I think France is a special place and
it is famed for many things including its cheese, wine and diverse holiday
locations plus, dare I say it strikes and dog poo littered streets. What do you
think makes France so very unique and “French”?
Deborah: The less frenzied, more gracious lifestyle.
Every conversation starts with bonjour and ends with bonne journée (have a good
day), and on Fridays, bon weekend. Outside of Paris most stores, including the
boulangerie, close for at least two hours at lunchtime. It’s customary to
linger at a café for as long as one wants over one cup of coffee or a glass of
wine. If you get a pastry to take out from a boulangerie/patisserie, chances
are the clerk will wrap it like a gift – either in a tiny box or put it on a
silver-foil square plate and fold paper over it in the shape of a pyramid. And
the merchants don’t scowl (or seem to care) if you ask for a small quantity of
something – whether it is a chunk of cheese, a slice of ham or a single piece
of fruit – at the market.
One Saturday, in the Bayonne market, after I
had already paid for my purchase, the vegetable vendor asked me, “Vous ne
prenez pas de persil?" (Don’t you want to take some parsley?) I shook my
head. He reached into a plastic crate and, with two hands, presented me with a
bunch of parsley, as if it were a bouquet of flowers. I’m sure he has long
since forgotten this flirtatious gesture, but I will remember it forever.
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| Four Seasons in a Day |
Deborah: During the year that my husband and I spent
planning our first lengthy French sojourn, I envisioned writing a book about
the forces that cause baby boomers to leave the workplace sooner than expected
– something that had happened to both of us. While living in France, I was
going to focus on that project.
But, as so often occurs with foreign travel
(and life), nothing went according to plan. And when that happened, I began to
write about it. At least a few times a week, I turned my notes into e-mails to
friends and family whom I thought they would interest. Soon I became so
occupied with this correspondence that I put aside the other book idea and
started this one.
By the time we returned to New York, I had
produced some 60 e-mails, totaling about 70,000 words, and organized them into
a draft table of contents. It took another year of writing, editing and
rewriting to finish Four Seasons in a Day. But, unlike other memoirists and
travel writers, I didn’t have to rely purely on recollections. I believe in the
adage, “The worst pencil is better than the best memory.”
3) France has some beautiful cities, and there
are a few that constantly battle to be my favourite. What is your favourite
French city, and why?
Deborah: Of course I adore Paris and visit it every
time I am in France, but since I come from a big city (New York), I seek out
smaller, less frenetic cities, and there are many wonderful ones in France.
Both Nice and Avignon, in the south – we recently rented an apartment for a
week in each place – would be on my short list. So would Rennes (in the east of
Brittany in northwestern France), where we spent just one night, went to the
fabulous Saturday market and vowed to return for a longer stay.
While living at the foot of the Pyrenees in
French Basque Country (Le Pays Basque), near the Atlantic seaboard in southwest
France, I discovered the city of Bayonne and fell in love with it. Built at the
confluence of the Adour and Nive rivers, Bayonne was for several centuries a
major commercial centre. Today artisans’ studios line the cobblestone streets
of the old city. Of all the markets I have been to in the world, the setting of
the Saturday morning market in Bayonne, where we became regulars, is among the
most beautiful. Vendors set up their stands along the river, creating an
explosion of colours. While waiting to be served, shoppers have a view not only
of the produce but also of the river and half-timbered four- and five-story
Basque city houses on the opposite bank. There’s a photo of that scene on the
cover of Four Seasons in a Day.
Bayonne is also a vibrant academic city that
attracts people of many nationalities. I sometimes fantasize about spending a
semester teaching writing in France. If I ever did that, Bayonne is where I
would like to teach.
4) You have spent quite a bit of time
traveling around France. If money and commitments were no object, where in
France would you like to own a property, and what sort of place would it be?
Deborah: Again, it would be in French Basque Country.
I would live a 20-minute drive south and west of Bayonne, in the town of St.
Jean-de-Luz. There I would own one of the Art Nouveau houses on the promenade
that runs along the Grande Plage. It would have a view of the mountains and the
sea. After a morning swim in the ocean, just steps from my front door, I would
walk to the port, with its crayon-coloured fishing boats reflecting in the
water, and buy the latest catch directly from the fishermen. (Sigh!)
5) Every region in France has its own culinary
specialty. Was there one regional dish you fell in love with on your trip?
Deborah: In Le Pays Basque our favourite regional dish
was axoa. The pronunciation (AH-tcho-a) roughly approximates the sound of a
sneeze. To the American palate, it is reminiscent of chile but without the
beans, and there are probably as many renditions of it as there are varieties
of chile in the U.S. Axoa can be made with either roughly chopped veal or beef,
and an ingredient in many recipes for it is Espelette pepper – either whole or
in powdered form.
Though we prepared most of our own meals while
living in France, with so many delicious versions of axoa available – in
restaurants; as takeout from butcher shops; and even factory-bottled, at
supermarkets – we saw no reason to cook this dish ourselves. Why do all the
chopping, pepper peeling and simmering when so many other people had already perfected
the recipe?
6) What is your favourite thing to buy in a
boulangerie/patisserie?
Deborah: I like to drive into a French village shortly
before lunchtime, look for a busy boulangerie/patisserie, and watch what the
locals are buying. Before I make my choice, I ask the person behind the counter
what the specialty of the house is. Offerings can vary from day to day; the
selection tends to be best on Fridays and on Sunday mornings, as people get
ready for weekend get-togethers.
The most memorable item I discovered this way
was a light, fluffy macaron – this one red-tinged and filled with ganache
caramel and Espelette pepper, bought at the Boulangerie Patisserie Berterreix
in the village of Espelette (home of the famous chile pepper). Produced only from
May until late October, these ethereal cookies cost 0.90€ apiece, and dissolve
in the mouth in a sweet and spicy blend of chocolate, caramel and pepper.
7) What is your first memory of a trip to
France?
Deborah: My family lived in post-war Germany when I
was a preschooler, courtesy of the U.S. Army, and during that time we visited
Paris on a couple of occasions.
As we prepared for the first trip, my mother
read me Kay Thompson’s classic story of Eloise in Paris, illustrated by Hilary
Knight. Like Eloise, I got a special “Paris dress” as a souvenir. Though I
don’t know for certain, I think it’s safe to assume that my Paris dress, unlike
the one that was custom-made for Eloise, was not designed by Christian Dior.
Also, unlike Eloise, I was not allowed to sit at Fouquet’s restaurant and spray
my toes with a seltzer bottle; plunge in the fountains; or give my pet turtle a
bath in the hotel bidet. (In fact, I didn’t even have a pet turtle.) But I
found my own fun in Paris when I ate a double ice cream cone for the first time
– in the Tuileries Garden. The idea of a double cone made such a big impression
on me at age 4 that, when my grandmother came to visit us overseas and we
talked about going to Paris together, I reportedly said, “We must go for ice
cream in the Tuileries Garden.” She told that story for the rest of her life.
8) Do you have a favourite French tipple?
Deborah: My “house wine” in France is La Cave
d’Augustin Florent Bourgueil, produced from the cabernet franc grape. While
living in Le Puy-Notre-Dame – a tiny Loire Valley village surrounded by
vineyards – I discovered this
particular wine the way I always shop for wine in Europe: by shadowing
residents through supermarket wine aisles and watching what they buy.
I
have served this complex, very fruity red with hints of raspberry to a couple
of wine connoisseurs. Only after they praise my selection (€4 per bottle) do I
reveal my secret source, along with my belated discovery: La Cave d’Augustin Florent is
the house brand for the Carrefour chain of supermarkets.
9) France has many different cheeses, a silly
question, but which French cheese are you? A hard and mature Tome, a soft,
fresh and lively goat cheese, the creamy and rich Camembert or maybe the salty
and serious Roquefort?
Deborah: The French cheese with which I most strongly
identify is Mont d’Or, or Vacherin du Haut-Doubs. It is a seasonal delicacy
available from late October until March, and since autumn is my favourite time
to visit France, I look forward to its arrival in the markets. Mont d’Or comes
from the Jura Mountains, and apparently the French and Swiss both took credit
for it until the Swiss finally conceded.
This cheese has a washed rind, a
butter-coloured pâte and a hardened brown crust. Made with rennet, its centre
looks like pudding, and at room temperature it is so soft that I eat it with a
spoon for breakfast. Recognizable by the spruce wood around its crust that
holds the cheese together, it is cured on spruce wood boards and packed in
spruce wood boxes. It is ideally eaten within a month of ripening, but the more
time it is in contact with the wood, the more pleasantly it tastes – and smells
– like the forest.
All these features make Mont d’Or a whimsical
cheese that is not only filled with surprises but also takes on the best of its
surroundings. I would like to think that these are traits I share.
10) Do you have any plans to visit France
again soon?
Deborah: Yes, we plan to rent our house again in the
fall of 2017 and return to France for three months. As we have done in the
past, we will start in the north and head south, chasing the autumn harvest,
before winding up in Paris once the weather gets cold. On past trips this
agenda has taken us to the grape harvest in the Loire Valley, the chile pepper
harvest in Basque Country and the walnut harvest in the Périgord. This year we
want to spend the grape harvest (the vendange) in Alsace-Lorraine, near the
German border. I plan to post updates on my travels, writing and speaking
engagements on my Facebook author’s page.
Thank you for taking the time to answer some
questions about France and you.
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