12/9/2004. Fécamp--Destination gourmande

As many of you know, most every weekend finds Denis and me in upper Normandy (the part north of the Seine). At this time of year, the days are incredibly short up here at the latitude of Montreal, and the weather often as not cloudy at best and drenched in rain and bitingly humid cold at worst. Yet the town of Fécamp, a little over 2 hours from Paris and about half an hour from our weekend house, never fails to lift our winter-dreary spirits.


















Like Dieppe, about 40 kilometers to the north, Fécamp is a major fishing port. It's beautiful harbor is filled with serious commercial fishing vessels (photo right above) both big and small. The town has a history deeply entwined with fish. At the wonderful Musée des Terres Neuves near the quais, you can watch a film that will help you understand the spirit of Fécamp. It documents the life aboard fishing vessels that used to travel to Newfoundland to fish cod, when those waters still held a seemingly inexhaustible supply of fish.



The film shows men being sloshed by giant waves in blizzards. You see them gutting and salting down tons of cod. The ships stayed out for 6 months at a time, and many fishermen never lived to return to their Fécamp homes.

Today, because the once teeming waters of Newfoundland have been virtually emptied, the Fécamp fishermen stay closer to home, supplying Paris with a large portion of its fresh fish. But unlike Dieppe farther to the north, where it is nearly impossible either to buy good fresh fish or to eat good fresh fish in a restaurant, Fécamp has an excellent poissonerie with a very good fish restaurant upstairs: La Marée, located on the main drag on the south side of the harbor.



And if you arrive at the right time, you can buy fresh fish straight off the petits bateaux (little boats). Fish labeled "petit bateau" costs a fortune in Paris, so we always feel like we got away with something when we buy the superb fish of Fécamp fisherman directly from them. One of these boats, the Bout Menteux, is legendary for the quality and variety of its fish and will be the subject of a future postcard. (Note to potential fish-heads: Fish is sold at hours varying with the weather and tides.)




But the excellent fresh fish is the tip of the iceberg of the gustatory delights awaiting you in this town...if you know where to look. One of the three best bread bakeries I have found since living in France is in Fécamp. Les Carolines is located just across the street from the Benedictine palace (another interesting destination, home of Benedictine liqueur and B&B). This low-key bakery makes two absolutely fantastic breads--good enough to hold their own with any bread in the world, literally. One is their miche, a huge round loaf of organic rye and wheat flours, leavened entirely by natural sourdough, or levain. With a thick, chewy crust, and a crumb bursting with tangy, grainy flavor, this bread keeps wonderfully for a full two weeks. To say it is absolutely delicious just feels like such a pallid understatement.

Their second outstanding bread is ironically a pumpernickel--the real item, all the more interesting because it is seldom seen in France. The Carolines' version is made of pure rye--organic flour and chopped grain--sourdough leavened, and first baked in a huge flat sheet. Then it is cut into rectangular 'loaves', separated, and rebaked until the crust is nearly black and carmelized. Heaven!!!



Get to Fécamp on a Saturday morning and you'll have the wonderful experience of market day. Just park near the center of town and follow the shoppers carrying baskets or towing caddies. The Fécamp market boasts many small producers--backyard gardeners or folks with a few cows--who sell their products in the covered market hall at the center of the outdoor stands. This is a real down-home market, with lots of farm-fresh eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and meat and dairy products all mingling together. During summer, people even sell the odd fresh flower bouquet, but these sell out fast.



Of course, only in France would you find snail (escargot) farmers. One of these gentleman is a regular at the Fécamp market. He raises his own snails and sells various snail concoctions put up in jars at his stand, behind this colorful sign (photo right).








Because we like to faire la grasse matinée, (have a "fat morning", e.g. sleep in and dally over breakfast), Denis and I usually arrive at the Fécamp market with little time to spare before it starts closing down at noon. So to where do we race first when we arrive? To the stand of Madame de Londre in the central market hall. That is her, with her daughter behind her, in the main photo at the top of the article. Mme. de Londre sells eggs and homemade butter. But it's her fresh raw cream that we are panting for. This lady, who is in her eighties, has the best cream either of us has ever tasted. It is viscous and during spring and summer, almost bright yellow (photo below left)with the carotenes of all the fresh grass her cows are eating.



This is the meaning real crème fraîche: a raw, natural cream naturally inoculated with beneficial lactic acid bacteria. As you store the cream in the refrigerator, it becomes thicker and thicker with the action of the healthful bacteria in it. It is meltingly unctuous, and has a flavor with hints of apple and hazelnut. It makes you swoon to eat it.

When Mme. de Londre sells you cream, she ladles it out of big plastic plastic bucket into a plastic container. She's been selling cream for over 50 years at this market, she'll proudly tell you. Mme. de Londre and the market she sells in are--like the rest of Fécamp--are authentic and rooted in tradition. They are an intrinsic part of the mosaic of reasons why I love living here.

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