Uncover the Dordogne Valley: You probably have a style for historical past – the Dordogne Valley with its historical cities and foodie vibes will fulfill your soul says Rudolf Abraham.
Brive’s busy Saturday market is the one of many largest and most vibrant within the Dordogne Valley, with some 200 stallholders or gueules de marché providing a panoply of great native produce. There are sweet-smelling strawberries, crates stuffed with crisp greens, rows of plaited garlic, beautiful cèpes (porcini), mouth-watering cheeses, and – one of many causes I’m right here within the lovely market city of Brive-La-Gaillard – walnuts.
Uncover the Dordogne Valley
The market largely takes over the automobile park on one facet of Avenue du 14 Juillet, subsequent to the Halle Brassens which is used as a livestock market or, in the event you arrive on a weekend in early November as I did, to accommodate the massive annual ebook honest. You’ll little question be questioning concerning the 22m-high lighthouse close by, rising above what’s now the Vacationer Workplace and looking out as if it someway bought misplaced and unintentionally discovered itself some 200km or extra from the ocean. It’s really a former water tower, constructed within the 1830s for the livestock market, apparently with a stylistic nod to the truth that, as soon as upon a time, this was all the ground of a prehistoric ocean anyway.
Together with the world beside Halle Brassens, Brive’s market additionally occupies Halle Gaillarde, a contemporary, coated corridor surrounded by and stuffed with but extra stalls, together with some mouth-watering meals stalls, one in all which – Le comptoir de Clément – we cease at for a fast chunk of lunch. Then it’s off to study extra about noix within the Dordogne Valley by means of one in all its favorite tipples.
Walnuts have been cultivated within the Dordogne Valley for the reason that tenth century, though they arrived in France a number of hundred years earlier, in all probability introduced by the Romans who based Brive within the 1st century. As we speak the Dordogne Valley is the biggest and most prestigious walnut-growing area in France, and the 4 varieties grown right here – Franquette, Corne, Marbot and Granjean – take pleasure in AOP (Appellation d’Origine Protégée) standing.
Walnut specialities of Dordogne
Together with the mountains of unshelled walnuts on market stalls, you’ll discover the Dordogne’s AOP noix making an auspicious look within the area’s heavenly gastronomy, of which it’s simply as a lot an important half because the extra celebrated Périgord truffle. On the Abbaye d’Echourgnac west of Perigueux, the Cistercian nuns make Trappe d’Echourgnac, a scrumptious smooth cheese the place the affinage (maturation) consists of the addition of native vin de noix.
And whether or not in Brive or additional afield within the Dordogne Valley, you’re unlikely to should go very far earlier than discovering your self with one other alternative to take pleasure in some Gâteau aux noix – extra a tart than a cake, unspeakably moreish and extremely mild. The 2 quintessential walnut merchandise of the Dordogne nonetheless are its walnut oil, and vin de noix (walnut wine), the fortified wine already alluded to. Clearly, it’s best to goal to go dwelling with a bottle of every.
With this in thoughts, my subsequent port of name in Brive is the Denoix Distillery. Based in 1839, that is the oldest distillery in Brive, constructed on the success of its Triple Sec Curaçao and Suprême Denoix – each of that are nonetheless produced to the unique recipes, together with various different drinks, and the corporate’s Moutarde Violette de Brive. Suprême Denoix, you’ll be happy to know, was championed within the nineteenth century for its useful qualities which have been mentioned to incorporate aiding digestion, decreasing fevers, combating cholera and (better of all) its superlative deworming properties. Which wouldn’t promote it as effectively nowadays, I agree.
If the 40% energy Suprême isn’t your factor, attempt their Quinqui Noix, a deliciously clean vin de noix – served chilled, that is the right Dordogne aperitif. The walnuts used for producing vin de noix are harvested in July, after they’re nonetheless inexperienced and the shells haven’t but fashioned (the standard walnut harvest is in October). After being crushed to extract their juice, the latter is blended with alcohol and aged for six years in oak barrels, earlier than being added to a purple or white wine base (white, within the case of Quinqui Noix). For the Suprême Denoix, the distilled and aged walnut juice is mixed with Armagnac, Cognac and sugar syrup. The Denoix Distillery is now in its sixth technology, with Paul Bastier alongside together with his spouse Marie Denoix having taken the reigns in 2019.
Brive
Earlier than heading out of city to go to Maison Castagné, a walnut oil press on the outskirts of the mind-bogglingly photogenic village of Martel, I wander by way of the slender streets of Brive’s outdated city centre, taking within the Renaissance-era Tour des Èchevins, and the Collégiale Saint-Martin with its putting thirteenth century nave – lookup on the elaborately sculpted capitals on the columns.
The actual shock nonetheless is the Musée Labenche, housed within the Hôtel Labenche (one of many best examples of 16th century Renaissance structure within the Dordogne). The collections embody an astonishing group of six large-scale seventeenth century tapestries, the work of England’s celebrated Mortlake Tapestry Works close to London, together with a number of extra from the Aubusson tapestry workshop in France. And to prime it off you’ll discover a nineteenth century child grand piano which as soon as belonged to Claude Debussy simply across the nook within the subsequent room.
Wind your manner alongside the walnut route
On the best way to Martel, it could be virtually unthinkable to not go to the extraordinary Jardins de Marqueyssac – frankly, a few of the most fabulously lovely gardens I’ve ever seen, with their elaborate boxwood topiary, clifftop paths and strutting peacocks – together with the imposing Château de Beynac and the exceptionally well-preserved Château de Fenelon. Any of those make for a simple day journey from Brive, or you could possibly comply with La Route de la Noix, a considerably much less eclectic route than mine which ties collectively lots of the area’s walnut-themed highlights.
Romain Castagné rakes his fingers by way of the pale, sand-coloured powder, pauses mid-sentence, and brings it as much as his nostril. It appears for all of the world like a pile of sawdust – however the candy, heavy scent of walnuts provides it away, filling the air to the extent that, if I closed my eyes, I may be standing in a cake store. There’s a big millstone on one facet of the room, and a fireplace, simply stoked, glows orange by way of the open door of a range.
Romain is a sixth-generation walnut grower on the Maison Castagné natural farm and walnut mill, collectively together with his brother Adrien who additionally runs the extraordinarily good Le Petit Moulin restaurant in close by Martel. Earlier than we head again into the store for a tasting, he talks me by way of the method of constructing walnut oil. After the walnuts have been shelled and sorted, the kernels are crushed by that no-nonsense, 800kg granite millstone – which strikes at an alarming tempo, pulverising them relentlessly for half an hour and turning the kernels right into a dough-like paste. This paste is then roasted in a big tray above a wooden range – the diploma to which it’s roasted provides the oil its explicit flavour – earlier than being positioned in a hydraulic press to extract the oil. The oil is left to accept three weeks in chrome steel tanks earlier than bottling, and the dry, oil-less ‘cake’ left within the press is sifted and bought as walnut flour.
I cease for dinner in Terrasson-Lavilledieu – which appears implausible within the late night mild, seeming to levitate above the Vézère – and within the morning pay a go to to the massively spectacular seventeenth century Château de Hautefort, with its immaculate gardens. Then it’s time to go again in direction of Brive, and my prepare to Paris – the roads lined with walnut orchards, planted in neat rows and casting lengthy shadows within the solar.
Rudolf Abraham is an award-winning journey author, photographer, writer of over a dozen books and has contributed to many extra, and his articles and pictures are revealed broadly in magazines. rudolfabraham.com
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