An investigative journalist has to take risks and, if it is necessary, expose himself to danger when the truth is hidden: human survival and dignity are at sake! Today, I dare face all those who know Angoulême only because of its comic strips festival and I can say, thanks to my courage, that they are heretics: Angoulême must, above all, be famous because of its festival of gastronomic specialities which this year is taking place on 24th, 25th and 26th November !
We will hang down like hams all those who will say the contrary !
Let’s leave the comic strips and celebrate the salami! Ok, Angoulême is also the world capital of the comic strips, with its famous Museum and its International Festival, but, above all, it is the capital of the Charente region, border department of all, of the North and the South, a greedy and gourmet region. It is refined and rural at the same time; it is next to Périgord and to some vineyards of Bordeaux, to the Ocean and the Auvergne Mountains (almost). In this all-inclusive department everything is observed and swallowed, things are better done here than everywhere else, without making noise, soberly and proudly. From now on you’ll stop off in Angoulême, I can tell you that ! !
The Festival of gastronomic specialities, is the international meeting of the art of living and of the good food in the Charente region. They invade the Town which is filled with gazebos and marquees, where the tasting is raised to the rank of Grand Art! You can’t miss the one offered at the Club 16 des Saveurs Charentaises, which is in front of the covered market, on the outskirts of the town and next to the pedestrian street.
Le Club 16 des Saveurs Charentaises is really great: the artisans, breeders, enthusiast and fascinating farmers claim the right of a fresh and genuine production, they are pride of being from the Charente region and want to do well. The Festival of gastronomic specialities make the flavour’s discovery possible and allows you to get in touch with those who cook them lovingly.
Then, you’ll go at their place to do some shopping and to have a good time with them. Attention! They are not eccentric people who take it easy in their god-forsaken place, but they are professional people who harshly run their farms: they’ll be glad to show them to you, just make an appointment using Gazoline’s name and please buy their good products. At the Festival of gastronomic specialities, you’ll be crazy about everything, for example the Foie Gras of Mr and Mrs Bachelier. Bruno takes care of the ducks and deals with the internet while Marie-Laure invents many recipes. I personally succumbed to the foie gras cooked with white wine and stuffed with lemon stepped in the Pinot, the mildness is at its height and the flavour melts in the mouth and tickles your buds. I did really like the fresh foie gras stuffed with figs, a very surprising and attractive mixture. I’m looking forward to tasting, with the impatience of a starving wild animal (why not to use a little bit of lyricism ?) the cocoa fresh foie gras which was presented for the first time at the Festival of gastronomic in 2000 ! All the more reason for going there. I reassure people who are less foolhardy than others. At Bachelier, you will find the winners of the Concours des Saveurs de Poitou-charentes, more traditional products, such as duck cut, foie gras, duck breast, tournedos…
As an aperitif, you should have the blackcurrant liqueur and the cognac of Jean-Yves Chaignaud, with the special “pâté” of the Charente region of Jacques Boiron, spread on a canapé. Ah the pâté! Dangerous for the figure but too good to be left uneaten! On Sunday afternoon, you’ll also visit the farmhouse of Mr and Mrs Braquilanges which is in front of the rock face Eaux Claires. They started breeding stags and does in 1989, after having tried the angora rabbits which take much less room. One hundred and fifty animals produce two tonnes of meat every year, game, pâté, dried sausage (a gift), grilled meat, stew which are sold at the farmhouse or by mail order (except the fresh products). Thierry will call her herd and you’ll see them galloping to rush on the cereals, exactly like me on their future terrines. Then, these two enthusiastic people will talk about their animals, they will act like teachers talking about the brocket, the age of which can’t be extrapolated by counting the ramifications of the wood, despite of what is commonly thought. Mr and Mrs Braquilanges will host holidaymakers. They already have a shop (every day through phone call), and they are part of “the farmhouse products” association which publishes a booklet which lists a series of interesting addresses. what else? Cheese! We’ve forgotten the cheese !
Have you ever argued with a goat ? Me neither, before meeting the 500 Alain Jousseaume’s friends : they are young female goats, absolutely nice, well brought up, also thanks to fresh grass, hay and cereals, everything produced in the farm! The Taupinette and the Taupinière are two masterpieces (especially the Taupiniére, with its two maturing months, which is broken at the moment of the opening, typical of creamy cheeses). You must absolutely ask for it to your cheese seller, who’ll find it at the Rungis and the other wholesalers. Alain and his father also produce one of the best Pinot I’ve ever tasted! It is great with cheese and salad. Why not flavouring it with some walnut or hazelnut oil produced at the Moulin de la Forge powered by brook water. They are very good and pure, minced only after having been pampered.
The Charente region is obviously famous for its Pinot and Cognac. As far as the Pinot, I suggest that you visit the distillery of the Rivières, surrounded by its Colombard vineyards (particular grapes’ species), which produces the Pinot François Premier, registered trademark which was given rise in 1934 thanks to the grandfather who knew what he was doing. In fact, in this family everybody has been doing the wine-grower since 1804! Before the famous grandfather, all the production was sold to big Cognac companies.
The Pinot François Premier is still coal distilled during the night and wood distilled during the day in two copper stills, polished like the crown jewels. The visit is worth the trip, especially because Mr Rivière senior drives a 1967 Ferrari 330 GT !
You can find five or six year-old Pinots in the best French restaurants, I can tell you ! Attention: the Pinot, which is made of 75% of grape juice and of 25% of Cognac, matures only in barrels. As soon as it is bottled, it doesn’t mature any more. A 100 year-old Pinot bottled 99 years before is a simple young Pinot. You’ll certainly find someone willing to tell you that in a given December night, the evaporation suddenly quickens to increase “The Share of The Angels” … You can believe it or not. The home distillers, who are on familiar terms with the Angels everyday, are not very talkative about this subject but they also claim, off the air, that Santa Claus doesn’t exist !
We still have the Cognac. Ok, the cognac is a liqueur drank after dinner in a brandy glass warmed up for a long time into the palm of the hand, flopped into a leather armchair, under an embalmed wild boar head, the skull of the loyal spaniel. You are completely wrong. To spread its strong flavours, the cognac must be drunk in a particular glass and the icy cognac is marvellous. While it gets warm, the cognac gets alcoholized again and becomes stronger and less tasty. Then, you can also drink it as an aperitif. You can try it with a Perrier or a Perrier with a slice of lemon, a Schweppes, a Canada dry …
The cognac is meant to be a young alcohol, to be tasted wearing a pair of jeans. It had a face-lift and teenagers like it mixed with coke. Of course, you should also have cocktails with VS or VSOP (bottom of the range), and keep the XO as a liqueur taken after dinner. Four famous cognac brands share 95% of the world market, and several lesser known producers share what’s left. Among the four leaders there is Rémy Martin: if the barman doesn’t understand when you ask a Remy Tonic (I say a cognac Schweppes), or if it is too expensive, complain to Dominique Jousson, international representative of the brand, and she’ll talk to the barman. You can try, at the gastronomic restaurant the Ribaudière, a cognac-based special menu, created by Mr. Rèmy Martin: every dish will be served with cognacs of different types and temperatures. It’s incredible with fish and meat and it’s also great with cheese, mimolette or bleu , and it is very good with the dessert. The Ribaudière is a very good restaurant, situated in a charming setting, where you can eat and drink whatever you want: the cognac menu is only one among the others
(from 22 € to 50 €, the cognac menu costs 55 €).
In Angoulême, there is also the Circuit des Remparts, the traditional running organised every year in September, which revives the famous Circuit des Remparts where since ancient times the engines have been roaring (also Michel Vaillant ran here. You can read it by yourself leafing through one of the several albums).
Before leaving Angoulême, you should pop in to the Chocolate factory which has been working in front of the Hôtel de Ville since 1976, and to its new branch, the salon-de-thé-glacerie, which produces cakes. Daniel Hue and Jean-Christophe Crosnier took up the shop sign and its specialities and they created new ones and innovated the activity. But they kept the old-world charm, classified historic monument since 1916. I suggest that you taste the flavoured ganache (chocolate cream filling), the Duchesse, the Marguerite and the Nougastelles, with an almond nougat heart coated with the Grand Cru de Madagascar, but also, let’s be honest, the fruit paste, the pure chocolate and anything else.
Lastly, here there is the moment of talking about something present in the Charente region and at the Festival of gastronomic specialities, I always keep the best bit until the end ,there is an excellent and totally unknown country wine of the Charente region of the Merlot grape, which will impress the most expert palates. It is a generous wine with a holy character, which reminds its southwester cousins. Moreover, it is sweeter, with some rustic marked caudalies . It’s a local wine which melts in the mouth if well accompanied and drunk with some friends. At Pascal Gonthier’s, a wine producer, its quality and flavour are excellent. This wine is great with the Ducks (the poor animals deserve the capital letter. They won’t ever know how good they are!) of Bachelier the game of Braquilanges, the Taupinette and the Taupinière of Alain Jousseaume (particularly the aged Taupinière), the cricket of Jaques Boiron… I’m trying to find a way to make you understand how good is this wine…that’s it ! It is from the Charente region !
Moreover, I’ll have a part of the Charente region at my place to drain a bottle to the Club 16’s health! Remember that Christmas is ever at hand : buying presents at the Festival of gastronomic specialities is much better than going to the supermarket full of people.
Partially published on Gazoline number 62, November 2000
And on Gazoline number 66, March 2001
© Pierre-Brice LEBRUN & Gazoline
Pascal Gonthier, Domaine Perrière-Gonthier
Plus de 75.000 visiteurs aux 8èmes Gastronomades d’Angoulême en 2002 !
La 9e édition des Gastronomades d’Angoulême
se tiendra en novembre 2003
Tout le programme sur
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Bruno et Marie-Laure BACHELIER
16320 VILLEBOIS LAVALETTE
05.45.24.00.08
envoyer un mail à Bruno et Marie-Laure
Jean-Yves Chaignaud
16250 PLASSEC ROUFFIAC
05.45.64.08.6
Jacques Boiron
Domaine de Jacquiot
Plassac
16250 BLANZAC
05.45.64.08.67
Thierry et Karine de Braquilanges
Les Eaux Claires
16400 PUYMOYEN
05.45.61.35.52
visites organisées le dimanche après-midi
3€de participation demandée aux adultes, 2 € aux enfants (tarifs 2000)
Les produits de la ferme en vente directe
Chambre d’agriculture
16016 ANGOULEME cedex
05.45.24.49.49
GAEC Alain Jousseaume
Roullet Saint Estèphe
05.45.66.33.41
Moulin de la Forge
Rancogne
16110 La Rochefoucauld
05.45.23.10.32
Domaine des Gatiauds de la famille Rivière
Angeac par Chateauneuf
05.45.97.02.66
La Ribaudière à Bourg Charente,
30 km d’Angoulême à côté de Cognac
05.45.81.30.54
16170 ST AMANT DE NOUÈRE
05.45.96.42.79
Chocolaterie Duceau
la mythique chocolaterie centenaire reprise par un artisan de talent qui perpétue et développe la tradition
face à la mairie, 05.45.95.06.42
Parfum Sucré
05.45.38.31.67
petit resto avec terrasse tenu à deux pas par Madame, pâtisserie-chocolaterie colorée et confortable
9 rue des Postes, face à l'Hôtel de Ville
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