Caravan Touring Ideas In Lorraine, France-For Foodies And Wine Lovers

If you are considering visiting, or caravan touring in the region of Lorraine, then this narrative has some novel caravan touring ideas which are also grand to other types of travellers; although there is a extra emphasis on touring ideas for food and wine lovers.

An overview Of Lorraine

Food And Dessert

The boundaries of the beautiful French region of Lorraine have been rather fluid since Roman times, in the main, due to its being carved into three portions upon the death of Charlemagne in 843. The portions were distributed to his grandsons courtesy of the Holy Roman Empire. Lorraine, all the time seen as a strategic area, has borders with Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg, giving the region, in parts, a very cosmopolitan, European air rather than one that is definitively French.

Indeed, national control of the region has passed between Germany and France on more than one occasion, ultimately becoming French, once again, in the early twentieth century. Despite governmental efforts to unify language across the more newly acquired regions, many people in the north of Lorraine speak Franconian, not French, as their first language - a reminder that Lorraine (and its sister, Alsace) were, in fact, given over to France from Germany in the Versailles Treaty at the end of World War I in 1918.

Lorraine has a very strong Catholic heritage. The double cross carried by Joan of Arc and much later, during World War Ii by Charles de Gaulle's soldiery Françaises Libres - Free French Legion, comes from this region.

It is worth noting, if planning to visit the region during the spring months, that few businesses control at full hours during Holy Week, that is, the week important up to Easter. Many will not be open on Holy Thursday and all but none on Good Friday. Indeed, the fantastic sound of church bells, ringing the Angelus each evening, a sound very much connected with the Lorraine region, is absent over the Easter period.

Caravan Touring And food Delights

Of course, when one thinks of Lorraine, one thinks of quiche Lorraine. This region has so much more to offer than this undeniably tasty flan with eggs, cream, Gruyere cheese, and smoked bacon.

A quick foodie note - a quiche Alsacien has the addition of onions. The smoked bacon of Lorraine is used in many a dish often alongside the excellent Breux potatoes, grown in the hamlet of the same name located in the north of the Meuse départment.

Lorraine offers excellent locally reared veal which can be enjoyed in a dish with white wine and pork. Wild boar is another regional speciality, and baked in a buttery puff pastry: the original paté Lorraine. Not to be confused with potée Lorraine, which is a dish where those superb spuds of Breux meet the smokiest of Lorraine bacon in a deliciously hearty stew. Charcuterie of the region has flavours both German and French as typified in the tripe sausage Andouille.

If you are a sweet toothed foodie, then the desserts made of the juicy mirabelle plums grown in Lorraine will de facto tickle your taste buds. They are used in pies, sorbets and in sweet plum wines, that make the excellent aperitif or accompaniment to other sweet treats such as macarons, madelaines or, another sublime export of the Lorraine region, Rum baba. Although only introduced to Lorraine in the eighteenth century via Poland, the locals have perfected the baba au rhum - a yeasty pudding soaked in rum by adding dried fruit made plump with yet more alcohol and topping or filling the pudding with whipped cream.

What About The Cheese Offerings?

Of course, no gastronomic touch is perfect without a cheese board. The region produces Carré de l'Est: a square (the name means "square of the east") which is cows' milk cheese aged for five weeks with a creamy flavour strikingly reminiscent of the region's smoky bacon.

Another cows' milk cheese, Munster-géromé or, simply, Munster, is soft in texture but strong in flavour originating from the expansive Vosges département that separates Lorraine from its neighbour Alsace. Output can be traced back as far as 1371 when it was made by monks and kept in their cellars. This is an Aoc certified cheese (Appellation d'Origine Controllée) meaning that the ingredients and methods for its Output are tightly controlled. It is made from unpasteurised milk and matured for at least two months in damp cellars. Its white rind is washed in brine frequently during this time.

Though France exports much cheese of many varieties, only one has been "exported" beyond the bounds of the planet Earth. That cheese is Lorraine's Brouere. Le Brouere is produced in wheels of 43 centimetres only in the dairy of the Bulgnéville hermitage, also in the Vosges département and has a flavour and texture close to that of Gruyere. It is matured for four to seven months in wooden moulds, with patterns carved by local artisan sculptors, production each cheese a work of art. On the 8th December, 2010 a twelve kilogram wheel of Le Brouere was sent into space on the maiden flight of the Space Dragon X - the first ever commercially made and recovered spacecraft.

Lorraine Wines

Back on Earth, and in the region of Lorraine to be precise, one can enjoy some tasty wines while sitting beneath the stars. Maybe the most sublime of the region's Aoc wines is Cotes de Toul which comes in red, white and, most commonly, vin gris denominated rosé made in general from the Gamay grape variety. These wines are produced in communes in the Meurthe-et-Moselle département just west of the city of Nancy. Whites tend to be Auxerrois Blanc and reds are light and delicate Pinot Noir. There is also a white range made with red grapes known as Grey Wine. These have Toul varieties as well as those produced in the Cote de Meuse Wineries. There are numerous vineyards in the river valleys of Seille and Sierck and the Cote de Moselle wines of the Metz valley.

The Lorraine region was once a large volume beer producer but the breweries have all but disappeared. If you do prefer your beverages in a pint glass, the beer museum in Nancy is worth a visit. A brewery of some growing renown, the Lorraine Brewers, opened in 2003 in the town of Pont-a-Mousson, though older establishments can also be found in Saint Nicolas de Port and Ville sur Illon.

We hope that this has whetted your appetite and that you have found some new and useful data for your when you visit Lorraine, either you are touring colse to in a caravan or enjoying the region some other way.

Caravan Touring Ideas In Lorraine, France-For Foodies And Wine Lovers