The Saga of the Regions #4: It's the North...
Four boxes, four regions, and a mosaic of flavours synonymous with escape! At la belle-iloise, we love to treat you to our quality preserves, and to take you on a journey with their countless recipes. So, to mark the launch of our new Regional Gift Sets, we're taking you on a little tour of France and its beautiful horizons...
CABOURG: THE QUEEN OF THE CÔTE FLEURIE
Welcome to the Nord, from Hauts-de-France to Normandy! Famous for its monumental white cliffs, its graceful coasts: flowery, mother-of-pearl, alabaster or opal, its immense beaches, colourful cabins and sand yachts, the Channel coast invites you to enjoy a holiday and a jovial meal.
In honour of our new C'est le Nord boxed set, we have chosen to set sail for Cabourg, where La Belle Iloise opened its shop at 53 Avenue de la Mer in 2005.
Take a stroll through the heart of the "Queen of the Côte Fleurie", also known as La Romantique... in the company of Christine, a sales assistant and local ambassador for belle-iloise for 15 years!
How long have you lived in Normandy? Do you live in Cabourg?
I'm not from here, I'm from Burgundy, and by chance I was born in the South-West, in Bayonne. In 2007, my husband was transferred to Normandy, so naturally I followed him. We live about fifteen kilometres from Cabourg, in a pretty little commune that's very well placed, halfway to Caen!
Is it nice to live here?
Oh yes! Normandy is a really beautiful region, very pleasant and enjoyable to live in... You've got the sea side with its breathtaking beaches, and the countryside side inland, with the Norman Swiss, where it's all green with beautiful typical villages... It's delightful!
LA BELLE-ILOISE
How did you get to La Belle Iloise?
I arrived here 16 years ago! I'd just moved to Normandy and was looking for a job when I came across an advert from La Belle Iloise for a sales assistant in the Cabourg and Ouistreham shops. I applied, got the job, liked it and stayed! I remember the exact day I arrived, because it was April 1st: it wasn't a joke after all, and it worked out really well! (laughs).
Today, I still love my job just as much: the products are good, the customers are friendly, we're given confidence and autonomy and the la belle-iloise shops are always in superb locations, beautiful seaside towns or right in the heart of big cities!
What do you like most about your job?
The smiles on our customers' faces when they leave the shop! When they leave delighted, saying "Thank you for your welcome, thank you for your advice", it warms my heart and is a real pleasure!
Passers-by who come into the shop with no knowledge of belle-iloise are amazed by the variety and number of products on offer, and can't imagine all the things you can do with them! So I like to show them our many ranges, explain the different uses, suggest our recipe cards or even share my own experiences, because I also do culinary trials at home! (laughs)
What does belle-iloise mean to you?
For me, La Belle Iloise is the epitome of an incredible success story: starting out with simple tinned sardines, to have managed to steer the ship so well is fantastic! I admire the company's ability to commit itself to constantly improving and progressing so that the brand lasts over time...
La belle-iloise is also a way of thinking, an art of living, with the understanding that we have to respect the environment, adapt to Nature and make do with what surrounds us to be sustainable... I think that's great.
What's your favourite belle-iloise recipe?
I love Tuna au naturel, I think it's simply fantastic, and incomparable to those you find in supermarkets. Its melt-in-the-mouth texture, its freshness of flavour... there's no equivalent to this tuna, and once customers have tasted it, they come back for more!
It's so easy to prepare, I use it a lot for summer salads: just open the can, cut up a cucumber and a few tomatoes and voilà! It's so easy to prepare, I use it a lot for summer salads: just open the tin, cut up a cucumber, a few tomatoes and there you go! It's self-sufficient, you don't even need to add oil, mayonnaise or dressing: it's simply delicious as is.
I also love mackerel fillets: just heat them up with rice, and you've got a tasty, ready-to-eat dish!
What does eating well mean to you?
For me, eating well is above all a question of provenance and seasonality. When I go to buy my produce, I make sure it's French. I may have to pay more, but it's important to me. I don't pay too much attention to fat content and calories... above all, I want it to be good, quality and French!
I like to be in the kitchen to take the time to prepare food. For example, I love cooking boeuf bourguignon the way my mother and grandmother did: simmering it for several hours, turning it over, tasting it from time to time and recalling childhood memories... Meat dishes in sauce, typical of Burgundy, are my Proust's madeleine!
Eating well also means taking the time to sit at the table, chatting quietly, watching the dish arrive and appreciating it with your eyes, because it's beautiful, then savouring it without rushing...
IT'S THE NORTH
What does Normandy mean to you?
My adopted home! Before landing here, I'd already lived in quite a few parts of France, and even in the Pacific, but I wasn't particularly attached to any particular region: I was there because I had to be.
But when I arrived in Normandy, I fell in love with the vast stretches of beach that give such a sense of freedom, and the diversity of green, bucolic landscapes...
What does it mean to be Norman?
Normans are rather reserved and discreet people at first sight: they won't talk loudly or burst out laughing like in the south... Maybe it's due to the temperature - it's freezing here at the moment! (laughs)
On the other hand, once the ice is broken and they like you, they really like you! There's a song by Enrico Macias that comes to mind: "The people of the North have in their eyes the blue that is missing from their decor... The people of the North have in their hearts the sun they don't have outside...".
Tell me about the town of Cabourg and the area where the shop is located?
Our Cabourges shop is located right in the middle of the Avenue de la Mer - it couldn't be in a better position in town! It's a superb avenue, with great clothes shops, food outlets, seaside souvenir shops and, at the end, the Grand Hôtel, a landmark with quite a history!
There's more local life in the surrounding area, in seaside resorts like Merville-Franceville or Ouistreham, which has a major fishing port and a fish market where local fishermen sell their catch of the night directly to the locals!
What are the must-see places or activities in the area?
In Cabourg itself, the must-see is the Promenade Marcel Proust, along the Plage des Romantiques. It's a truly magnificent long stretch, and the walks always end at the legendary Grand Hôtel!
Proust spent years here when writing À la recherche du temps perdu, using Cabourg as a model to better project Balbec, the imaginary seaside resort where À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs is set. A host of cult films have also been shot at the Grand Hôtel: La Boum, Le Cœur des hommes, Intouchables...
Cabourg is also renowned for its Belle Epoque villas, including the Villa du Temps retrouvé, a great cultural place to visit to immerse yourself in Proust's imagination and the holiday spirit that reigned here at the beginning of the 20th century!
Nearby, 5 minutes from here, there's Dives-sur-mer, a small port town that I love: it's more cosy and there's a pretty medieval town centre, steeped in history as it was from here that William the Conqueror set off to invade England in 1066. You can find out all about his epic at the Bayeux Tapestry Museum, where "La Toile de la Conquête", a tapestry almost 70 metres long dating from the 11th century, is on display!
The memory of the 1944 landings is still very present in the region, with many sites to visit: the Atlantic Wall Museum at Ouistreham, the American cemetery at Arromanches, the Caen Memorial... these are incomparable sites, and you can't enter them without feeling a twinge of sadness.
More generally, sea-related activities are omnipresent here and there are beautiful beaches everywhere! Some people go for walks, others go sand yachting, and many go fishing on foot: during low tides, everyone goes out to collect their shellfish. Sometimes we don't get much, but we're happy to take home our ten shells! (laughs)
A typically local recipe to share?
The typical recipe that I love is quite simply Tarte Normande: it's like a classic apple tart, but with crème fraîche! All you have to do is whip some eggs with some cream and a dash of Calvados (if you like it, but you don't have to), spread it on the tart and pop it in the oven: the tart becomes meltingly soft and delicious! And the best thing is to get the butter and cream from a local producer...
We've also got some very good scallops here, and those from Ouistreham are very famous! They can be prepared and eaten in any number of ways: raw, pan-fried with parsley butter, in a leek fondue with crème fraîche, or simply marinated in lemon juice for 15 to 45 minutes, depending on your preference. The lemon cooks the scallops, and the result is super-tender!
We have some great scallop festivals in the area, both in Ouistreham and Port-en-Bessin. They take place in autumn to celebrate the opening of the season, and many local producers come to sell their local produce alongside the scallops: Calvados, apples, or teurgoul, the famous Norman rice pudding!
With spring comes the tourist season. What are your hopes for the season?
My hope is that we'll have lots of customers and visitors, which should be the case, because at the beginning of June, it's the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings. That's going to attract a lot of international tourists, and a whole host of events are planned: commemorative ceremonies at the memorial sites, parachute drops, parades of vintage cars, balls in period costume... A real trip back in time, 80 years in the past!
So I hope to see visitors from the 4 corners of the world happy to discover the belle-iloise region and its fine products, and to take a piece of France and Normandy back home with them. Always with a smile and a hello, that's very important!
Photo credits: Éric Frotier de Bagneux
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