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CIAO ADRIANO

Sunday Lunch at "Le Marronier" in Buffon

close to the Cistercian Abbey of Fontenay, N Burgundy

Early September 2007

THE ROUTE TO DATE WITH MAPS OF FRANCE AND OF ITS MEDIEVAL PILGRIMAGE ROADS

Back to Ciao Adriano North Burgundy Overview

A Sunday lay day in North Burgundy, with an easy 40 minute cross country drive for the Dom and his current Peugeot for Sunday Lunch at  "Le Marronnier" on the Burgundy Canal in the hamlet of Buffon.  We had eaten at this excellent out of the way spot in 2004, and Dom P never forgets a good restaurant ..... And no, he wasn't the only diner, just (as usual) the last to leave.

The first melt-in-the-mouth Foie Gras (poêlé aux pommes) of this trip

Gambas Royale au buerre citronné (which was part of Monday's lunch - yes, we couldn't resist going back)

Fricassée de Rognons, Ris de Veau flambés

Sélection de fromages affinés à souhaits

"Le Marronnier"

As the meal progressed, the Dom's eye kept being drawn back to a striking "Annunciation" painting on the wall - clearly painted by a descendant of Fra Angelico.  Anyway, to cut an interesting French conversation with mine host short, we bought it.  Now to get it back down south ..... (it's quite big!)

For those who have not done their Paradoxplace homework, the name Buffon comes from Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707 - 1788), who was born and did much of his work here.  Buffon was the pre-eminent botanist of his age, and, rather in the style of the great Muslim scientists hundreds of years earlier, he decided to write a history of nature.  The "Histoire Naturelle" took 40 years to research and write, and extended over 36 volumes. 

In it he made the interesting assertion that living things in the "New World" were inferior in nearly every way to those of the "Old World".  In the New World, Buffon stated, the water was stagnant, the soil unproductive, the animals without size or vigour, their constitutions weakened by the noxious vapours that rose from its rotting swamps and sunless forests.  In such an environment even the native Indians lacked virility.  "They have no beards or body hair, no ardour for the female, and their reproductive organs are small and feeble."   No wonder there's the odd bit of friction between the USA and France.

The Comte also set up a large (for the times) ironworks in this area (which can still be visited).  Interestingly, in earlier times it had been the Cistercian monasteries who had pioneered many ironworks in central France (nearby Fontenay for example has an iron forge building).

Buffon also made one of the first scientific attempts to measure the age of the earth ... by trying to observe the rate of cooling of metal spheres he had heated to white hot, and extrapolating the results to the cooling of the earth.  His models generated an answer of between 75,000 and 168,000 years.

Go to the Page LIst for a full listing of pages and their status

All material © Adrian Fletcher 2000-08 - The contents may not be reproduced without permission - Adrian Fletcher can be contacted at afletch at paradoxplace dot com