The Essential

What I remember best about Tours is not my school, the Institute de Touraine, a venerable institution much respected by my parents who were paying after all. Nor was it the many chateaus the region is known for although I remember Azay-le-Rideau especially, because my Finnish friend and I sat on the ground beside the bus eating pate sandwiches and drinking wine. No, what I loved about Tours was the student pension where I lived with a family and a few other students, and I loved the food, yes, the glorious food!

The dining room was the focus of the house. It was where we gathered for meals.

Katy, my friend from England, was worried about passing her O levels so she could attend university in England. A boy from Finland, whose name I could never remember, but who was a companionable part of our little group, wanted to be an architect. Monsieur and Madame B were our hosts and most generous with their food and culinary skill. Monsieur, very laid back, was a butcher and Madame, who kept an eye on the students, was the best cook my twenty-one-year-old self could imagine. With only a cooktop, she braised meat from Monsieur’s shop and fish he caught in the Loire River. Every night dinner was to be savored. The table was set with an individual roll of French bread fresh from the bakery and an individual carafe of red wine sourced from a barrel at a local establishment.

We started with lettuce salad and then soup, often the broth from the braised meat or fish sauteed or simmered in a “court boullion.” I think this broth became the base of the “veolute” soup, we usually ate, enriched with milk, egg or whatever was on hand. The main event, le plat, was sauteed fresh vegetable for which Madame used her considerable imagination with ingredients from the farmers market. I distinctly remember eating sliced yellow squash, sauteed in butter. My friends at Alliance Francaise have told me this was not possible, that yellow squash is never eaten in the Loire Valley, but I know I ate it there and it was delicious.