Happy Evreux After
Continues our series in Northern France
Sunday, November 1st, 2009
If you've never visited Evreux, you might think it might have more of a past than a future. The hapless victim of successive invaders - Romans, Germanic tribes, Vikings, Evreux was a battleground of the Hundred Years War; and was decimated by the Black Death.
In WWII, the Germanic tribes were at it again. Evreux was at the receiving end of a double whammy with the destruction of a German invasion in 1940 and the Allied liberation four years later, with only one-fifth of the town left intact.
Yet somehow, the Department of Eure's Evreux, a town half-way between Paris and the Channel, makes the most of its history - even inducing a chuckle at England's expense. A re-built section of the Roman Wall by a pellucid River Ito features a medieval English soldier desperate to escape.
At the town's centre (pop. 54,000) is an attractive square, featuring the 19th-century neo-classical Town Hall (built on the site of the castle owned by the Counts of Evreux), and a pinnacled late XVth-century clock-tower.
Delicious food
That night I dined at La Gazette, a delightful restaurant run by Xavier Buzieux.
The décor was intimate, with fine paintings and most important of all, the food was delicious, which included Trout as my main dish.
My B&B, Clair Matin, five miles out of town in Reuilly village, was run by Jean-Pierre & Amaya Trevisani, whose elegant Spanish Colonial furniture betrayed Amaya's Barcelona heritage. There a three rooms (including a suite) and a gite, a separate cottage called "Birdsong" so quiet that is all you would hear. For a number of years Jean-Pierre worked for an American firm, so if you don't speak French you'll get along just fine.
Imposing cathedral
The next morning I visited the imposing cathedral of Notre-Dame-d'Evreux, founded in the 6th-century. Christianity had come to Evreux in the 4th century through the legendary St. Taurin who established the town's first bishopric, carried on by the Franks, who controlled the region after 486 AD and included it in the Merovingian Empire after Normandy was conquered by King Clovis.
At the La Vieille Gabelle restaurant I enjoyed a marmite (casserole) with pastry top of various delicious fish, a local speciality. After lunch, I visited The Chateau of Champ de Bataille at Le Neubourg - a 30-minute drive.
France's heritage
In 1992, the dilapidated chateau and grounds were rescued from oblivion by Jacques Garcia, a wealthy architect and interior designer. Our arrivals coincided and there was great excitement as he was celebrating his birthday. "Make it big and aim for the top; my perpetual ambition has found its definition at Champ Bataille," he said.
With exquisite taste, Jacques Garcia has restored or replaced the furniture and fittings dispersed during the French Revolution. Unlike William Randolph Hearst's San Simeon, California, in which the media mogul plundered Europe, taking entire cloisters and other priceless pieces of furniture for his personal pleasure, what Garcia recreates is a living museum open to all, rescuing France's heritage from global diaspora and out of sight for most of us.
My guide was the vivacious Catherine Querol who took me through an informal tour of rooms with exquisite furniture of the Louis X111-XV periods, Gobelin tapestries, Sevres porcelain, all period pieces that once graced the royal residences at Versailles, Fontainebleu, Compiegne and Rambouillet. I was shown a 'Cantonnier' a filing cabinet (better than my metal monstrosity) that once belonged to the Duke of Choiseul from the Chateau de Chanteloup. In the King's Chamber, there was a bed quilt of magnificent Chinese embroidery from the Louis X1V era. Perhaps more poignantly, on a mantelpiece in the Billiards Room, a clock by Thomine, one of the last treasures delivered to Queen Marie-Antoinete at the palais de Tuileries.
Which reminds me where we came in.. You can lose your head over Evreux.
EVREUX
Office de Tourisme du Grand Evreux.
1ter place du General de Gaulle, 2700 Evreux
Tel: 02 32 24 04 43
www.grandevreuxtourisme.frRESTAURANTS
La Gazette, 7 rue Saint Saveur, 2700 Evreux.
Tel: 02 32 33 43 40
La Vieille Gabelle, 3 rue La Vieille Gabelle,
2700 Evreux. Tel: 02 32 39 77 13REUILLY - B&B
Clair Matin, Mr. & Mrs. Jean-Pierre Trevisani
19 Rue de l'Eglise, 27930 Reuilly.
Tel: 02 32 39 77 13 www.clair-matin.comCHATEAU DE CHAMP BATAILLE
27110 Le Neubourg
Tel: 02 32 34 84 34
