Summer Memories N° 3 - lune de miel (4)

Une visite en Normandie sans voir la célèbre plage de Deauville? Impensable! C'est vrai qu'elle est belle et on se rapelle de suite de ce vieux film "un homme et une femme".
One cannot visit the Normandy without passing at Deauville. And I was not disappointed.

After that, we arrived in Beuvron-en-Auge where we stayed for the remaining two nights.

Après celà nous arrivions à Beuvron-en-Auge où nous restions pour les deux dernières nuits.

The restaurant Le Pavé d'Auge is highly recommended! It needs previous booking.

L'auberge le Pavé d'Auge est à recommander! Il faudrait réserver au préalable.

http://www.pavedauge.com/

Outside - de l'extérieur

Inside - de l'intérieur

One of our starters was "rillette de truite". I never had such a delicacy before. I found this recipe on the internet, it is really not difficult to to realise and nearly as tasty.

http://www.leguidedesconnaisseurs.be/article889.html

Une de nos entrées, rillette de truite, m'est bien resté en mémoire. Voici la recette que j'ai trouvé sur le net, vraiment facile et délicieuse.

The small village of Beuvron is really a cute place and lovely to visit.
Le petit village de Beuvron vaut la peine d'être visité.



My wish list had a visit to "Les Jardins du Pays d'Auge" in Cambremer
"Les Jardins du Pays d'Auge" à Cambremer était sur ma liste et même la gentille dame dans notre gîte nous recommandait une visite et leurs galettes!

The garden is situated around a farm of the 17th century in a 7 acre site. There are themed gardens to visit, unusual objects to see, a museum of old tools and various half-timbered buildings to admire. It was a really special visit.
Les jardins se situent autour d'une ferme du 17ème siècle sur un site de 3 hectares. Il y a des jardins à thème à découvrir, des objets insolites, un musée d'outils anciens et divers bâtiments en colombages donnent à ce lieu une atmosphère particulière.




Fancy joining us for the visit?
Vous nous joignez pour la visite?


Here we go!

The garden of the sun - Le jardin du soleil



The garden of the moon - Le jardin de la lune

The dove house and donkey shelter - le pigeonnier et l'abri des ânes




After that, we just slendered from one discovery to the next.
Après celà, nous nous baladions juste d'une revélation à l'autre.

The climate is obviously good for those hydrangeas.

Les hortenses se plaisent dans ce climat.

The museum - le musée






Topiary section - les topiaires

The water garden - le jardin d'eau

Unfortunately, my Lumix is not good at blue tones but I must show you this surprising mixture of blues from the purple garden.

Malheureusement, ma petite Lumix ne prend pas bien les tons bleus, mais je dois vous montrer ce mélange dans le jardin pourpre.

Verbena bonariensis, Agapanthus, I never can remember the real name of this one, I call it Perestroika - but it's Perovskia ;-), then Echinops and blue flowering ground covers (Veronica?).

Oh, a familiar name! Dawyck. This is the Scottish garden we visited in June!
Même un nom connu: Dawyck! C'est le jardin en Ecosse que nous visitions en juin!

After all that we had to try those famous pancakes! With cider! And you can imagine that I had to taste the apple sorbet with Calvados!

Après tout celà, on avait besoin d'essayer ces crêpes ou plutôt des galettes. Avec du cidre! Et bien sûr, le sorbet au Calvados!

I hope you enjoyed this visit as much as we did. If one day you can visit this garden in real, then do it!

J'espère que vous avez aimé cette visite. Si vous pouvez la faire en réel, alors faites-le!

A bientôt!

Impressions from Liège/Celles/Tournai

The best weekends are definetely those which are shared with friends. My dear friend from Hamburg came to spend some days in Chocolate Country. The weather was warm and sunny and felt still like summer. As she had several questions from people being intrigued why one wants to visit Belgium, I had to give it all to make her stay remarkable, hadn't I?

First we had a go at the fleemarket in Liège - St. Pholien. It is held every Friday morning and when the weather is nice, it is a really lovely promenade under the huge trees. Then you can retrieve why Liège is named "Little Paris". Our "la Seine" is "la Meuse" and we have several bridges which were empathised after bridges over the Seine in Paris. Also the architecture of the rows of houses in the city do remember those in Paris. And Liège has also a very ancient history.

The items on the photograph below were the treasures I came home with. My friend had found - amongst other wee bits - a "deer caller", a long brass horn with a kind of funnel at the end. The Frenchman who sold it, found, it could have a multi-use and tried to give us a noise sample... we wondered if the deer was not more likely to run away with that noise. But, perhaps the husband might be the right victim and follow, after a bit of training, this call to come to dinner? I hope we get a feedback...or this metal thing might just get a place in her garden, upside down?

Afterwards we visited the new station of Liège which had been inaugurated just a week before. In reality it is even more impressive! It's the art of the Spanish architecte Santiago Calatrava Plenty of travellers with the TGV are passing from and to France, we - the wee Belgians - are really proud of it.

And then, there is the delicious Belgian chocolate. If somebody likes to see a yummee chocolate slide show, here is the link: http://www.joliet.be/chocolatshow/photos.htm

We went to the famous "le carré de Liège" where the night life takes place. Nobody goes before 23 h or later in the evening and seldom leaves before dawn. The houses are so narrow, no cars and there are mainly night clubs and bars. But in this quarter is also a famous shop: Darcis. This is one of the 'chocolate kings' and we brought some samples home for tea.

On Saturday we went to visit the event for rare plants in Celles. This market really offers seldom species and the exhibitors are all professionals. A good number comes from France which is just a stone's throw away. One can also meet our TV gardeners in real!

Whilst being in this area of Belgium, we went to visit Tournai. I knew it is very ancient, in fact it is the second oldest town of Belgium (:-) thanks to friend's researches). Coincidentally, the European Medieval Festivities took place and we could enjoy the colourful scenario. Everybody was dressed for the occasion, there were plenty of back pipers and other musicians, all afternoon medieval music. A falconer with his vulture who flew over people's heads. Plenty of stands where one could buy all kind of ancient armours and accessories, bows, arrows, knives, leather equipment ...

The fine weather allowed to have a meal outside and to enjoy all these colours and see pass all the ancient costumes around.

Sunday morning a visit to our local fleemarket marked the end of a really fine weekend!

I hope, you too, are now interested to visit Belgium and see more of it.