“Pommes Tapées” A Loire Valley delicacy

“Pommes Tapées” A Loire Valley delicacy

bour I am in a very special place somewhere in the L Valley in the Anu region I’m going to introduce you to a tradition in this area that survives today but uh it was a major part of the life of locals uh from the late 19th century to let’s say World War I so you can see behind me this incredible scenery I’m going to flip the camera around so you can realize what I’m looking at right now I am underground in the man-made caves the stone you see as Limestone it’s tuo or tuer stone this is the very soft Limestone that’s been used for centuries here to build uh shadows and other houses but you can see that this one here this cave looks like people would have been living in it and they were a tradition came out in this area and in the tan region where I’m from when vines or Vineyards were attacked by a pest called the phoera at the end of the 19th century when that happened a large part of The Vineyards in France and in Europe and in this area in particular were destroyed by that past and it took decades for them to bounce back from it they had to figure out a way to survive and so they had Orchards here they had apples they had pears and they decided to um preserve them and rehydrate them so this is the process here it’s called the P tape and pal Apple tape to hit to flatten this is what they do here in the yju region they do um they focus on pairs in other areas like the Trin where I live so they would harvest the apples they would peel them before they were ripe they would put them on uh flat crates and then they would take them inside ovens where the apples for at least 5 days were dehydrated you can see one of these ovens here they were dehydrated and when they took them out they would flatten them tappy to hit they would flatten them with little hammers that will show you a little later and the perk of doing this was that um those apples could be preserved for a long long time with all their vitamins in it and they could be later rehydrated if people wanted to do that in alcohol or in other liquids you can see the perk for Sailors for example we’re not very far from the lir here in the lovely Village of Turon and um the Mariners who were at sea for months needed their vitamins and they could find them in those apples so in this room you can see see the machines that they used to peel the apples we still use machines like that today and I’m going to take you to the next room you see we’re literally inside caves those caves dot the L Valley uh there are so many and the temperature remains uh it’s great to preserve wine to store wine sorry because those caves remain at a temperature of about 15 16 Celsius tops so how did they flatten those apples once they had been dehydrated in the ovens where they had a system of hammers like the two you see here you’d have two people facing each other you can see the hammer is hooked to the table here to the little um piece of furniture so it’s easier for the person to just lift the handle here and the Apple would be right under this part and would be flattened and they did them you know one after the other and it wasn’t um you know we can’t imagine them to be very very sad yes they did work here underground but they would chant and they would dance or maybe not dance but sing and chat and it was quite a lively Affair now dancing might have been a little hard as they were working in the tan region where I’m from they do this with pears more than Apples and they use a machine that you see here this lady is demonstrating it’s called LA platis and so this was for people they say who were not very good with the hammer but with this machine you could really flatten an apple or a pear and this is what the apples looked like once they were dried they hydrated so you could store them like this for a really long time and like I said we hydrate them in liquids for cooking for example desserts and all it’s quite uh chil in here and I’m wearing my puffer jacket imagine working in here it cannot have been too easy but the truth is back in the Middle Ages like I said those caves were manmade they did this so they could Quarry the tuo stone the T Tua Stone tufo which was used to build the shadows and other abodes in this area once this was done people started moving in to grow Vines here and make wine right above our heads so when the Phil oera happened they had to figure out a way to survive and they did this for several decades because the phoera really wiped out most of The Vineyards in this area but then the wine industry returned the activity um and we are in the Su sua the Su area lots of famous ones here like the Su champ for example and so the activity linked to the wine returned uh right before World War I so by the 1920s once again you had people here storing wine making wine and Le tap or Le tap disappeared for a while and then in the 1980s a gentleman talked to old people in Turon in this Village and he found out that when they were young they had helped their parents and grandparents flatten those apples and they told him about that activity which she decided to resurrect or bring back to life if you will and this is how Le tap returned so today this is the Museum of the pal tape and Turon is known as the capital of the pom tapi they’re quite famous for it I’m going to show you one last room and in that room you’re going to see how people lived here in the Middle Ages people lived in those uh in those caves entire families and they have recreated a home this home actually dates back would have been in the 19th century so you can see this was happening quite late so a family of at least 10 12 people would have lived in here you see the fireplace imagine how dark that must have been so there was a big fireplace to keep warm sometimes they would uh try and create openings or Windows to bring in more light but you did have people living in those caves all over the lar Valley those homes are called trtic homes trogo for short and the people who lived in them they called trites so I thought you going to enjoy seeing this discovering the way people used to live back in the day some of them at least in the L Valley and also there’s very interesting activity Le tap or Le tap so you can come to tur you can visit tur and the museum and you can buy some of these dried apples bring them home uh whether they’re dry or they’ve been rehydrated in local wines and spirits always a fun experience you can sample them as is or you can cook with them and this was a new video by uh your friend Vero your best French friend in France France with Vero you will find it on YouTube as always if you’d like to support my work don’t hesitate join us on patreon patreon.com frons withfo sign up for my newsletter on substack and you’ll encourage me to do more of these uh live tours and so I can show you more of more of France of the beaten path

When the phylloxera (an insect pest from North America) obliterated a large part of French and European vineyards Loire Valley residents had to become entrepreneurial to survive.

Apples (and pears) were plentiful: They figured out a way of preserving them and marketing them ensuring their economic survival, at least until vineyards and wine making returned after WW1.

Troglodytic dwellings were plentiful too: All over the Loire Valley in limestone caves (former stone quarries) wood fired ovens enabled locals to manufacture dried apples and pears.

Quaint Turquant located outside the town of Saumur in the Anjou region is known as the Capital of “les Pommes Tapées.” This ancestral activity was rediscovered in the 1980s. A visit to the local museum inside a man-made “tuffeau” (limestone) cave takes visitors on a trip back in time.

Join me on this new virtual tour where I share what I saw in Turquant when I ventured underground.

Véro

Merci au Musée de la Pomme Tapée, Turquant.
https://pommes-tapees.fr/

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