from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
The town of Foix and its castle.
Ariège, in the summer, is ideal for those
seeking the beauty of France, far away from masses of tourists. Ariège’s mountains and valleys are devoid of
big cities, big towns, big villages and crowded tourist centers; it is a
beautiful place for the visitor seeking nature as well as peace and quiet, with
other visitors coming for water sports, fishing, hiking, history, and camping. Half of the department includes the Natural
Regional Park, the Parc Naturel Regional des Pyrenees Ariègeoises. The park’s
website is in French but using the Bing or Google translate apps everything
will be clear.
There is a well-traveled route from
Barcelona to Calais for the car ferries to England, but some years ago I took the road less traveled. In October I drove via the Principality of Andorra and its
capital, Andorra la Vella which is the highest capital city in Europe, at an
elevation of 1,023 meters (3,356 feet) up in the Pyrenees. I had wanted to see Andorra and arrived late in
the evening and in the morning walked around Andorra La Vella’s main business
street as the weather was wonderful. Then and now Andorra’s main summer
business was selling tax-free products and now the roads are jammed packed with
French and Spanish tourists making a quick trip to Andorra to go home with up
to 900 Euro per person free of the VAT tax. The country boasts over 1,500 shops
with the world's top brands on sale alongside an incredibly large business in tax-free cigarettes
and liquor,
Andorra La Vella
Andorra La Vella
After walking around Andorra La Vella for
five hours, I had been there and done that.
I was not in the market for any special tax-free goodies, and I was far
too early for winter sports, and shopping and winter sports are modern
Andorra’s raison d'être. In the afternoon I headed towards Foix the
departmental capital of Ariège in what was until 1-1-2016 the Midi-Pyrénées
region of France. (Since 1-1-2016 the old
administrative regions of the Midi- Pyrenees and Languedoc-Roussillon are joined
together in the super region
of Occitanie). The drive to Foix is just 98 km (62 miles), and just under 2
hours; but when I drove it took three and a half hours. From my hotel, I did not need a car
to enjoy the center of the town.
Andorra La Vella to Foix with Google
Maps.
Foix
Foix has around 10,000 inhabitants, having seen along with the rest of Ariège a devastating population loss as the young people headed out to the big
cities. The whole population of Ariège is now under 165,000. The drive into the town and the view from nearly everywhere is the castle, the Château de Foix first built in 987.
The morning after I arrived was market
day in Foix. There is a French language website information about all the markets in Foix but using
the Bing and or Google translate apps it is easily understood, just click
here. The Foix Tourist Information
Center has an English language website:
The market was filled with fresh local fruits and vegetables, freshwater fish, jambon, hams, bacon in at least twenty varieties, and sausages of all types including the
Saucisse de Foie Seche de l'Ariège, the dried pork liver sausage of Ariège which inspired one of France's well-known nursery rhymes about a liver merchant in Foix.
Il était une fois,
Dans la ville de Foix,
Une marchande de foie,
Qui vendait du foie...
Elle se dit : Ma foi,
C'est la première fois
Et la dernière fois,
Que je vends du foie,
Dans la ville de
Foix
The rhyme is a nonsense jingle, but by the age three or earlier all French children will have heard of the town of Foix.. (With thanks to Michel Masse who opened the door to French childhood memories).
The menus of Ariège’s restaurants have much
of France’s best cuisine but star with local ingredients including duck confit which results in many savory dishes and of course, there is
also duck foie gras. If you are lucky, your restaurant’s menu may also offer wild
trout or écrivisse,
crayfish from one of the local rivers or streams. Chou,
cabbage dishes; cabbage soupes,
soups, and other dishes with cabbage will be on nearly all the menus. In season
breakfast omelets with wild mushrooms that include cèpes, France’s porcini mushrooms or morels
are a great start to the day.
Étang de Cabanas,
Ariège,
Winter specialties.
Not on the menu when I was there but soon
to be included for the winter is Ariège’s traditional cassoulet,
locally called mounjetad and their Garbure Ariégeois (a thick duck and cabbage stew). These and other winter stews and dishes will
include their local Lingots de l'Ariège, a variety of France’s ubiquitous white
dried beans; elsewhere mostly called Haricots
Blanc. I missed out on Azinat
Ariégeois, the pot-au-feu
from Ariège.
A garbure
The local wines are mostly reds but
include whites and rosés; these were the Vin de Pays de l´Ariège, now the IGP
Ariège wines. Ariège’s many neighbors influence Ariège’s wines as well as its
menus, local languages, and dialects. To the South are Spain and Andorra, to
the West and North is the French Basque country and to the North, North-East,
and East are the other Languedoc-Roussillon departments that are now joined
together as Occitanie. To all these influences add Gascogne to which Ariège has
linguistic and historical connections.
Grapes outside of Foix
www.flickr.com/photos/angela_llop/29990341246/
Ariège restaurants offer good, and
different, local cheeses including many rarely or never seen outside the
area. When visiting try one of their
farm-made Tommes, these are semi-firm, farm-made cheeses. The best of these local tommes are made by
the farmers high up in the Pyrenean pastures who work with unpasteurized milk.
Many farmers only bring their cheeses down when the cows come down for the
winter. Other local cheeses are also unique.
A wedge of Tomme cheese.
www.flickr.com/photos/salim/70137444/
There are tens of local cheeses on sale
in the markets and apart from those that are part of cheese plates in
restaurants. With friends, I bought a
local breads, butter, four kinds of cheese and two sausages for a picnic. The four
cheeses were:
Bethmale
- A mild and semi-firm 28% fat, cow’s milk
cheese made with unpasteurized milk
aged for three months.
Chèvre
de l'Ariège – A goat’s milk cheese
from Ariège aged for one month..
La
Toudeille – You may be offered a
version made with goat’s, cow’s or sheep’s milk or even all three different kinds of milk combined. Each of these La
Toudeille cheeses offer different textures and different tastes. If this cheese is on the cheese plate or
cheese trolley then ask which milk was used? We enjoyed the goat’s milk version
Le Rogallais – A creamy, 45% fat, cow’s milk, cheese from the Rogalle
high pastures aged for one month though more mature cheeses are available.
Water in Ariège.
In Ariège water is everywhere. The
thermal baths in Ussat-les-Bains are just 20 minutes 22 km (14 miles) from Foix
and you may drive to lakes 1,000 meters above sea level in the mountains or visit the long Labouiche
underground river. This is Europe’s longest navigable underground river. You
may take a short cruise in small metal boats that you push along by hand for
about 1.50 km (0.90 miles). You can read
more about this in the English language France-voyage website below:
The Ariège River in the town of foix.
Saint-Girons
If
you planning to be in the area in late July or the beginning of August contact
the tourism office in the town of Saint-Girons 44 km (27 miles) from Foix. Then the Pyrenean farmers have an annual
competition for the best farm made un-pasteurized milk Tomme cheese. The English
language website for the town is:
For many Ariège is best known for the
caves of Niaux and its famous Prehistoric Park.
Here, are some of the world’s earliest cave paintings, The Niaux Cave is
located in the northern foothills of the Pyrenees, just south of Foix. The cave is one of many in this region but is
one of Europe's most impressive Paleolithic rock art galleries of cave
paintings. These incredibly preserved cave paintings represent bison, horses,
and ibex. The English language website
of Niaux gives all the contact information.
Paintings in Niaux.
Only 20 people at a time are allowed into
the caves, and there is a 45-minute wait between each group; read up on this
unique place before coming as there are no tours in English. In the summer, there are, at most, 14 tours a
day; that’s a maximum of 280 tourists a day. Out of season, there are then only
three tours a day; that’s 60 visitors a day.
Book now! Reservations to visit
should be made long in advance as your chances of getting in without a
reservation are not good, to put it mildly!
I could not get in though I waited for a no-show for over three hours.
The valley of Niaux
www.flickr.com/photos/pedrocaetano/37922852832/
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Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
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