When we’d had our fill of the museum, we decided we’d seen enough for the day and would simply have a wander about the area without straying too far because we knew we had another gastronomic treat waiting for us on the ship and we needed to be back on board by 17:00. I was comfortable with wandering because I knew that as long as I could see the steeple of either Notre-Dame de Rouen or of Saint-Maclou, I could find our way back to the ship.
Although we missed seeing the Hôtel de Ville and the tower dedicated to Jeanne d’Arc, we did wander through some interesting side streets and eventually, after passing a small sign pointing to an observatory, came upon this.
It’s the sort of discovery that prompts some of the sort of research I call “back-end research.” It happens after the trip ends and usually involves learning about something wholly unexpected. (This is different from research that supplements things I’ve learned from guides , local residents, or simply a subject that requires greater depth.) After lots of false starts because it has nothing to do with the Observatoire de Rouen, I finally discovered that is it the Fontaine Sainte Marie and that it has a surprising purpose. It was built to mark a reservoir for the city of Rouen.
The Saint Marie Fountain was dedicated on 26 October 1879 by then French President Jules Grévy and combines the work of the architect Édouard Deperthes and several sculptors supervised by Alexandre Falguière. Victor Peter sculpted the horse and bull and Alphonse Guilloux the two children who represent two small tributaries of the Seine – Robec and Aubette.
Because it was constructed with poor quality material, the fountain has undergone several restorations – the first in 1914 and most recently in 1983. The fountain and the reservoir were classified as historic monuments in 1995 and it’s still one of the main reservoirs supplying the city with drinking water.
A pair of factors conspired to prompt us to look for a spot to stop for a beverage before returning to the ship. First, our perambulations had probably taken us three or four kilometers since lunchtime and since we’d walked a few kilometers we were beginning to feel we both needed and deserved it. Second, we were in a gray temporal zone. It was too early to go directly to the ship but too late in the day to either wander very far or try to visit someplace new.
Fortunately, we were walking along a moderately commercial street and happened upon the Café de l’Epoque. There were a few tables outside and we chose one upwind of the two smoking women seated at one of the other tables. As it turns out, they were both working at the time. One of them came over and brought us menus but with a table of gastronomic delights awaiting us soon to be followed by dinner all we wanted was a beer. We each ordered the Grimbergen Blonde which the café had on draft and we both quite liked it.
When we were done, we continued through the market on St. Marc’s Place which was closing for the day then down the hill toward the Seine where we’d descend from the Pont Pierre Corneille to the Promenade Eric Tabarly and finally to the ship.
Cheese, glorious cheese.
As I mentioned in discussing the Butter Tower of Notre-Dame de Rouen, Normandy is quite famous for, among other delicacies, its dairy products and a selection of cheeses was one of the gastronomic delights that awaited us when we re-boarded. The other was a choice among several alcoholic beverages of varying strengths for which the region is also justifiably well known.
One of our hosts, the interestingly named William (interesting because although he is French, his parents gave him the English name William rather than its French counterpart Guilliaume), introduced us not only to the various cheeses and drinks but also to the French concept of Appellation d’origine Contrôlée (AoC) or protected designation of origin.
Based on the concept that all factors including unique environmental contexts, farming practices, and a crop’s specific growth habitat affect its phenotype and also that specific production practices affect the final product, it ensures that a product with a given name not only comes from the specified region but that it has been manufactured in accordance with a defined set of standards.
Thus, if you see a cheese labeled Camembert de Normandie – one of four AoC Norman cheeses – you have the assurance not only that it was made in Normandy but that it used unpasteurized milk which is one of the requirements of the AoC certification for this cheese.
History says that Marie Harel created the original Camembert cheese from raw milk, in Normandy, France, in 1791. Fresh Camembert cheese is quite different from the cheese we are accustomed to eating. It’s described as bland, hard, and crumbly in texture. A mature Camembert has a smooth, runny interior with a rich, buttery flavor and a white bloomy rind. The flavor of Camembert intensifies as it ages from milky and sweet to strong and fruity.
Normandy’s other AoC designated cheeses are Pont-l’Évêque, Livarot, and Neufchâtel. Of the four, Neufchâtel would be the family elder followed by Pont-l’Évêque, Livarot, and Camembert – the baby of the family.
Similar to Camembert, it’s believed that Pont-l’Évêque was first made by Cistercian (more commonly called Trappist) monks in the Abbey of Pays D’Auge and it’s from the abbey that it derives its name. First produced in the 12th-century, Pont-l’Évêque was originally called Angelot or Cherub. That name came to encompass most Norman cheeses before morphing into Augelot in reference to Pays d’Auge and eventually into Pont-l’Évêque for a village in the area.
Livarot is another soft, rinded cheese similar to the first two. It was probably first produced in the late Middle Ages. It’s sometimes called the “Colonel” because the five striped rings of dried bulrush on its rind resemble the stripes on a colonel’s uniform.
The granddaddy of the four Norman cheeses is Neufchâtel. It is, in fact, one of France’s oldest cheeses dating back at least as far as 1035 and possibly 100 years before that to the early 10th-century. Like the others, it’s a cow’s milk cheese but unlike them it has no rind. It can be found in cylindrical, square, brick, or heart shaped forms. According to legend, the heart shape first appeared during the Hundred Years War when French Farm girls created it to show their love for English soldiers.
Our table didn’t look exactly like this one
(borrowed from thecasualgourmet.com) but since I’d left my camera in our cabin, I thought I’d give your eyes something to feast on.
Because the AoC Norman cheeses are are similar, William brought a range of certified cheeses from different regions of France but I can’t honestly claim to remember them all because I was too busy eating and drinking. I’m reasonably certain he added at least one goat cheese and one or two additional hard cheeses. The former was, I think, Selles-sur-Cher from the Loire Valley and one of the hard cheeses was Comté which, in 1952, became the second French cheese to receive the AoC designation. (Roquefort was the first in 1925.) A Comté with an AoC seal has been made using unpasteurized milk. (I will assure any cheese lover that once you’ve tasted a cheese made from unpasteurized milk, all pasteurized milk cheeses will seem bland by comparison.)
Stay tuned for the rest of the feast.