Ode to Kouign Amman

I have a new favourite pastry in France. And it isn't really French. Well, not exactly. It's breton. 

You see, this past vacation - Easter break, although the "secular" French system isn't supposed to call it that - was filled with traveling. Not only did I go to Scotland, but on Easter weekend, one of my colleagues at Collège Albert Camus was so generous as to invite me with her to Brittany (Bretagne), where her boyfriend lives. Well, let's be honest, I did sort-of ask her, but I only asked for a ride to Brittany, for which I was prepared to pay gas charges. But instead, she told me, "Let's fill the car!" So I invited Rebekka, who invited her friend Natalie, and the four of us set off on Friday evening for the three hour-long drive to Quimper.

To say that C and J graciously hosted us would be an understatement. The first night, over a delicious meal, they announced that they wanted to introduce us to traditional dishes from Normandy and Brittany (C is normande; J, breton): rillettes maison, made by C's family; galettes; teurgoule; escalope de dinde à la crème; avec frites; tarte tatin... oh my goodness, I haven't eaten that well in months! 

La Teurgoule: the French version of rice pudding. This one was homemade by C with raw milk that she'd gotten from a  neighbour's farm, and slow-cooked all day long in the oven.

J made this tarte tatin from scratch, undoubtedly with the beurre salé (butter flecked with grainy sea salt crystals, of the flakey sel de guérande type) that Brittany is known for.

One of the two galettes we had for dinner: this one was a "complet": with ham and an egg. The second was "forestière", with wild mushrooms and gruyère cheese.

Escalope de dinde à la crème with home-made frites. The meat is turkey, with a cream sauce; the sauce is yellow thanks to turmeric. The fries were hand-cut and fried by J and C.

Mmm: turkey scallops, fries, and cider!

Every day, we visited amazing, beautiful sites around the rugged, wind-swept, seaside Brittany landscape. Every night, we stayed late around the table, talking and laughing and enjoying each others' company.

Prehistoric tomb

View from the Montagne St.-Michel, not to be confused with the Mont St.-Michel, which we visited at the end of the weekend.

Stained glass and the view from the Montagne St.-Michel

La Montagne St.-Michel, a tiny little church on a hill, with nothing along the landscape for miles.

Ruins of an abandoned village, dating at least from the 1500s and probably much earlier.

Glimpse of a field of canola flowers. These are all over Northern France right now, and they've painted the landscape in patchwork yellows!

Delicious pastries from Brittany: my favourite, kouign amman, is at the left. It's a buttery, salty, sweet, almond-flavoured piece of heaven. At the top is gateau breton, and at the bottom is far breton, with plums in it. The chocolate cake was a bonus. ;)

Morgat, a painted village on the breton coast

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, because, in any case, to describe each of the wonderful places we visited would take too many words than most blog readers have the time for.

At the Presqu'île de Crozon

Ruins of a German war bunker, covered in graffiti

Brambles and dusk at the Presqu'île de Crozon

Field of tulips

La Pointe de la Torche

Concarneau, harbour

Fort village of Concarneau

Inside Mont St.-Michel

Abbaye du Mont St.-Michel (I've now seen it THREE times!!!)

Stained glass in Mont St.-Michel

So, in one weekend, a prehistoric tomb (La Maison des Fées); a village in ruins; a tiny chapel atop a windswept mountain (La Montagne St.-Michel); fields of canola and tulip; a pristine beach (La Pointe de la Torche); a painted seaside village (Morgat); a famous abbey atop a mount (Le Mont St.-Michel); a fortified village (Concarneau); tons of delicious food; and two wonderful hosts. I cannot thank them enough for such a glorious weekend. Although, I hope that the pancakes we made for them, complete with maple syrup that my boyfriend brought to France for me from Canada, were at least a small gesture of our gratitude. Certainly with that salted butter, they were divine! And since J had never had maple syrup, I left the rest for him. Of course, they're getting gifts from Scotland, too... ;)