Some final thoughts on my trip and this will be my last for now.

An enduring memory will certainly be all the daffodils that were coming up in the lawns.

Highlights:
It is certainly very difficult to try and pick out one thing/place that I would consider a highlight – there were so many. The whole trip was one “gihugeic” highlight; the people, the places, the architecture, the country, the atmosphere, the food, the sun, the rain, the colors, oh yes, THE CLOCKS. I have run out of words to express it.

Lowlights:
I don’t think there were any real lowlights – all was worthwhile. One regret would be that I didn’t know the French language better – that would have made it even more enjoyable. Getting up early wasn’t great but that’s par for the course on something like this and one of the reasons that we were able to see so much. Not being able to enjoy some of the towns a little longer – but that is normal for doing any kind of traveling like this, you can never see it all.

Classic city France – Toulouse

Learning:
It is hard to say specifically what I learned. I got to see history, see things that most people do not get to see, go places that most people don’t get to go – this is not important in itself but it is the context of the things and places that makes them significant. Knowing history is important so that we learn from those that have gone before us. In addition to the writings that may have been left to us, the physical artifacts that remain also teach us about the people that made them, about their times, about their values and their lives. These things hopefully help us understand ourselves better and learn to live fuller, more meaningful and enjoyable lives. By honoring those that came before us, we honor ourselves and each other. I learned that it is important to leave something behind for future generations. Things that may not seem important now but they become more important as time passes by.

Still My Favorite Clock
Most important, I learned to leave something of myself – it is good to write even if you do not do it well, it represents you and your thought process so that others can get to know you, your thoughts, your feelings and values – what is important to you. You can also leave something you made. Many of the things we saw were things that someone made. Knowing why or how they were made or used is important, so the context is understood. Context is critical to understanding the importance of things.

I saw this etching in a couple different places we went. I like the feeling it gives. The translated title is “The Village Clockmaker”.

So, given all the ramblings above, what I am more passionate about than ever is to be able to help preserve objects (mostly clocks) from the past and to preserve as much as I can glean about their context as well and make it not so hard for others to see, hear, and learn from that.

Bon voyage to you all and au revoir,
Mostyn

Friday, 26-April-2013

This was the cutest restaurant especially inside.

I think that I said that our lunch in Morteau was the best, well perhaps this one tops it. The town of Charroux was way cuter and this restaurant was done up so nice – very artistic. All the plates/course were like samplers of various things – it was really ice to try several things.

The surprising appetizer was the mustard one – definitely the best.

The appetizers were a sampling of a moriangue like cookie of black mustard and black grape (it’s the earl one with Bly one left). Then there was a cheese cracker type thing, an egg puff (don’t know what else to call it), and a cheese bread. These came with a cider type drink that had some prune juice and also seemed to have some brandy in it.

Wish you could taste these – very different favors.

Next course was foie gras (in the back of the photo), then to the right of that was veggies with (raw) salmon. It wasn’t fishy though – I really liked it. Then, in the front of the picture was a very nice stuffed zuchini, and finally there was a lobster or crawfish (not my favorite but still good)

All of these were very good!

Next, the main entree was chicken (breast and leg) with white vinegar and wine, then in the back of the photo, a lamb wrap, then, a carrot purée, then potatoes with bacon, and in the front, boneless lamb ribs.

The macaroon was the best – a raspberry filling!

Dessert was again a sampling: a macaroon in front, then a pineapple sorbet, then a lemon tart, and finally, a chocolate moose cake. The plate was decorated with passion fruit and strawberry flames.

We did eat lunch in other places as well but I have shared the best ones.

I haven’t mentioned anything about breakfast – not a whole lot to write home about but all the hotels offered a free breakfast with a lot of choices, including scrambled eggs and sausage, cereals, juices, croissants and rolls, espresso or other types of coffee. There were some slight variations on this theme, like one place had the option of a do it yourself boiled egg.

Well, that’s it for the food journey – I think I managed to not put on too much weight by all the walking we did and only eating two meals a day.

Bon appetit!

Thursday, 25-April-2013
If it seems like I am going backwards in time, that is because I am. I said in a previous post that I would try to get back to describing lunch in Morteau – well here it is. (By the way, there is another lunch description coming.)

This hotel was nicely branded.

This was a lunch that you would have had to pay a lot of money for – it was over the top. The restaurant was called La France – it was in the village where we saw the watch keys and was originally started by the man who owned the watch keys, Yves Droz, but was now run by his daughter in law.

The ubiquitous bread & wine.

We started out with the wine and bread – it was kind of funny that the waitress that brought out the bread just placed it on the table cloth. I think you will see that on some of the pictures.

The appetizer looks like a strip of bacon but it was actually a thin bread stick.

Second half of the appetizer.

After that came two appetizers, one was a piece of thin bread stick, slightly salty but good. The second was a warm squash purée with a beet garnish – very good.

The first course was probably enough for a whole meal.

Next we got into the first course which was a very good, sausage and potatoes – heavy enough to have made up the whole meal. These were very good; the sausage was not strangely spicy, just good and meaty, the potatoes were a little like au gratin.

Emulsion Temporaire a.k.a. palette cleanser.

Then came the palette cleanser – not sure I have ever had one of these before as an intentional part of a meal but it was good – kind of like a milky drink. I am not sure that it helped me enjoy the meal any more than of I had not had it – the people who feel this kind of thing is important must have awfully fine palettes, or they are as crazy as clock people who can spend a long time just watching an escape wheel go around.

Salmon in lobster sauce

The main course was salmon with red quinoa Ina lobster sauce. This tasted way better than it sounded to me. I expected something heavy and overpowered with lobster flavor but it wasn’t – it was perfect and the portion size was smallish which was a good thing given how much else was in the meal.

This was much lighter than it looks.

And then to dessert, which like the appetizer came in two parts. The main part was a layered raspberry and pine tree ice with creme topping. I am not sure about the pine tree ice because what seemed to be the frozen part was the creme – not at all what I expected. This was surprisingly light – it looks pretty heavy but was very delightful – I didn’t have any trouble downing the whole thing.

Little sweets.

The second part of dessert was a selection of little sweets. We didn’t get a whole tray for each person – just selected something interesting to us. I actually had two – one was a marshmallow type of thing and the other like a caramelized sugar lollipop.

This was probably my favorite meal of the whole trip – and we had some excellent food. More on the way –

Saturday, 28-April-2013

I did not see anyone buying this paella but when we came out of the museum at noon his place was closed down.

Today we visited two museums; the first was in the small town of L’isle Jourdain about a half hour drive west of Toulouse. This little town had its farmers market day in the square right in front of the museum we were going to and since we arrived a bit early we had a chance to do some looking around. The most fun part of this for me was the large pots of food that were being cooked. Take a look at this huge pot of paella with shrimp and mussels on top!

This one is not a particularly fancy one.

The Musee Europeen d’Art Campanaire was a very interesting local museum. It focuses on bells and tower clocks. The bells were interesting, being based on the development of bells for use on domestic livestock but they had expanded it to development of bells and uses throughout the world. These bells for livestock were specific to the region and developed into quite elaborate things. Fun to see a museum doing something to broaden their local folks to the international community. It was an interactive museum so they had lots of bells sounding off around the museum. They even had a carrillon that one of our members was invited to play.

Jim Chamberlain plays the carillon

The Bastille clock – the clock keeper that took care of all the clocks in the museum is in the background of the picture.

The tower clocks were, of course the most interesting. The most interesting to me was one that they said was the only remaining piece of the Bastille that has remained after the revolution. All, or almost all, of the tower clocks were operating or operable. They had a nice display of four clocks that demonstrated the development through the centuries.

The date indications are on the big wheel in the bottom left. The man points to the current date and the woman on the very bottom show what to name the child.

There was also a unique clock that had a date function with an indicator with the list of saints for each day. There was an indicator for the current day and also an indicator for the day exactly nine months previous. This was used to name a child after a saint based on the day of conception.

After a few hours in this museum we went back to Toulouse for a very nice lunch (this will be in another post if I get to it).

The astrolabe part of a Janvier clock. The astrolabe was made in 1773.

In the afternoon we went to the Musee Dupuy. This museum had an excellent historical collection as well as some great pieces by clockmaker Janvier, Berthoud and makers local to Toulouse.

We also had a demonstration of a musical clock. Sorry that the video doesn’t show the moving parts of the clock very well – the whole clock is so large and the moving parts quite small. But this is the best I could do. There is a lady who plays a music box by cranking a handle and then there is a small bird on the right hand side that “mimics” the music box. Our guide, who is a member of the clock organization there and the official watch keeper of the museum gives a little intro before the demonstration. I had trouble relating the explanation with the actual musical part but oh well, the music sounds very nice.

The musical clock

This was the only day that we had any significant rain but it did not put a damper on our visits. It was a little bit cold to be standing outside for long and may have prevented some of us from walking back to the hotel instead of taking the bus.

We ended the day and the tour with a banquet at the hotel. While the food was not the worst we ate during the trip, it was also not the best. We all shared something that surprised us about the trip – for me it was how many times I was simply aghast (in a good way) at what we had in front of us – from the vast stores of the CNAM, where we were cut loose to wander, to the simple but fantastic collection of tower clocks in Charroux, I was continually taken aback at how rich a treasure we had in front of us. A very worthwhile trip. And it was nice to meet others who were as interested in these things as myself. We are an odd group – people who don’t get tired of talking about clocks and watches.

Tomorrow I get a different kind of experience – riding the TGV back to Paris. And then I will be flying back to the US from Charles de Gaulle airport. I wish it didn’t take me two whole days to get home but it will give me a few days to try to rework my sleeping and eating habits to recondition from jet lag.