C'est la rentrée!

We are back, back home after a holiday, back to school, back to work, back to real life... That is how the French feel just now for "c'est la rentrée"! Everywhere, on every other page of magazines, on the posters that line the walls of every town or village, outside or underground, on the radio or on television everyone is reminded of the fact that "la rentrée" is taking place reinforced by the sight of trees shedding their leaves around us, the smell of apples and log fires and the puddles under our feet.

To a French person the word "rentrée"is as mysterious and rich in meaning as the word "terroir" can be. In both cases five or six English words, at least,are required to describe the concept. This is unusual as it's usually the other way round between our languages. This may well justify spending a whole weekend exploring the topic. Why not join us at Madingley Hall on Oct 21st and find out what it is all about? We'll do our best to give you an insight into that very French phenomenon.

So it is "la rentrée" for us all at The Way To France too here in Cambridge. We had planned to go and spend a weekend in a château in Mayenne, near the loire Valley, this month, but the visit has been postponed to next Spring. Instead we transported ourselves there in a different way for the theme of our latest "French on your plate" workshop at Cook's Barn last week was "Les Pays de la Loire". We discovered a wealth of treasures both architectural and natural in that valley of châteaux and vineyards and watched a film showing the area from above. In 2000, Unesco bestowed upon the Loire Valley region and cultural landscape the prestigious title of "World Heritage".

Having "walked" in the footsteps of François 1er, Leonardo de Vinci, Rabelais and Joachim du Bellay among a few historical figures we mentioned the equally famous local celebrities, the Tatin sisters, creator of the equally famous Tarte Tatin. That led us to the study of a few regional recipes such as a scrumptious "gratin d'aubergines au Port-Salut", an equally delicious "poulet de Loué au miel" and the unavoidable Tarte Tatin. We took that opportunity to scrutinize the French language and discovered in the process the countless expressions that derive from culinary terms or food names. What a surprise! or is it? It is such an observation that prompted us to devise such courses in the first place.

Having studied our menu carefully we moved to the kitchen and gave Christine a hand with the preparation of the meal. Every dish was something to write home about, we sliced the Port-Salut, which by the way is a local chees, poured honey and lemon onto the chicken, juggled with apples and made every possible mistake to finally produce a very remarkable Tarte Tatin. You remember that according to the legend lots of mistakes should be made... We didn't go as far as dropping it on the kitchen floor though!
What a delightful evening that was. We kindly invite you to join our next regional exploration to Burgundy, next month on October 13th. Remember that numbers are limited so book now to avoid disappointment!