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Scottish Sun
6 days ago
- Scottish Sun
I went to the Canadian-style safari resort in Europe with American bison and new restaurants
You can sample bison burgers, steaks and more at the Canadian-style bar and restaurant SAFARI SO GOOD I went to the Canadian-style safari resort in Europe with American bison and new restaurants Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) IN my best David Attenborough voice, I whisper: 'The majestic bison, shaggy giants of the plains, thunder across the fields in their hundreds.' It's baking hot and I'm rumbling along dusty tracks in an old army truck, my eyes peeled for the large animals. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 4 Canoe down the Varenne River in the afternoons Credit: Thomas Le Floc'H 4 Visit Chateau de Dieppe, the town's 15th-century castle Credit: Thomas Le Floc'H So far, so safari. However, I'm not roaming the Great Plains of North America, where they normally reside, but a little closer to home in the Eawy Forest in Normandy, France. A half-hour drive from Dieppe through ancient villages lies Parc Canadien, home to the largest herd of American bison in Europe. It opened in 1994 when a herd of North American bison were successfully released into the wilds of Normandy. Over the last 20 years, the herd has grown to more than 200. They have now been joined by stags, fallow deer and several packs of wolves. While the jeep tours are only conducted in French — we are given a laminated sheet of information from the desk — English guides can be booked in advance. Before spotting the bison, we trundle through Wolf Temple, a fenced-off part of the park where the wolves reside. There's plenty to do for an afternoon — canoeing down the Varenne River and walking tours around the wolf enclosure and mini farm. You can sample bison burgers, steaks and more at the Canadian-style bar and restaurant, with its log cabin walls and trophy skulls. New for 2025 is fast-food restaurant La Toundra, with sandwiches from £5.20 and full kids' meals with drinks, dessert and a present from £8.65. How to make your safari holiday more affordable - with quieter seasons and budget lodging You can even stock up on bison sausages and terrine from the farm's onsite butchery. Wildlife-spotting aside, a weekend in Dieppe has stacks of appeal. The ferry from Newhaven lands in Dieppe, on Normandy's Alabaster Coast, at 10pm and it's a 15-minute drive to the charming Hotel Aguado, where most rooms overlook the sea. As most places have stopped serving food at this late hour we hit the jackpot at a hole-in-the-wall joint called Big Al And Little Joe. This serves Lebanese-style flatbreads filled with salads, meats and sauces, which we ate al fresco listening to live jazz from the wine bar next door. Saturday is the best day to visit Dieppe, largely because of its brilliant market. Named the best market in France in 2020, the 200 or so stalls wind their way from Quai Henri IV through the town and sell everything from homemade wicker baskets and locally made Neufchatel cheese to fist-sized tomatoes and slabs of nougat. Shopping secured, do as the locals do and stop for a cold beer in Cafe des Tribunaux on Place du Puits-Salé, where Oscar Wilde used to drink. 4 Saturday is the best day to visit Dieppe, largely because of its brilliant market Credit: Supplied 4 Parc Canadien is home to the largest herd of American bison in Europe Credit: Supplied Visit Chateau de Dieppe, the town's 15th-century castle overlooking the sea, which has a maritime museum with paintings by Boudin, Lebourg and Pissarro. Don't miss a peek at Les Tourelles gate, the only surviving gate from the medieval ramparts, which were used as a prison during the French Revolution. Dieppe was considered France's first seaside resort some 200 years ago, and while the Belle Epoque architecture has largely been bombed away, it still has the largest seafront lawns in Europe and a grey-pebbled beach packed with locals splashing in the shallows. While bison and beaches are an excellent reason to visit, the highlight for me is dinner at La Marmite Dieppoise, a gorgeous Normandy restaurant just off the main drag. We feasted on oysters, fruits de mer and the house speciality, marmite Dieppoise — a creamy fish stew with turbot, monkfish and scallops pulled fresh from the sea that morning. When it comes to celebrating Anglo-French relations, a weekend in Dieppe is the way to go.
The Irish Sun
6 days ago
- The Irish Sun
I went to the Canadian-style safari resort in Europe with American bison and new restaurants
IN my best David Attenborough voice, I whisper: 'The majestic bison, shaggy giants of the plains, thunder across the fields in their hundreds.' It's baking hot and I'm rumbling along dusty tracks in an old army truck, my eyes peeled for the large animals. Advertisement 4 Canoe down the Varenne River in the afternoons Credit: Thomas Le Floc'H 4 Visit Chateau de Dieppe, the town's 15th-century castle Credit: Thomas Le Floc'H So far, so safari. However, I'm not roaming the Great Plains of North America, where they normally reside, but a little closer to home in the Eawy Forest in Normandy, France. A half-hour drive from Dieppe through ancient villages lies Parc Canadien, home to the largest herd of American bison in Europe. It opened in 1994 when a herd of North American bison were successfully released into the wilds of Normandy. Advertisement Read more on safaris Over the last 20 years, the herd has grown to more than 200. They have now been joined by stags, fallow deer and several packs of wolves. While the jeep tours are only conducted in French — we are given a laminated sheet of information from the desk — English guides can be booked in advance. Before spotting the bison, we trundle through Wolf Temple, a fenced-off part of the park where the wolves reside. There's plenty to do for an afternoon — canoeing down the Varenne River and walking tours around the wolf enclosure and mini farm. Advertisement Most read in News Travel You can sample bison burgers, steaks and more at the Canadian-style bar and restaurant, with its log cabin walls and trophy skulls. New for 2025 is fast-food restaurant La Toundra, with sandwiches from £5.20 and full kids' meals with drinks, dessert and a present from £8.65. How to make your safari holiday more affordable - with quieter seasons and budget lodging You can even stock up on bison sausages and terrine from the farm's onsite butchery. Wildlife-spotting aside, a weekend in Dieppe has stacks of appeal. Advertisement The ferry from Newhaven lands in Dieppe, on Normandy's Alabaster Coast, at 10pm and it's a 15-minute drive to the charming Hotel Aguado, where most rooms overlook the sea. As most places have stopped serving food at this late hour we hit the jackpot at a hole-in-the-wall joint called Big Al And Little Joe. This serves Lebanese-style flatbreads filled with salads, meats and sauces, which we ate al fresco listening to live jazz from the wine bar next door. Saturday is the best day to visit Dieppe, largely because of its brilliant market. Advertisement Named the best market in France in 2020, the 200 or so stalls wind their way from Quai Henri IV through the town and sell everything from homemade wicker baskets and locally made Neufchatel cheese to fist-sized tomatoes and slabs of nougat. Shopping secured, do as the locals do and stop for a cold beer in Cafe des Tribunaux on Place du Puits-Salé, where Oscar Wilde used to drink. 4 Saturday is the best day to visit Dieppe, largely because of its brilliant market Credit: Supplied 4 Parc Canadien is home to the largest herd of American bison in Europe Credit: Supplied Advertisement Visit Chateau de Dieppe, the town's 15th-century castle overlooking the sea, which has a maritime museum with paintings by Boudin, Lebourg and Pissarro. Don't miss a peek at Les Tourelles gate, the only surviving gate from the medieval ramparts, which were used as a prison during the French Revolution. Dieppe was considered France's first seaside resort some 200 years ago, and while the Belle Epoque architecture has largely been bombed away, it still has the largest seafront lawns in Europe and a grey-pebbled beach packed with locals splashing in the shallows. While bison and beaches are an excellent reason to visit, the highlight for me is dinner at La Marmite Dieppoise, a gorgeous Normandy restaurant just off the main drag. Advertisement We feasted on oysters, fruits de mer and the house speciality, marmite Dieppoise — a creamy fish stew with turbot, monkfish and scallops pulled fresh from the sea that morning. When it comes to celebrating Anglo-French relations, a weekend in Dieppe is the way to go. GO: DIEPPE GETTING THERE: DFDS sails from Newhaven to Dieppe from £93 each way for a car and two passengers. See STAYING THERE: Hotel Aguado has double rooms from £135 per night, B&B. See OUT & ABOUT: Visit the wolves and bison at Parc Canadien from £20.45 per adult and £13.60 per child under ten. See MORE INFO: See
The Sun
6 days ago
- The Sun
I went to the Canadian-style safari resort in Europe with American bison and new restaurants
IN my best David Attenborough voice, I whisper: 'The majestic bison, shaggy giants of the plains, thunder across the fields in their hundreds.' It's baking hot and I'm rumbling along dusty tracks in an old army truck, my eyes peeled for the large animals. 4 So far, so safari. However, I'm not roaming the Great Plains of North America, where they normally reside, but a little closer to home in the Eawy Forest in Normandy, France. A half-hour drive from Dieppe through ancient villages lies Parc Canadien, home to the largest herd of American bison in Europe. It opened in 1994 when a herd of North American bison were successfully released into the wilds of Normandy. Over the last 20 years, the herd has grown to more than 200. They have now been joined by stags, fallow deer and several packs of wolves. While the jeep tours are only conducted in French — we are given a laminated sheet of information from the desk — English guides can be booked in advance. Before spotting the bison, we trundle through Wolf Temple, a fenced-off part of the park where the wolves reside. There's plenty to do for an afternoon — canoeing down the Varenne River and walking tours around the wolf enclosure and mini farm. You can sample bison burgers, steaks and more at the Canadian -style bar and restaurant, with its log cabin walls and trophy skulls. New for 2025 is fast-food restaurant La Toundra, with sandwiches from £5.20 and full kids' meals with drinks, dessert and a present from £8.65. How to make your safari holiday more affordable - with quieter seasons and budget lodging You can even stock up on bison sausages and terrine from the farm's onsite butchery. Wildlife -spotting aside, a weekend in Dieppe has stacks of appeal. The ferry from Newhaven lands in Dieppe, on Normandy's Alabaster Coast, at 10pm and it's a 15-minute drive to the charming Hotel Aguado, where most rooms overlook the sea. As most places have stopped serving food at this late hour we hit the jackpot at a hole-in-the-wall joint called Big Al And Little Joe. This serves Lebanese-style flatbreads filled with salads, meats and sauces, which we ate al fresco listening to live jazz from the wine bar next door. Saturday is the best day to visit Dieppe, largely because of its brilliant market. Named the best market in France in 2020, the 200 or so stalls wind their way from Quai Henri IV through the town and sell everything from homemade wicker baskets and locally made Neufchatel cheese to fist-sized tomatoes and slabs of nougat. Shopping secured, do as the locals do and stop for a cold beer in Cafe des Tribunaux on Place du Puits-Salé, where Oscar Wilde used to drink. 4 4 Visit Chateau de Dieppe, the town's 15th-century castle overlooking the sea, which has a maritime museum with paintings by Boudin, Lebourg and Pissarro. Don't miss a peek at Les Tourelles gate, the only surviving gate from the medieval ramparts, which were used as a prison during the French Revolution. Dieppe was considered France's first seaside resort some 200 years ago, and while the Belle Epoque architecture has largely been bombed away, it still has the largest seafront lawns in Europe and a grey-pebbled beach packed with locals splashing in the shallows. While bison and beaches are an excellent reason to visit, the highlight for me is dinner at La Marmite Dieppoise, a gorgeous Normandy restaurant just off the main drag. We feasted on oysters, fruits de mer and the house speciality, marmite Dieppoise — a creamy fish stew with turbot, monkfish and scallops pulled fresh from the sea that morning. When it comes to celebrating Anglo-French relations, a weekend in Dieppe is the way to go.
CBC
13-07-2025
- CBC
What's on the menu? Food, drink and a window into history, art and culture
If you dined at La Toundra restaurant during Expo 67 in Montreal's Canadian Pavilion, you would have been presented with a curious menu. Printed in both English and French, its dishes painted a picture of Canada's mostly European origins, with some American flavour, including roast beef, maple cured ham and tourtière. But other dishes were described in neither French nor English. Many of them were Indigenous in name, albeit imprecisely translated: Ojibway Kee Wee Sen, Bannock Tartlets and something only listed as "Inuk favourites." "This menu was essentially positioning Canada in relation to an Indigenous past and an Indigenous origin story. And I thought that's quite extraordinary," said Nathalie Cooke, author of Tastes and Traditions, A Journey Through Menu History. But you don't have to be a La Toundra patron from 1967 to get a good story out of a menu. Whether printed out, scrawled on a chalkboard or scanned via QR code, menus are more than just a tool to order food, Cooke argues; they can in fact be a window into the history, economics and even cultural identity of the time in which they were made. "They look like trivial, throwaway objects and pieces of ephemera. But in actual fact, they're unbelievably valuable in terms of the kinds of information they contain," Cooke told The Sunday Magazine 's Piya Chattopadhyay. Origins in the mid-1700s The modern restaurant menu can probably be traced to the mid-1700s, according to Cooke, when French royalty threw opulent dinners that included simple handwritten lists of all the foods on offer. After the French Revolution disposed of the royals, cooks worked in food businesses for the commoners. What were once souvenirs of a royal visit, then, became a symbol of the freedom to choose what you wanted to eat. Cooke says menus provide an insight that even hefty cookbooks lack: "We get a sense not only of what [people] were eating, but typically they have these wonderful additional pieces of information, like a specific date, or even a location." A record of immigrant history They can contain so much information, in fact, that Koby Song-Nichols, a PhD candidate in history and food studies at the University of Toronto, developed a four-point strategy to study the thousands of menus the school's libraries have archived. It entails surveying: Basic information, like dishes and prices. The history of a restaurant or its owners, in a small blurb. Notes scribbled by servers to mark popular dishes. A cross-menu comparison of how cuisines were presented in different restaurants in different places or times. Song-Nichols's studies focus on Chinese American and Chinese Canadian food history: how those communities built connections through food, and how the dishes on offer changed over time. For example, menus from the 1950s and '60s show how the Chinese diaspora catered to Western tastes, Cooke notes. She mentions as an example chop suey, a takeout staple that didn't originate in China and is believed to have been developed by Chinese Americans. More "authentic" dishes would be added as Chinese immigrants became more settled in the West. Song-Nichols says the menus fill in crucial parts in their communities' histories, when few working immigrants had the time or inclination to write down their personal stories. Adjusting to North America Harley J. Spiller, an American collector, began gathering menus while living in New York around the 1980s. His collection, now spanning over 12,000 — most of them from Chinese restaurants in the area — is the largest in U of T's archives. U of T archivist John Yokowlski says Spiller valued the menus as art objects. For example, menus from Toronto's Chinatown over the decades would include instructions on how to use chopsticks, said Yokowlski, or even Canadian flags sitting next to Chinese writing or art, "to kind of maybe appeal to Canadians who were not Chinese." Sometimes, the menus hint at the challenges Chinese immigrants faced when settling in North America, says Ann Hui, Canadian author of Chop Suey Nation. Hui travelled across Canada to piece together the history of chop suey-style Chinese food in this country; part of her research also included a stop at the Spiller collection. "I remember one menu, for instance, talked about the food safety and hygiene standards of the restaurant, which I thought was really telling," she said. "You know, there were a lot of fears about the cleanliness of Chinese food." Art, design, marketing Sometimes, a menu's art is part of a larger story. In early 20th-century France, for example, you might find menus with illustrations by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, or Pablo Picasso — complete with their signatures. Likely long before they became famous, many artists helped decorate the menus for restaurants they often patronized. "They were, to a certain extent, singing for their supper," Cooke said. There's no telling if menus today are made by the Picassos of tomorrow, but for now, visual designers like Edmonton-based Jake Belke do their best to make sure they represent the restaurant's brand and identity from top to bottom. When designing the menu for a local tiki bar, he used bold text, bright colours and drawings of the drinks to evoke a casual vibe most people already associate with that type of bar, which would be totally out of place at a high-end, fine dining restaurant. "For tiki stuff specifically, that's kind of something that's already understood by a lot of people," he said. "So it's a bit of a cheat code." Layout is also important; menus are "very strategic marketing documents" after all, said Cooke. The most important drinks or dishes might get placed in the top-right or top-left corners of a two-page menu, as the eye tends to scan it in a "reverse-Z" path right as you open it. In the case of the Honi Honi Tiki Lounge, its signature eponymous cocktail is at the top-left, "A1 slot on the grid," said Belke. Whether it's as nebulous as Canada's national identity, or relatively simple as a bar's personal branding, menus are an integral part of people's stories, as much as the food they describe. As Cooke writes in Tastes and Traditions
