Cool basque clothes

The fierce basques have of course created their own cool clothes brands. If you like bull fighting or rugby or T-shirts with colourful prints, have a look!

Quinze is a clothing brand created by the famous rugby player Serge Blanco. The clothes are especially appreciated by bigger sized men, like the handsome rugby players. They are mostly in a casual style, but you find dressy suits and pants too.

Another rugby brand is Eden Park. The name comes from a mythical rugby arena in Auckland, New Zeeland, where the first Rugby World Cup was played. It is also the home arena for the team All Blacks. The founder of Eden Park, Franck Mesnel, played that first World Cup in 1987 when France met New Zeeland. He belonged to a group of five very talented and mischievous rugby players who liked to attract attention. One of their many pranks was to put on pink bows at every final game, which is why the brand uses a pink bow as a symbol.

I must mention that these two brands are the two favourites of my husband. He likes rugby and he likes the clothes. Big parts of his wardrobe come from these two brands.

The founder of Paseo, Jacques Siaud, is born in the astrological sign of the bull. He created his brand with a stylized bull as a symbol, with a link to the corrida and the basque culture. My husband has several nice shirts of this brand. Jean-Marc, the graphic designer for Paseo, quit Paseo to create his own brand, Ruedo.

The brand 64 was created in 1977 by Denis Wargnier and Olivier Mauroux to make T-shirts for their friends. Their original and funny prints pleased more than their friends and the brand quickly grew to a million dollar industry. The brand name 64 refers to the number that identifies the Pyrénées Atlantiques region, for example on the car registration plates.

The brand Kukuxumusu – the flea’s kiss in basque - was created in Pamplone during the bull festival 1980. Three friends got the idea to sell souvenir T-shirts to earn some extra beer money. They thought the T-shirts on the market were not very fun and a main identifier for the Kukuxumusu brand is their fun and crazy prints.

Biper Gorri was created in 1999 by Helene Mendibour, a young woman of 28 years, who already had experience from the textile industry and from marketing. Biper gorri means red pepper in basque and it is often used as a spice in basque cuisine. The brand quickly gained in notoriety, a lot thanks to a very original packaging: the T-shirts are put in preserve tins and the baby clothes in milk powder pots. In the design you often see pottoks, the basque mountain horses.

Armagnac II - In the heart of Bas Armagnac

Square Labastide d'Armagnac

Here in the Landes region you don't drink whisky or cognac, you drink Armagnac as a digestive after dinner. Armagnac is the oldest eau de vie made in France and has been produced since medieval times. To make Armagnac you need white wine, a column still for the distillation and lots of patience - because most of them are stored for over ten years!

The Armagnac region stretches over three regions, Landes, Gers and Lot-et-Garonne. Within three areas exist, Bas Armagnac, Ténarèze and Haut Armagnac. It is commonly acknowledged that the finest Armagnac comes from the area Bas Armagnac in Landes.

But I'm not finished yet. Within the Bas Armagnac area there is still one more area to consider, the Grand Bas Armagnac, or the golden triangle, which is considered the very best area to make an excellent Armagnac. So that's the place we went to in order to visit an Armagnac producing farm.

On the way we visited the medieval village Labastide d'Armagnac. It seemed surprisingly quiet and free from tourists and cheap souvenirs. When Aliénor d'Aquitaine got married with Henri Plantagenet, Gascogne came under English power and in 1291 Labastide d'Armagnac was founded by the count of Armagnac Bernard VI. The place is very typical with its square format and the covered arcades. The legend says it inspired Henri IV to create the well known square place des Vosges in Paris.

After our Armagnac tasting at Ferme de Labouc - I'll tell you about that in the next post -  we took a quick look at Saint Justin, five kilometres further on, another lovely medieval village. We tried the Hôtel de France restaurant and had a fantastic lunch for 13 euros. Very animated, you could see it was a place with lots of people from the neighbourhood - always a sure sign you have found a good place.

Front restaurant Hôtel de France

Starter

Duck

Merlu

Dessert

Front detail in Saint Justin

Snow again!

Kids were happy this morning again. A very thin layer of snow on the grass.... not much, but we are happy to get any snow at all. Meanwhile, my parents in Sweden are getting tired of shoving snow every morning to be able to reach their mailbox and their street has become a one way street due to the heaps of snow on the sides.... 

Alerte à la neige, snow alert in 15 départements this morning, in the north and east of France.... makes me remember when we lived in Paris and how awful life got there whenever there was any snow....

Armagnac I - on a mission

Going to Armagnac is always a day well spent in this beautiful region, but nowadays I'm also on a mission. I am working with a Swedish travel agency to set up a program with visits for three days, one day i Pau, the birth town of Bernadotte, the first Swedish king from that family, and two days in the Armagnac area.
I am planning the sort of trip I would like to make myself, with a mix of wine, Armagnac, duck liver and course landaise... and some royal history in Pau. The program is not totally finalized yet, but it will be for the 9-11 of September 2010. Those who know me know I am a seasoned organizer, but this is actually the first time I am organizing outside the friends and family circle, so I am very excited to see how it all will turn out!

I really hope that the program will be something extra, with a very personal selection of sites to visit, emphasizing on meeting authentic and passionate people, experiencing this living agricultural region and of course enjoying life the way we do it here in the Southwest. I want to show off my adoptive country to my fellow Swedes! Autumn here is often very beautiful and warm, the vineyards are full of heavy grapes and the tourists are getting scarce. Perfect time to come here, don't you think?

Armagnac is not only about the alcohol Armagnac, but it is difficult to come here without tasting some Armagnac! It belongs to the same family as cognac, but the production process is a bit different. The big difference is that Armagnac is a small scale production, not industrial like cognac. The best Armagnac come from family owned small producers. And the best area is Bas-Armagnac in Landes.

My village Castets, surrounded by heather and pine trees

The church, close to our house

Castets, the village where I live, is a small village with 2000 inhabitants. It's not a sea side resort, like Moliets, Hossegor or Vieux Boucau, because it is situated nearly 20 km from the coast. When you pass the exit on the motorway you only see the industrial centre, which is ugly, so passing by will not make you make to visit! But if you happen to go there, you will find a nice village with a life all year along. The villages along the coast are full of people during the tourist season, but can be kind of spooky during winter, when many of the houses are shut down.

The town hall

When we came to settle down in Aquitaine, we were first looking into the Pays Basque region, but prices were really extravagant and we started looking further north. Our idea was to find a house somewhere between Bayonne, Dax and Peyrehorade, which is the most southern part of Landes, touching the Pays Basque. But a very smart real estate agent took us here and we fell in love with the house and the garden. I also liked that is was close to the highway, close to a train station and in between two airports. Actually, the emplacement of Castets is ideal for making day trips. It takes us an hour to go to Bordeaux, an hour to San Sebastian in Spain, 1 hour 20 minutes to Pau and 30 minutes to Bayonne. I also love being close to the beaches and having lakes nearby. Castets is a great place to live.

Hiking among the pine trees

If you want to stay here, I recommend the Maison Bitche, a manoir style house in a parc with pool. Or if you want to be in a really quiet place in the middle of pine trees, try the Gahoun a couple of kilometers outside of Castets.

The photos are courtesy of the Tourist offfice of Castets - a good place to get information about current events. They are very friendly and helpful!

Cooking lesson with a great chef

Working in the kitchen

My husband got a cooking lesson as a gift for Christmas. With Jean Coussau, the legendary chef at Relais de la Poste in Magescq. The restaurant has a solid reputation and two Michelin stars for its traditional southwest cuisine. Since two of his best friends got the same gift, they shared a gourmet moment - and the wives stayed at home with the children...

The entrance to Relais de la Poste

When they got back we tried to get some information about their experience. Happy smiles told us part of the story, but we wanted details!

M. Coussau had given them some clues to great food... the most important being to have excellent quality on the ingredients - not a big surprise, but when they saw that he only used Beurre d'Echire, one of the most expensive and well known butters in France, you start to get the point. He, and his chef in charge, also taught them some small secrets... like to put cooked vegetables in a pot with cold water and ice cubes, to stop the cooking process and keep their colour, to use both salt, sugar and butter when cooking all vegetables but the green ones, or how to cut a live lobster and open live scallops.... or how much butter you really need to make a sauce. We compared with the official version in his cook book and you just have to multiply by four to get more or less the right amount...

Scallops and truffles with celery mash for starter

They made a starter with scallops and truffles, a main course with lobster and the cake part - called Russe - of the pistascho dessert. The lesson ended with them enjoying the fruit of their labour with some local wine. 

Bretagne lobster

Triple pistaschio dessert, cake, ice cream and soufflé.

Jean Coussau to the very right. His main chef next to him. The others are happy students.

Amandine Bourgeois sings l'Homme de la situation

Amandine was the winner of last year's edition of Nouvelle Star, New Star and this is her first single. Her album, with only her own songs, was acclaimed by the critics. I love this song and her voice.