Rillettes and Pate

I have often seen both rillettes and pate on French menus but I have always ( mistakenly !) thought they were two words for the same thing.

There is a man in his fifties in a neighbouring village who keeps ‘free range rabbits’.. well, these are rabbits that are kept in large moveable cages which are moved on a daily basis to give the rabbits a fresh patch of grass every day. He has a reputation for making excellent rillettes and pates. The rumour, yesterday, was that he had killed several rabbits and was in the process of making these delicacies. If you pass his house around 5.00pm I was told, he may have some for sale. Now is my chance.. but he lives down a track that only leads to his house.. so you can hardly ‘just pass his house’..

I need not have worried. When I arrived at 5.30pm there were 8 cars parked on the grass verges leading to his house. Feeling a little nervous, I followed another woman who had arrived just before me, into a small stone room which was attached to his house. This room was completely bare apart from a modernish refrigerated display unit with three earthenware pots inside and some scales. I left some 45 minutes later, with a small slice of rillettes and a medium slice of pate.

The difference between the two he told me is in the meat preparation. To make rillettes the rabbit is stewed slowly in the oven with a little pork for 5 or 6 hours and is then shredded by hand. In a true rillette you must be able to distinguish the shreds of meat. This is the crucial difference when comparing rillettes to pate.

Pate is prepared slightly differently in that the seasoned meat is ground to provide a much finer texture.

The only ingredients in my rillettes and pate are rabbit (90%), pork, salt and pepper. They both taste fantastic.. I will certainly be passing M. Durais house next time he is making rillettes and pate !!

An afternoon of games...but with no screens

Auberge des VoyaJoueurs is a fantastic place for an afternoon of games.... but be warned you won't find a single screen!

This modern building is located just on the edge of the forest and contains over 400 games!

The games are all made of wood. Not a piece of luminous plastic to be seen!

Outside there is a huge draughts set, 5 foot ‘pick’ a sticks, stilts, skittles, croquet and lots more.

Concentration and stamina.....

Inside there are two floors of games requiring varying degrees of skill and concentration! There is always a member of staff on hand to explain the rules of the games and to help you master waking on stilts!!

The games are for both children and adults and when we were there the number of adults easily outnumbered the number of children!

For a family of four, we paid 20 euros, and we had a fantastic afternoon, after 4 hours I had to bribe, cajole and drag our children to the car!

The Auberge des VoyaJoueurs is just a 5-minute drive from any of our gites and I would thoroughly recommend an afternoon here playing games!

Check out their website  www.auberge-des-voyajoueurs.com

or to find out what else there is to do in Brittany http://www.frenchgites.com/Tourism%20Brittany%20Contents.htm

Yves Rocher

Enter the gardens of Yves Rocher...

Visited the Yves Rocher gardens in La Gacilly this morning. There was no one there, yet, I was welcome to walk through the bamboo forest, stumble across stone sculptures and read about the different varieties of well, just about any plant you can think of really.

The garden contains more than 1,000 plants including 38 species of medicinal and aromatic plants, 92 species of cosmetic and perfume plants, 50 friuit plants 19 species of dye plants, 150 useful plants of the tropics and 250 species of desert plants.

Yves Rocher is a well known brand but its factory is a very unassuming building adjacent to a large roundabout. True, the fields surrounding La Gacilly are a magnificent sight in summertime a colourful array of red poppies, blue cornflowers, orange marigolds and huge yellow sunflowers. The gardens adjacent to the offices / factory of Yves Rocher take you on a sensual journey, through a bamboo wood, over a rickety bamboo bridge, past citrus trees, orange, lemon and grapefruit, then on to the herb garden, mint varieties.. twenty or thirty of them, and under a jasmine arch, the powerful scent lingers. Through out this walk there are information boards about each plant and how they are used by Yves Rocher.

During the Spring and Summer months the factory is open to the public with guided tours and a film about how the cosmetics are made.

The fields around La Gacilly in the Summer are truly vibrant..all colours and the scent of the flowers...wow!

Enjoying Brittany on foot

Look out for the many sign posted walks

Often walks start and finish at the same place

Brittany is one of the most tranquil and scenic places to take a trip off the beaten track and meander along woodland tracks, disused railway lines and canal towpaths

In France, not only can you follow all of the signposted circuits but you are also allowed to walk or cycle anywhere in the countryside as long as you respect the crops and the odd, very rare private property sign

We have people who come back and stay with us every year and go on completely different walks every time. There are walks for the very fit and also more gentle walks along the Brest-Nantes canal towpaths or along the vast network of Voie Vertes (disused railway lines) which are all tarmaced and are all very well maintained. These Voie Verts are fantastic for cycling especially if you have young children who can be a bit wobbly !!(speaking from experience !!)... these tarmaced voie verts are flat, car free and whilst cycling (or walking) you can experience the fantastic Breton countryside. As they are old railway lines, it isn't long before you stumble upon a village or town for a welcome drink or crepe !.

Voie verte Malestroit

Roller Skating on the Voie verte

The canal towpaths are also fantastic walking and cycling territory, again, very flat (you may have guessed I'm not a natural cyclist!, but I do have fond memories of accompanying Joe on a school trip when he was about 8 years old when the whole school cycled from Malestroit to Josselin!)

Towpath near Malestroit

Towpaths can often provide welcome shade and a cool breeze from the summer sun

The Brittany coastline also has an amazing coastal path, particularly along the Golfe de Morbihan. Great for exploring the coastline.

Pointe de Raz

batz sur mer

For the more adventurous there are numerous woodland walks, the forest of Monteneuf is just 2km from us and here there are dozens of different walks ranging from 2km to 22km, and if you have small children you MUST visit the Fairy walk, it is truly spectacular and your children will be enchanted...Enter the world of the Korrigan... here is a taster

The Fairy Walk, Monteneuf

For more details of all the walks and cycle routes please see our website, http://www.frenchgites.com/Tourism%20Brittany%20Walking.htm

Malestroit

Maelstroit dates back to 987. The architecture in this medieval town is spectacular, it really is a traditional French town.

Malestroit Town Square

Malestroit

It is very proud of its medieval roots, every year it hosts a three day medieval festival lots of knights, horses, peasants, straw and roasting chickens!..

The Nantes / Brest canal also runs through the centre of Malestroit. It is possible to hire a boat or a canoe to explore the waterway. The Nantes/Brest canal also has fantastic tow paths, brilliant for walking and cycling.  The nearby village of St. Marcel is an interesting spot to visit, and it houses a museum dedicated to the Breton Resistance movement. This is located on the ground where a battle against the Nazis took place, the battle having been won by the Resistance fighters. And if this isn't enough, Malestroit has one of the best weekly markets in the area!..

Click on the link for a little taster of our local medieval town!.. Malestroit

You can also find out more about Malestroit by clicking here...http://www.frenchgites.com/Tourism%20Brittany%20Towns.htm