Battle of the taste buds at Saint-Antonin Noble-Val

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Battle of the taste buds at Saint-Antonin Noble-Val

The charming French village that was the setting for the hit film The Hundred-Foot Journey comes alive

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Published: Fri 3 Jul 2015, 6:31 PM

Last updated: Fri 10 Jul 2015, 10:14 AM

Battle of the taste buds at Saint-Antonin Noble-Val

It’s the kind of charming village that gets insidiously under your skin and, before you know it, you are in love. Steep, winding cobbled streets, weathered-tiled roof houses with rough, stony textured facades and balconies with flowers nodding in the sun... Welcome to St Antonin Noble Val, in south-west France, just over an hour’s drive from the city of Toulouse.

St Antonin Noble Val is not, however, just another pretty French village. It is the star of the film The Hundred-Foot Journey produced by Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg — a feel-good movie about the clash of French and Indian cultures and food philosophies, climaxing in a truce and a tender love story. We visited the village and met some of the ruddy-cheeked, silver-haired actors who have fond memories of the shoot. One of them even brought along a photo album that showcased the village when it became a live film set.

St Antonin Noble Val

The film starts with the Kadam family losing everything in a fire in Mumbai (including their restaurant), and them moving to Europe in search of a place to set up an Indian restaurant. On impulse, Papa — the patriarch, played by Om Puri of the gravelly voice and perpetual scowl — decides to strike roots in a picturesque village that snuggles in the lee of glowering limestone cliffs (Roc d’Anglars) and a softly winding river — the Aveyron.

Soon the family sets up their Indian eatery across from a venerable Michelin star restaurant, helmed by the starchy, but very French, Madame Mallory (played by Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren) for whom life is all about Michelin stars and classic French cuisine. The battle of the taste buds ensues, with the two adversaries — Puri and Mirren — slugging it out in the tiny medieval village that had not seen a skirmish since the Hundred Years War between France and England in the Middle Ages when the town changed hands several times! In the film, Puri’s loud, garish Johnny-come-lately restaurant and his aggressive courting of potential patrons causes turmoil in the sleepy rural community of 1,900 genteel souls.

Madame Mallory’s sous-chef, the pretty Margarite conforms to the American vision of France in the World War II era, when village belles, dressed in floral dresses, cycled down idyllic village streets or sat by a river plucking and picking up flowers and mushrooms. She is a perfect foil for the dark brooding Hassan (played by newbie Manish Dayal), who acts as Puri’s gifted son, a self-taught chef who, turns out, inspired fare seasoned with his secret native spices. It is Hassan’s acquired passion for French cuisine that transports him to Olympian heights in the rarefied French culinary world that finally draws the two warring sides together into a sweet denouement.

This modern-day fairy tale deserved a fairy-tale backdrop and director Lasse Hollstrom chose the village of St Antonin Noble Val for its timeless appeal and unvarnished beauty. Some of the innocent locals we met seemed to enhance the hamlet’s unpretentious air — an Om Puri look-alike who smiled broadly unlike the Real McCoy. In some scenes, Puri’s alter ego even stood in for the formidable Indian actor, essaying his character with considerable flair especially in the more dangerous scenes such as the car crash.

 St Antonin Noble Val

We strolled around the village with the actors who told us about stunning cinematic special effects... of how artificial moonlight was drizzled on the moonlit scenes in the movie from a hot air balloon and of the wig created for Helen Mirren that had to be re-done at night till it met her exacting requirements. The gentle folk showed us the bridge where, in the film, Hassan and Margarite cycle past each other, and Margarite’s home in the village and the square with the welcoming sidewalk cafe. 

Indeed St Antonin Noble Val is a charmer even without the prop of having starred in a couple of classic movies.  At the Place de la Halle, a colourful farmer’s market is held every Sunday in summer, when stalls selling herbs, spices, goat cheese, expensive truffles, local pastries and bread wind from one twisted street to another, creating a fragrant mosaic. (Indeed, the market too figured in the movie as a battleground for Mirren and Puri when each one tried to sabotage the other.) From the square, one can see the town’s finest building Maison des Consuls (now a museum) dating back to 1120.

Ambling in the shaded streets is a delight; stopping at yawning squares, gazing at ornate doorways with stone carvings… There’s one with a frieze of a medieval couple kissing which is aptly called the House of Love! Locals and tourists walk along the river or canoe down in the summer, past the looming cliffs and gorges of L’Aveyron, honeycombed with caves. Kingfishers and dragonflies flit above and the river’s sandy banks are often dotted with sunbathers toasting themselves in the sun. Our guide recommended checking out some of the villas located in the stunning countryside, close to the village, but we had to leave this enchanted hamlet and head for Montauban, an hour’s drive away.

We spent the night at L’Abbaye des Capucins Hotel Restaurant and Spa in Montauban. The very contemporary hotel was an abbey of the Capucins order of nuns centuries ago and also served as a military hospital during the World Wars. The former altar is now a conference room while under the hostelry’s Michelin star restaurant is a cellar where special functions are held.

That night, wedged between slumber and wakefulness, between past and present, hard reality and fantasy, we too undertook a hundred-foot journey in our dreams, bridging the divide happily, between the mouth-watering elegance of French cuisine and the explosive flavours of our own Indian fare. We realised then that, like in dreams, in the shimmering world of celluloid too, art imitates life and happy endings are a given.

Fact File

* Air France has direct flights from Dubai to Paris with convenient connections to Toulouse. A great way to see the country is to travel from Toulouse to St Antonin Noble Vin by the high speed TGV. 

* Armed with a French Rail Pass (purchased from Rail Europe before leaving your country), you can zip off on any train after paying a nominal amount for reservations. French Rail Passes allow travel by train from 3 to 9 days, consecutive or alternate days within 2 months, through the entire French Rail Network including the TGV. There is the option for travel in 1st or 2nd class as well as a host of choices from saver passes, youth passes, France one day passes, etc. You can purchase multi-country passes, too. 

* While St Antonin Noble Val is a small village, there are a few charming guesthouses and country inns. Or you could stay in the alluring neighbouring town of Montauban  

For more information visit www.atout-france.fr and www.raileurope.com 

Text and Photographs: Gustasp and Jeroo Irani


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