"In an English Country Garden"...

...except that, unlike the garden in Percy Grainger's song, this one is in France, tucked away into a very particular stretch of coastline in Haut-Normandie that runs from the busy port city of Dieppe down to the picturesque town of Etretat . Known as the Alabaster Coast, its distinctive chalky white cliffs mirror those along the English coast around Dover.

Here, in the small village of Varengeville-sur-mer in 1898, a French banker, Guillaume Mallet and his wife Adélaïde, invited a 29 year old English architect, Edwin Luytens (later Sir Edwin Luytens of English Arts & Crafts fame) to build them a family home. He was joined in this endeavor by the distinguished English garden designer, Gertrude Jeckyll.

Last Sunday, some 116 years later, we were lucky enough to take a guided tour of this remarkable house, led by the Mallet's granddaughter, Mme Claire Bouchayer. We explained our long-time interest in the Arts & Crafts movement and showed her photos of our Inverness home with its American Arts & Crafts furnishings, which led to much discussion as to the similarities and differences between the two movements. As we talked, we walked through the house. Many of the original furnishings were lost during WWII, when the house was occupied by the Germans. Fortunately, the basic structure remained intact and, thanks to quick thinking by some staff person at the time, enough pieces were hidden away, so that today they once more grace the elegant rooms.

From its soaring double-storey grand salon...

... with its handsome balcony and tall ceiling that provides excellent acoustics for the concert recitals held here...

...to its distinctive corner fireplace, a blend of stone and brick...

...its addition of delightful ceramic plaques above many doorways...

...the ziggy-zaggy shaped windows...

...whose detailed hardware took our breath away...

...to the warm light-filled feel to the rooms,  the house works a kind of magic on the visitor. There's a sense of peace and intimacy, a balance between open flowing spaces and smaller, quieter corners that makes an indelible impression.

 The house is just the beginning, though;  still to come were the gardens!

Immediately surrounding the house, the gardens designed by Gertrude Jeckyll are formal extensions of the house, extending the privacy and intimacy of the home into the outdoors.

Linked with archways and pergodas, these gardens keep you connected to the house as you circle the exterior.

Boughs of white wisteria dripped off one pergoda.

While in the former vegetable garden, a quiet pond, planted with iris stands in the center of what is now the rose garden.

It was still early for roses, but the mild spring brought out this climbing species in full flower...

...while the fragrance of this Charles Austin rose was enough to make you swoon!

 And the intense color of this blue clematis-like flower almost hurt your eyes.

Beyond the clipped hedges, though, glimpses of the Parc des Moutiers were beckoning.

Stretching some 12 hectares from the house down the gently sloping hill to the sea below, the natural soils of this region allow for an immense proliferation of exotic trees and shrubs, such as Himalayan rhododendrons, Chinese azaleas, cedars from the Atlas Mountains, and others. Mallet and his wife set about to create a tapestry of these trees and shrubs, planting them carefully  to blend the colors of flower and foliage.

With map in hand we set off into the park, wandering through thickets of azaleas...

 ...passing flowering trees, whose blossoms reminded me a bit of our lacey hydrangea at home, but which weren't hydrangeas.

Overwhelmingly, though, it was the rhododendrons that were at their peak.  They climbed and clambered everywhere!

The colors were so bright and varied, we felt as though we were walking through an artist's paintbox!

The closer we looked, the brighter the colors!

Along the way, we met some friendly Italians walking through the park, who snapped the two of us lost in a thicket of blossoms, a lovely way to remember our visit to this magical spot.

It would be hard to top our visit to the Bois de Moutiers, but just a couple of kilometers down the road, perched above the cliffs, we came across this beautiful church, parts of which date back to the 13th century.

Inside the church we found a stunning blue and white stained glass window installed above the main altar. We learned it was designed by the cubist painter Georges Braque, who fell in love with this area and lived here for many years. He and his wife are buried in the little cemetery outside.

Walking around the back of the church, we looked away from the sea and there, nestled in the trees, we spied the house Edwin Luytens designed for the Mallet family looking back at us!



Driving along the country roads of this part of Normandy, we found ourselves agreeing with Georges Braque and all the other artists, writers and musicians who became enchanted with the region. It's largely agricultural, lush green fields of barley, oats, flax, and apple orchards line the roads. Other meadows are dotted with plump, healthy looking milk cows, munching away happily, getting ready to provide the basis for delicious camembert cheese!

And along the coast, the dramatic chalk cliffs fall into the sea, often with startling shapes, like this arch at Etretat.



Finding ourselves on one such country lane, we made one last stop before returning our car to Rouen and taking the train back to Paris: the Manoir d'Ango!

Monsieur D'Ango, a wealthy ship outfitter from Dieppe, built this Renaissance-style manor house in the 16th century, complete with an Italianate loggia, towers...

...and, at the time, the largest dovecote (colombier) in all of France, holding 3000 doves!

Largely destroyed during the Revolution, the buildings were lovingly restored in the 19th and 20th century as a unique example of the French Renaissance. They stand today surrounded by woods and fields that surely must have looked very similar in 16th century Normandy.

Returning our rental car at the Rouen train station, we hopped on an express train back to Gare St. Lazare, arriving in just one hour, and marvelled again at how simple it is to get around here, largely on public transportation.

Meanwhile, in Paris, the sun is still shining and what can be more fun than picking up two charming girls from their school at 4:30 pm and taking them for "un gouter" -- a treat: hot chocolate and tarte au pommes!

À bientôt!

(A big thank you to Matthew for most of the photos in this post!)

Global Cuisine

Today is Cinco de Mayo, a day when, no matter where you are, you might find yourself thinking about a delicious quesadilla or a burrito supreme and a Corona beer.  I had no time for such thoughts, however,  as I found myself, unexpectedly but with great pleasure, taking my niece's spot in a cooking class at the Ritz Hotel!

I entered the building from the back, through the staff entrance, far from the glitzy hotel hallways with the decadent displays of expensive gee-gaws, including the iconic Ritz Teddy.

Down in the basement, however, along endless corridors and known to a select few, lies something much more interesting:  the exclusive École Ritz Escoffier Paris.

Here in its own "super" kitchen, under the guidance of Michel Roth (the "directeur des cuisines"),  you can choose from an array of classes, all the way from a year long, full-bore course that takes you through every facet of French cuisine (and costs several thousand euros!), to a one-hour "atelier" catered to the amateur enthusiast with a leaner wallet.

Today's one-hour atelier "recette" was neither French nor Mexican. Rather, we travelled to the sub-continent, with a recipe for chicken curry madras, cooked in a coconut milk sauce, that placed it somewhere between India and Thailand! (Fricassée de volaille au curry madras.)

A group of 12 eager cooks gathered around the work table -- French, Brazilian, Canadian, American, English, Russian. A truly global group!

An apron, tea-towel, recipe booklet and pencil were set beside each work station, with the center of the table filled with bowls of ingredients: chicken breasts, onions, tomatoes, peppers, apples and bananas.

And a bowl of coriander and another filled with fresh green peas.

Our chef today, Adeline Robert, trained in Biarritz, Paris, New York, and at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco, before joining the team at the École in 2009. At 1 pm precisely, she began instructing us on exactly how we should slice and chop the bananas...

...peel, slice and chop the apples, the tomatoes, the red and green peppers, the onions.

Then it was time for us to go to work, carefully following her instructions as to how to hold the knife, so as to avoid chopping your fingers -- this gentleman doesn't quite have it down yet!

 With a dozen eager knives peeling and chopping, we soon had all the vegetable ingredients ready for the next step.

Moving over to the stove, the pace picked up. After all, this meal had to be cooked and, more or less, eaten in one hour!! So, the peas went into a large pot of boiling, very salted, water. Adding lots of salt retains the bright color of the peas, Adeline explained. Once tender, they were placed in a colander over iced water, to stop the cooking.

A brief pause as we awaited our next instructions. The basmati rice had been soaking in water, salt added, and crushed cardamon seeds. The pan was covered, then brought to a boil, removed immediately from the heat, and left to stand, still covered, whilst we moved on to the rest of the cooking.

Time to sauté the chicken breasts, which had been deboned, skinned, and chopped into rough pieces about 1 to 2 inches square. Salt, pepper, and curry powder were all liberally added to the chicken pieces and mixed in before the whole lot was dumped into a marvellous copper pan. A few minutes of cooking and the chicken was removed to a side pan, more olive oil went into the copper pan and it was time to throw in the onions, tomatoes, half the bananas, and half the apples.

At the same time, the red and green peppers were being sautéed in their own pans. No stirring allowed, Adeline insisted, you have to "toss" them over the high flame!

The chicken pieces went back into the copper pan...coconut milk was added, and the whole thing simmered away for a few minutes.

Before we could turn around, Adeline had a few of us pouring the chicken liquid into a super blender, to purée the onions, tomatoes, apples and bananas, after which she tipped the liquid into a sieve, over the chicken, so that the resulting sauce would be smooth, like velvet!

We were almost done!!

Time to lay the cooked peas over the now cooked rice, and then add the "tossed" red and green peppers, with toasted almonds sprinkled on top

Are you hungry yet??!!

A stack of elegant Ritz Hotel bowls suddenly appeared, and Adeline began carefully dishing out the chicken into each one, garnishing with sprigs of coriander. A nifty tip: she put a small paper towel around the edge of the bowl to catch any drips! The basmati rice dish was served into adjacent, smaller bowls.

It was ten minutes to two, and time to adjourn to a small library nearby, where a table had been set up for us, with bottles of wine and water.

As we took our places, we raised our glasses to bid adieu and un grand merci to Adeline who, in less than an hour, had directed us all to produce this elegant and delicious lunch!

Believe it or not, she had to return, with her two helpers, to "our" work kitchen to prepare it for the next class, starting at 2:30 pm -- baking brioche!!

The rest of us spent a pleasant half hour or more, enjoying this Fricassée de volaille au curry madras, and sipping delicious French wine -- a Sancerre and a Medoc. As we sat there exchanging a few stories as to where we were all from, I was struck once again, at what a small and random world it is -- here we were from six different countries, somehow all finding our way to the basement of the Ritz Hotel in Paris on this Cinco de Mayo day, to cook and eat Asian food!

Bon Appetit!!

(And thank you, Juliette!!)

À bientôt!