Le Hameau de Pirelonge

Last month we went on a coach ride, organised by our leisure group, to  Le Hameau (hamlet) de Pirelonge in Charente-Maritime, about 2 hours drive away towards the coast. The hamlet is owned by the Brillouet family and an appointment is necessary to visit, as they give you a guided tour, of which more later! They have a  winery, perfumery, a printing museum, some craft work,  a shop and a restaurant.  This post is longer than my usual ones, but I did not feel that splitting it into two was a good idea!

We were so looking forward to the trip, but sadly there was much of Pirelonge that we did not get to see and we spent many hours sitting on hard wooden benches, listening to French commentary that we found almost impossible to follow. Not only a foreign language for us, but the speech was much too fast.  It appeared that much of it was about tracing the history of the hameau over the centuries and how the place worked.  They showed us the beautiful cognac stills and explained (in French of course) how the distillery operates.  The son, Jean-Marc did speak English well, but there was so much to get through that we did not  have the opportunity to talk to him, and he seemed to be speaking extra-fast to cram in everything he wanted to say!  There were only 4 English speaking people on the coach and although 2 of them speak reasonable French, the lengthy monologues were even too fast for them! Nevertheless, we did take many photos and I think they are worthy of going into this post.

Above and below - the old shop and sign where the barrels used to be made

Above and below, some of their products for sale in the shop, pineau, cognac and lavender bags.

Jean-Marc gave us all a tasting of each of his 5 pineau vintages, of which he is rightly very proud! Not good for the head at 11 in the morning!

In 1987, he planted lavender, and 1989, he organized his first Festival with the stills and old crafts. 

Jean-Marc talking about some of the stills that you can see behind him.

There were barns and barns of different types of stills, all museum pieces, but I need to limit the amount of photos I took to a few interesting ones. These mobile stills below were pulled around to the various vineyards, where alcohol would be brewed on the spot from the farmer's own grapes!!

This was obviously not part of the museum pieces, but I was fascinated by the fact it was partly hidden under a pile of empty boxes! For you car fans, this French classic  appears to be a Rosengart LR4 N2, manufactured I think in the 30's  by French engineer Lucien Rosengart. The marque ceased production during WW2 due to the Nazi invasion of France, and post-war models failed to sell, leading to its demise. There are better preserved examples in car museums around France and elsewhere!

Then there was a break in the talking for lunch, where of course, language did not deter us from enjoying the event, and event it was!  In a large barn converted to a restaurant is a stunning stained glass window, the work of a cousin Brillouet, master glassmaker.

I managed to catch this photo first, before it was taken over by the hungry crowd!

First were the starters, to which we helped ourselves

Once these were cleared away, through a curtained opening in one of the walls, a selection of our French male friends appeared, all dressed in frilly can-can clothes, carrying a pig on a large platter, shoulder-high.  The beast had been cooking all morning on a spit in the hallway.  There was much laughter and camera flashing, as they walked the full circuit of the room.  Sadly most of my photos were not good, but here is one of their entry, lit by a spotlight.

and another, having placed it on the table for flaming with cognac and carving

the mandatory cheese course followed and then this delicious apple tart

   

Then one of the family members arrived to play us some tunes on her accordion and the result you can see here went down well, especially after the earlier pineau tasting and limitless wine with the meal!

After the meal there was yet another long talk on the making of  perfume from the lavender; we skipped this one, as we felt that we could not take in any more high-speed French in one day!  Needless to say, we did join up again with the group to attend the printing lecture (more sitting on benches!); this museum had many interesting presses, and I gather that most of the wine labels used to be printed here, as well many historic articles on both wine and viticulture.

For the cat lovers out there, and I know there are many of you, we saw the many farm cats  being fed

It was then back home again on the coach, and I thought that these two photos taken from the window were worth adding to the post.

Vineyards at Jarnac

and last, but not least, the Charente River at Jarnac which I have now also put as my header photo for the next month.

 

See also - My Life Before Charente updated  14 October 2012 

Short on News - Part 45

Not a lot to report from yesterday! I woke up feeling just great – no hangover from Sunday! On  Monday morning I busily muddled around while the sky was blue and the sun shone down. At 13h00, the clouds suddenly appeared and there were a few loud thunderous bangs. I quickly unplugged everything electrical, (lightning strikes are a common problem here) and shot out to mow the lawn while it was still warm and dry. Job successfully completed.

Lawn cut and the oak tree (on the right) is at last producing little green leaves.

David came around with his chainsaw in the evening; his aim was to cut up for me a couple of branches that I had laboriously sawn from the tree by hand. The chain saw would not start, so it was an excuse for a Pineau instead! The clouds had by now thinned out, no rain was forthcoming and we watched the very red sun disappear behind the trees.

I awoke this morning to a thick fog and a very much cooler day.  I received a phone call from a friend in Australia and while chatting, I saw two very large rabbits appear outside the window in my herb garden!!  Stupidly, I leapt up and chased them off not thinking of the camera – I could have had a perfect picture.  It now means that I will have to fence that area as well I guess.

The apple trees are now out in blossom, they are only small trees at present but I think that they are well out of reach of the rabbits!

The tooth saga continues!  After what I presumed where two temporary fillings (my French is not good enough to find out what is going on!), I was given a further date to return on the 27^th April.  Last night I broke half of the tooth off eating an apple!!  I now have to go back on Friday.  I did say I would have to go easy on the diet after Sunday; it looks like I will be on soup for the next week now.  Good for the figure if nothing else.

Pineau des Charentes - Part 41

A change from my normal life in the Charente -

Today I thought that I would tell you about one of the drinks which is famous in the region of Charente. It is really delicious, and although it can be bought in supermarkets and bottle stores, we have quite a good collection of 'home made' which we have been given by our very generous neighbours.

Cheers!

The following information is credited to:-

http://www.pineau.fr/index.php?lang=en

PINEAU DES CHARENTES – yesterday and today.

Viticulture in the Charentes region of France dates back to Roman times. The first vineyards were planted in the Saintonge, and later spread southwards to the Aunis and Angoulême regions. The town of Cognac and the many ports along the Charente river became centres of the local wine trade.

Although nobody knows exactly how Pineau des Charentes came into being, legend has it that this was due to a fortuitous accident.

In 1589 – the year of Henri IV’s coronation – a winegrower is said to have mistakenly poured grape must into a barrel of Cognac.

A few years later, when he needed to use the barrel for a particularly large crop, he discovered a pure, marvellous new drink.

Pineau des Charentes was born.

For over four centuries, the winegrowers who make Pineau des Charentes have maintained high standards for this unique product.

For a long time, Pineau des Charentes was something of a secret, with bottles hidden away to drink only at weddings and other important family occasions.

Today, this fantastic drink is renowned the world over, and has become France’s foremost appellation contrôlée sweet fortified wine.

For further information see the link above.

Picture Credit http://www.cognac-larsen.fr/ci/images/pineau_charentes.jpg