Three days in the Jura passed quickly and slowly at the same time. We began each morning early. Our first day was spent
exploring and gathering, our second consisted of
visits and tastings. Dinner was never served before 8pm, and though the meals was enjoyed leisurely, I crawled into bed happily exhausted soon after.
The third day was a bit different though. Before the
Comté museum and after the tour of the fruiti
ère, we stopped for lunch at a gastronomic restaurant: Graplot. It was a beautiful, three course affair.
{cheese chips, local sausage}
{glass of Poulsard, duck with avocado cream}
{white fish over lentils}
{chantilly-filled puffed pastry}
And right before returning to Paris, we stopped in the town of
Arbois. I bought
Comté to bring home
of course,
and the region's famous
saucisse de Morteau for the boy (we later used it in
this soup), a bottle of
Trosseau for my French family, and six craft beers for a (soon-to-be) tasting with my friends.
I also ventured inside
Maison Hersinger to have a glimpse at the supposed
chocolat vivant (living chocolate).
What to choose, what to choose? Everything seemed to be exorbitantly expensive, but then the professor told me about how Édouard Hirsinger never freezes his chocolate, only uses pasteurized cream, and handcrafts 95% of the chocolate his
chocolatier produces, Could the fancy prices be worth it?
In three cases, at least... yes. I discovered this during our chocolate tasting
en route to Paris. We tried our best to
taste the gourmet chocolate correctly. The first was elegant and creamy with a passionfruit filling, the second, nutty, lithe, balanced (my favorite), and the third, bittersweet and powerful with a sesame coating. In other words, the
Maison Hersinger was phenomenal, especially so thanks to my recent
taste education. I've tried my very best to hold onto these sensory experiences ever since I arrived at
Gare de Lyon at 10:10pm.
