20 : Le Relais d'Ozenay in Ozenay

Ozenay is a small village close to the metropolis of Tournus, about 11 miles or 25 minutes driving from here. It has a cute Romanesque church with an interesting interior, but I will not elaborate on this since this blog is supposed to handle culinary aspects, not architectural ones.

The church of Ozenay

We had heard very flattering reports, and not only from guests, but even from a columnist in a Dutch quality newspaper.
Although we normally have quite a strong preference for smaller down to earth restaurants, we also have often thought "wouldn't it be nice, if only for once, to really splash out?". At the end of 2012 we were invited to a meal in a slightly more posh restaurant then our usual one, and we were given the choice. We were in doubt between La Table de Chapaize and Le Relais d'Ozenay, and because the menus and the carte in Ozenay looked as if we would have a bit more choice than in Chapaize, we proposed Ozenay.
We arrived around 19h30, and although that is quite early according to local standards, the restaurant filled up quite quickly. The interior was tastefully decorated. The walls were adorned with various ceramic "paintings" made by a local artisan from Martailly-lès-Brancion, and the patterns on these "paintings" were in perfect harmony with the way the rather "Nouvelle Cuisine" dishes were made up and decorated.

A "painting"

When we were about to order we were a bit disappointed with the unexpectedly limited choice. We had set our mind on a not so expensive menu, and the € 33 menu was the same price or slightly cheaper than the remaining main dishes alone on the à la carte part of the menu. And since this € 33 menu had only 2 different starters and main courses to choose from, the choice was all of a sudden roughly the same as in Chapaize. For starters one could choose between a butternut soup and a smoked salmon dish, and for the main course there was a choice between a risotto dish with soul and a lamb dish. For the person who is allergic to fish and shellfish the choice was reduced to choosing between 1 starter and between 1 main course. The same applied to the person who does not like pumpkins in any form or shape, nor lamb. Upgrading to a € 38 dinner was also no option, because these menus could only be ordered when every member in the party ordered the same menu. The meal started with an amuse and closed off with a number of cheeses and a rather obscure desert where the recognisable bit was a small piece of pistachio cake.

Le Relais d'Ozenay

Unfortunately the wine we chosen from the carte with our meal, a red Henri Lafarge Pinot Noir was not available anymore, and we had to resort to a red Henri Lafarge Mâcon. The food was beautifully laid out and presented, the service very friendly and efficient. My starter (salmon) was nice, but not exceptionally, however those who had ordered the butternut soup were very enthusiastic about it. There was more consensus about the main courses. I thought the risotto and the soul quite bland, and those who had ordered lamb had a similar comment about their dish.
The cheeses were a nice selection of goat's cheeses, a blue cheese and two runny cheeses, of which the Époisses was not bad at all. I certainly was not thrilled with the desert, but I have to be honest: I am simply not a sweet tooth or a desert type of person. Having said that, most people at our table were also not terribly impressed with it.

The interior

Summarising:
The food was mediocre to good, although I thought the quality / price ratio a bit disappointing.
I would prefer a wider choice of dishes (I think 2 fish main dishes and 3 meat main dishes à la carte is not exactly a big choice).
The ambiance and the service were impeccable.
My preference was and most likely will always be a restaurant with a wider, although not such an exclusive choice. However, that might have something to do with the lack of snob appeal I am suffering from....

21 : Castles in all shapes and sizes

When using the word Château the first association of most French will not be with a Castle like Balmoral Castle, but with a place producing prestigious wine.

Château de Cormatin

Of course those sort of châteaux are galore in Burgundy, however the fortified châteaux or manor houses are certainly not unknown here.
To start near home: the Château de Cormatin is a beautiful 17th century castle with a lovely garden and a beautiful interior. Even though it is partially lived in, quite a big part of the building as well as the gardens can be visited.

Château de Cormatin

The Château de Drée is a bit further away from home, in the Brionnais, and is open to the public with beautiful Jardins à la française. Neither of those castles were ever meant to be fortresses.
For fortresses the French often use the word château fort, because château on its own is a bit ambiguous. A number of these castles have fallen into ruins, and can be seen from the outside, but cannot be entered. A few examples are: Lournand, Sigy-le-Châtel, Bissy-sur-Fley.

Château de Brancion

However, the ruins of Brancion Castle are interesting and open to the public.
Saône-et-Loire boasts also a few castles, complete and in good shape, which can be visited. Two examples of such castles near Mâcon are Berzé-le-Châtel, perched on a hill overlooking the Grosne valley and Pierreclos, which is a château fort as well as a wine castle. The castle itself can be visited, for a wine tasting one has to pay extra.

Berzé-le-Châtel

A castle, where according to legend Margaret of Burgundy died, is located near Couches. The castle is partially open to the public, partially a bed and breakfast place, and it offers wine tastings as well. And then finally there is the château de Germolles near Mellecey, once owned by the duke and duchess of Burgundy, Charles the bald and Margaret of Flanders. Originally it was the fortress of the Lords of Germolles, but Charles and his wife used it in the 15th century as a sort of holiday home.

Château de Couches

Note, that this overview does not pretend to be complete. It is only a very modest indication of what Saône-et-Loire has to offer on this subject.

For our own website click here.

22 : La Rochepot

La Rochepot

The name alone is worth a blog. The Herrschaft or Lordship La Roche de Nolay was in 1403 acquired by Régnier Pot, and his family name was suffixed to the place name. So that is where the name comes from, courtesy of Wikipedia.

La Rochepot

The village of La Rochepot is quite near Beaune, and even though Beaune certainly merits a full day, it is definitely worth to sneak an hour off this day for a visit to the Château de La Rochepot, beautifully set on a rock overlooking the village.

La Rochepot

It was originally an eleventh century castle, rebuilt in the thirteenth century, almost completely demolished in the nineteenth century and again rebuilt in fifteenth century style at the end of the nineteenth beginning of the twentieth century.

La Rochepot

The Château is privately owned, however it is partially open to the public. Not only the interior is worth the visit; the roof covered in coloured glazed Burgundian roof tiles gives the castle certainly an extra touch of distinction. From the castle one has a beautiful view over the surroundings, including a view of the cemetery with its beautiful Romanesque church Notre-Dame (in itself worth a visit as well).

La Rochepot

So those who are traveling to Beaune an cannot resist the temptation of a beautiful castle, should when nearing Nolay follow the signs to La Rochepot.

For our own website click here.

23 : A day out in the Brionnais

Brionnais

The Brionnais is an area in the southwestern corner of Burgundy, more or less enclosed by Charolles and Digoin in the north and Chauffailles and Iguerande in the south. It is an area with rolling hills, forests and meadows with only on the western side the flat plane of the river Loire. We visit the Brionnais regularly, for various reasons.

Saint-Christophe-en-Brionnais - Market

One of our main reasons to organise a day out to the Brionnais is the weekly cattle market (Wednesday all day) in Saint-Christophe-en-Brionnais. Although the old fashioned market, where the farmers trade with each other on a one to one basis, is getting smaller each time we get there, it is still a very lively, very busy market. The amount of cattle that is traded under canopies diminishes in favour of selling in the auction ring, where the cows are entered, their weight and particulars are displayed on a big screen, and where the farmers can bid electronically.

Saint-Christophe-en-Brionnais - Auction

The whole auction strongly resembles a Dutch vegetable or flower auction. On market day all restaurants in the village offer a menu du marché, which consists of a main dish, a cheese platter and a desert at a very reasonable price (approx. € 15 pp). One of the charms is also that one usually is seated at the same table as the farmers, whom for obvious reasons get priority over tourists when food is to be ordered. Even though by now we know the market inside out, we still happily visit the Brionnais on a Wednesday, if only to enjoy a first class steak frites in Saint-Christophe.

Saint-Christophe-en-Brionnais - Lunch

However, it seems a bit daft to travel roughly an hour just for a good lunch. The Brionnais boasts a big number of towns and villages with very interesting Romanesque (=Norman) churches; some have a crypt, others have beautifully carved capitals, and a number of them are decorated with stunning tympanums above the entrance doors.

Anzy-le-Duc - Capital

It is virtually impossible to mention all churches that are worth a visit; below are some highlights.
Those are, amongst others: Paray-le-Monial, Anzy-le-Duc, Semur-en-Brionnais, Montceau-l'Etoile, Varenne-l'Arconce, Saint-Germain-en-Brionnais, Bois-Sainte-Marie, Saint-Laurent-en-Brionnais, Châteauneuf, Iguerande, Charlieu (42) and Neuilly-en-Donjon (03). Those who would like to make a trip past the Romanesque churches can follow the signs "Circuit des églises romanes du Brionnais", a trip which is extensively described on the site "Le site sur l'Art Roman en Bourgogne".

Neuilly-en-Donjon (03) - Tympanum

For our own website click here.

24 : Musée de la Mine - Blanzy

That the area around and west of Montceau-les-Mines and Le Creusot once was a thriving coal mining basin is only reflected in some of the place names: Montceau-les-Mines is an obvious example.

Musée de la Mine - Blanzy

Apart from those names there is not much that reminds one of the glorious days of the industrial revolution. Many towns and villages in the Charolais however had in those days such an influx of miners from Italy, Portugal and Poland (all staunch roman-catholic countries) that the old Romanesque churches soon became too small to cater for this rise in population.

Gallery

Of those original churches only the bell tower is till old; often the Romanesque nave has been demolished and replaced by a longer and/or wider edifice. The coal exploitation in the area ended between 1992 and 2000.
In Blanzy however there is something more that reminds us of those days.

Gallery

There is not much remaining of the many mines in the area, but Blanzy boasts an original mineshaft lift tower of the Puits Saint-Claude (exploitation: 1857-1882), and the area around it has been converted into a mining museum.
http://www.ecomusee-creusot-montceau.fr/spip.php?rubrique9
The museum appeared to be very interesting and is daily open in the summer months (not on Tuesdays, and only in the afternoon) and outside that period in weekends only.

Miner

The group managing the museum runs (among others) the machine room, it has an interesting collection of miner's lamps and organises very interesting guided tours through replicas of old mine galleries, including old and "modern" machinery, built just under ground level. This way the visitor gets a good impression of what life underground has been.

The lift tower

Blanzy is about half an hour's drive from here, and for those who are interested in industrial archaeology a visit to the museum is well worth its while.
For our own website click here.

25 : The Bresse savoyarde

The Bresse is an area which traditionally has been split up per region in three different parts; The Bresse bourgignonne (Bourgogne), the Bresse jurassienne (Jura) and the Bresse savoyarde (Ain, which historically was part of Savoy). The flat countryside as well as the typical Bressane architecture characterize the Bresse bourgignonne the Bresse savoyarde.

Typical Bressane farm house with chimney (Courtes)

The Bresse savoyarde, just across the Saône east of Mâcon is well known for its cheminées sarrasines. These are oddly shaped chimneys, adorning the typical old fashioned Bressane farmhouses. Often these chimneys carry a cross on top, sometimes the shape resembles a bell tower, minaret or mausoleum.

Typical Bressane farm house with chimney (St-Cyr-sur-Menthon)

The name however has got nothing to do with the Saracens (an Arab people; the word is often used to describe the Turkish invaders); sarrasin was used in French to indicate something strange or weird. The Bresse houses some open-air museums, like the ones in Courtes and Saint-Cyr-sur-Menthon, where a brochure is available containing a map showing where these chimneys can be found.

The cattle market in St-Denis-lès-Bourg (Sue Nixon)

Bourg-en-Bresse (an hour's drive from here), the capital of the department Ain (01) and the centre of the Bresse boasts the biggest cattle market in France. Because as a child I really liked to roam around the cattle market in my home town I decided for old time's sake to have a go at this (morning) market. The market is located in the outskirts of Bourg, in Saint-Denis-lès-Bourg, and it really lives up to its reputation. The cows, calves and bulls are neatly organized within pens for each sort (hefters, milk cows, cows and bulls for reproduction, etc.).

Monastère Royal de Brou - Bourg-en-Bresse

The sales are bargained upon and settled by handshake between the farmers. The smell, the mooing, the noise of the farmers, it all brought back sweet memories of the weekly cattle market in Delft (the Netherlands). And, strangely enough, the aisles between pens may not have been spotless, they were certainly clean, something I would not expect on a cattle market.
However, one should not leave Bourg without having paid a visit to the Royal Monastery of Brou. The early 16th century monastery was built by Margaret of Austria, in those days governess of the Spanish Netherlands.

Monastère Royal de Brou - Bourg-en-Bresse

The church is a jewel of flamboyant gothic architecture from the hand of the Flemish master builder Loys van Boghem, whilst the mausoleums of Margaret of Bourbon, Margaret of Austria en Philibert II the Handsome of Savoy were designed by another Fleming Jean van Roome. The monastery boasts, apart from the stunning architecture and sculptures, a museum, and has 3 cloisters, which come across as a bit boring compared to the church.

Monastère Royal de Brou - Bourg-en-Bresse

For our own website click here.