It's pretty humbling to think that this time last week, I was still relaxing in California..and now here I am in Belgium and already venturing around again. Honestly, I definitely appreciate that I'm even able to do this!
My amazing husband managed to take some well deserved time off when I came back, so we're wanting to take advantage of it! Later this month, I'll be heading to the Le Creuset factory outlet store over in France with a group of gals since it'd be pretty cool to get it straight from them verses a retail store, if that makes any sense. Well, Eric was actually really interested in going, but not with a group of women since he'd be the only guy... and he's not one for being in a hen house, lol. We were planning on going over to Chièvres, which isn't too far from the border of France, so we figured we'd go the extra hour and a half distance to actually go into that country to check out Le Creuset. I see it as not only spending time with Eric, but it's like I'm doing "intel" for the other gals who are going on the trip later this month in terms of finding out pricing, what's available in the shop, ect. And...I'll be able to get familiar with the area so when I do the drive again, I won't get so lost :) See? Win win.
The Le Creuset is located in Fresnoy-le-Grand, France, which has a pretty massive factory. There are rumblings that a second factory for the company is being built per some Le Creuset employees I've talked to during my purchasing adventures.
Photo provided via Le Creuset
In case you don't what Le Creuset is..let me explain. They make some of the most fantastic cast iron cookware, ever, and that's what they're known for. The company was founded in 1925 (86 years ago!!) and is still going strong. My grandmother actually has a piece of theirs which she got in 1947 and it still works AND looks amazing! Now, I'm psychotic about having nice cookware in my kitchen (Hi. I'm Pampered Chef consultant and my kitchen is PIMPED out)...so as time as rolled on, I've collected a few little pieces here and there from Le Creuset. Eric is a loving and supportive husband, so when I told him that I wanted to get a few Le Creuset pieces, he didn't bother asking why since he knew I had already done all the research...and basically that I was a woman on a mission till I got what I was looking for.
So, we made our way over to France bright and early since I figured out the store was open for a few hours in the morning, closed for lunch, then re-opens back in the afternoon. It takes just a wee bit over three hours to get there and the first hour and a half was spent in Brussels traffic (ick). Once we got past there, it was pretty smooth sailing for most of the remainder of the drive:
The sites along the way were pretty cool! We drove through numerous little French villages ....we even passed by several bunkers that looked like they lived through some history. There were even some really interesting churches along the way, but we didn't have a chance to stop since the French seem to enjoy drafting our Xterra and there really wasn't anywhere we could pull off to in order to allow people to pass. Le sigh.
Once we found the outlet, I was kinda surprised by how small it was. I mean.. I knew in the back of my mind that it was small, but not as small as it actually is considering it's RIGHT next to the factory.
For those interested in visiting the Le Creuset Outlet here is the address & hours as of today's date:
Rue Olivier Deguise, 02230 Fresnoy-Le-Grand, France.
Tel 03.23.06.22.45
Hours: Closed Monday & Sunday. Tuesday-Saturday 10-12:30 & 2:15-6:30
As long as you're walking in without a specific color / particular thing in mind...you'll be perfectly fine in there. The majority of the colors they had available in their cast iron stuff was black, red, blue, flame, a few pieces of yellow as well as eggplant here and there.
When you first walk in, they have a table on the left that shows off what they currently have a promotion for. This month, if you buy any of the "Ocean Blue" colored items, they'll take 20% off of it for ya. I actually thought of one of my friends since this is TOTALLY a color she'd go for. In fact, I think this is one of the colors she picked in our pottery class to glaze the goodies she had made.
One aisle has all the main cast iron goodies like oval and circular dutch ovens, frying pans, doufeu's, woks, etc.
They also carry silicone pans for muffins, cakes, loafs, even muffin liners and colanders!
Throughout the store (but mainly in the very back) they have a collection of stoneware to pick from. Like I said, if you don't have a particular color in mind...that will totally work in your favor. The color varieties ranged from off white, to eggplant, red, flame, black and a mossy green color. It just really depends on what they have available at the time when you go.
In the other aisle, you can check out various tea kettles as well as mini little stoneware pieces you can use for little desserts, etc. Lots of colors available in those!
Tagines!
Aside from all the standard cookware stuff, they also have kitchen tools available like wine accessories, silicone spreaders, whisks, trivets, even little magnets for your fridge that look like baby cast iron dutch ovens.
While walking around and figuring out what I wanted, I found a price sheet that they had readily available for people to use rather than to lift up each individual piece to check the price on the bottom. Tell ya what, that thing was a blessing cause after lifting the fourth or fifth piece of cash iron, it gets a little tiring. Here's the price sheet I'm talking about.. the light orange is the price of the unit in the store, the white part is what the piece NORMALLY goes for, and the dark orange tells you how much you save. (If you click on the picture, it'll enlarge so you can see the prices better)
Once we got our fill from looking around and debating, we ended up getting a 2 quart.Tagine in "Flame". If you don't know what a Tagine is, here ya go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tajine Also, here's a little video on how to use one:
I've been pretty interested in getting one for a while since I'm wanting to expand my cooking arsenal with different types of recipes aside from all the usual stuff I made. Eric was even open to trying new things, so hell, why not get a Tagine :) We both agreed on "Flame" since Dune (a bone white color) was a little boring, and the Caribbean Blue isn't available in the size we wanted. The gal that helped me was FANTASTIC! When we told her what we were wanting, she went in the back and pulled out a box since all the big items are pretty much displays...she pulled the Tagine out and checked it for dings, imperfections and whatever else could possibly be wrong, showed it to us them boxed it back up for us to take home :)
I love how large it is! The bottom holds up to 2 quarts of whatever deliciousness you wanna cook, and as you can see, it's pretty deep so you don't have to worry about it overflowing onto your stove top.
The top is made of stoneware while the bottom is cast iron..all together, it weighs around 7lbs.
Price wise.....errrrrmmmm... it's not all that much cheaper than what you can get in a regular retail store, at least in the US. When I was in the Le Creuset outlet in Gilroy, I manged to get my 7.75 quart round dutch oven for $115 (originally $280), a sauce pan for $75 (originally $170) and an awesome pepper grinder for $20 (originally $60). When I did the conversion rate for what I paid for my Tagine from the factory, which was 119€, it comes out to $160.65...about a $15 savings compared to what the going rate is online. Then, add in the cost of gas round trip (which is 80€)...it kinda took away the feeling of "saving on the price" by getting it directly from the store in France verses getting it on Amazon (which offers free shipping). I suppose it just depends on what you're really looking for since you can get better savings on certain items, but, it still ends up being pricier than anticipated and how much you really wanna dig.
Overall, it was a beautiful drive around France in the process of finding this store..it was something Eric and I got to do together in addition to helping me figure out how to get there for the next time I'll be driving some ladies to the store. Now I just gotta find some cookbooks for Tagines as well as other cast iron dutch ovens...'tis the season for hearty soups!! :D
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