Adventures with Oz in the Pas-de-Calais

There’s nothing nicer to do, as the first breezes of autumn start to blow away the summer, than to hop into the car and drive over to the Pas de Calais for a weekend of feasting. Even better when the weather is glorious and you can truly appreciate the splendour of the countryside in this region, which really is one of France’s little-known treasures. And who better to take with you than wine guru, Oz Clarke and a few friends just to liven up the weekend a little...

13:30
We’re standing in the car lanes at Dover waiting to board the SeaFrance ferry. Seagulls are wheeling and diving over the white cliffs behind us, and Oz, Kentish lad that he is, is waxing lyrical about his favourite county in England. He’s getting very enthusiastic about the plus side of global warming – the weather in the South of England is perfect for growing vines nowadays, and given that the soil in the South East is part of the same geological system that stretches all along to Champagne, we’re in for a right old treat in a few years’ time. Just now we’re looking forward to sampling the best that France has to offer over the weekend.

14:10
We’re onboard and we’ve headed straight up to La Brasserie restaurant to start the weekend off in style. The waiter brought us a glass of kir royale to help us with our menu choices – it’s tough. Do I go for the lamb shank or try the stuffed guinea fowl? The guinea fowl wins, and I’m not disappointed. Oz meanwhile, has polished off his red mullet and has headed out on deck with Simon to take a last look at the cliffs in the afternoon sunshine. We leave them to it and tuck into a delicious nougat glacé.

16:35 (French time)
We’re in a hurry as we’ve got a packed weekend, so we opt for the speediness of the autoroute. Straight off the ship and onto the French motorway system just couldn’t be easier, and we’re down in Montreuil-sur-Mer in no time. Christian Germain, the Chef Patron of the Château de Montreuil, greets us at the entrance to his gorgeous Manor House hotel and shows us to our designer rooms. His wife, Lindsay, is the genius behind the decor, and little touches everywhere give the Château a sumptuous English country house feel. I could get used to this.

18:00
After a good soak in the bath, it’s a short walk from the Château to Le Jeroboam, the Montreuil restaurant where Christian’s daughter, Céline works as head chef. They’ve set aside a room for our wine tasting and we get down to business. Paul Goerg, the SeaFrance champagne supplier, has very kindly donated almost their entire range of champagnes for us to sample. The SeaFrance champagne sold onboard, is a very reasonable £15.99. If you fancy trying out more of the Paul Goerg champagnes, you can visit their premises in Vertus, right in the heart of the Champagne region. Believe it or not, it’s only a couple of hours from Calais to Reims along the autoroute – we did this trip with Oz last year. Check out the details here.  But back to Montreuil. We’re all trying to impress Oz with our tasting ability as he asks us what flavours we can pick out in the Goerg champagnes – hmmm loft apples?  “You’ve got it there Ellie,” he comments at one point. Huzzah! Normally wine just tastes of, well, wine, to me. But our tasting with Oz is fascinating and rippled through with hints of what to look for in a good champagne. Small bubbles make the fizz last longer. It’s worth trying out some of the smaller champagne houses too.

20:00
After 9 different types of champagne (and believe me, we didn’t want to spit these out into the bucket), we’re more than ready for some food, and Céline had cooked up a treat for us. We were joined by her father, Christian, for the meal and he had every right to look proud of his daughter. Céline’s melt in the mouth signature dish of ribs of beef with béarnaise sauce were just the thing to ease the hunger pangs. Her vegetables are locally sourced and allowed to speak for themselves – she’d even ‘borrowed’ some from Christian’s kitchen garden opposite the Château. The contemporary decor is an inspiration and the restaurant’s location, in the wing of the Hermitage hotel, which used to be a former hospital, lends it a historical backdrop.

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