Merry Christmas!

Today is THE day! In a few short hours I will be off to one of my favorite places on earth...Rome. Can't wait to have that first first cup of cappuccino at Sant' Eustachio...ahhh...I can taste it now! :)

Warm wishes for a happy, safe, and healthy holiday.

It's almost 10am and....

I have 2 more hours at work...ugghhh...I've got all my "ducks in a row" and just one or two things to wrap up and I am ready to hit the door and not look back for 10 days!

I have been obsessing over the weather forecast for the next 10 days in Rome and things are not looking good for the first few days I will be there...I am hoping in the next 24 hours some weather miracle occurs and it will be sunny for the entire time I will be in Rome...a girl can hope can't she? Well, as a co-worker told me this morning..."even if it is rainy and cloudy at least you'll be in Rome"! She does have a point. If all else fails I'm sure I can find a cafe where I can sit and order cappuccino after cappuccino and soak in all that Rome is at Christmas time! :)

Fortunately my flights tomorrow do not connect through any "snow-bound" location in the US. All the way from the Pacific Northwest to the Northeast there is tons of snow falling, even in places that don't usually have the "white stuff"! As long as Atlanta stays blessed by the weather gods I will be a happy traveler!

Packing is done...

My bag is packed and I am ready for my Roman Holiday to begin...too bad I have to get through the rest of today and tomorrow before flying the friendly skies.

With the horrible weather pummeling the northern part of the country I am hoping I don't run into any flight delays...but as usual I will approach the "travel day" with flexibility as my mantra.

And the weather forecast for the first 3 days in Rome doesn't look very promising, but weather forecast have been known to be wrong in the past...Let's hope for sunny blue skies!

1 week from tonight....

It will not only be Christmas Eve...it will be the night before I leave for Rome! I am sure I will be buzzing around the house doing all the last minute things I usually do before a trip.

Most of what I need to pack is piled up in the guest room, now it's just a matter of finding the time this weekend to pack, with a party Saturday night and tickets to a matinee at the performing arts center finding a few hours in between to pack my bag may be tricky, but I am more laid back then usual about packing for this trip. Maybe because I did it last year, and I have this packing thing down to a science!

Here's looking forward to having a great holiday in Roma!

2 Weeks from today....

I will be on my way to Rome and I am ready for it NOW!

I know, I know, I'm just back from a couple really great trips (France and NYC), but I am ready for another vacation and it can't come soon enough.

I'm trying not to stress over work stuff. Technically I will only be out of the office for 3 working days and those are between Christmas and New Year's when historically things are slow anyway. Let's hope I can relax for a few days and not worry about work while in Rome!

This weekend I will be starting to get organized with packing. I'm remaining very laid back about it this time around, not sure why...maybe because I'm getting better at it and I've done it so many times, it should be snap! I still have my packing list which helps tremendously!

Here's hoping the next 2 weeks go by smoothly and my departure is easy going!

Spirito di Vino BOOKED!

Well, the first choice restaurant for New Year's Eve dinner (Osteria Romana) in Rome still hadn't replied to my email by earlier this week and it had been almost a week since I had emailed them my request...I know, I can get a bit impatient!

BUT I didn't want to arrive in Rome on December 26th without a New Year's Eve dinner reservation not knowing how easy or difficult it might be to arrange them just days before the holiday. So, a few days ago I started looking through my bookmarked Rome restaurants and hit upon Spirito di Vino in the Trastevere neighborhood, which is within walking distance to our hotel. This was a high priority because I have been told that taxis on New Year's Eve in Rome are VERY hard to come by.

This restaurant also happened to be one featured on a past episode of $40 with Rachel Ray on the Food Network, and I probably did see that episode, but honestly didn't remember the restaurant from that.

As I perused the restaurant's website it really appealed to me, an interesting building, looks like interesting decor, cool looking wine cellar and a pretty appetizing menu.

I emailed them with my request and in less then 24 hours had a reply back that I had a confirmed reservation for New Year's Eve! I thought that was a good sign...very prompt!

Once I had the reservation I started doing some google research and found a UK dining review website that had some really terrific reviews of this restaurant...another good sign! Needless to say I am pleased that I may have another gem of a restaurant to experience and now I can rest easy that we will not be sitting on the curb on a Roman street on New Year's Eve eating Pizza Bianca....although, that doesn't sound like a bad option either!

If you want to check out Ristorante Spirito di Vino here is their website:
http://www.spiritodivino.com/

Now all the little "loose ends" for reservations are tied up...just need to confirm the hotel next week and in 16 days we will be on our way to the Eternal City...

Ciao Roma!

Awesome Rome guide booked!

I could not be more ecstatic....

Last year when in Rome we had a terrific guide for the Borghese Gallery and Ancient Rome walking tours. Her name, Francesca Caruso.

Last spring when I started booking reservations for this year's trip to Rome I emailed her to see if she would be available for a walking tour in the Trastevere neighborhood. She was quick to respond but unfortunately she said she may not be in Rome over the Christmas holidays, but to contact her closer to when I would be in Rome and if her plans had changed we could possibly set up a tour.

Yesterday I emailed her and to my great pleasure she replied to me today...and YES! She will be in Rome this year at Christmas and I booked a walking tour with her for Dec. 29th. We are THRILLED to book this tour with Francesca...she has such an infectious enthusiasm for the city of Rome I can't wait to spend time with her!

And my airport transfers are set too. We will be whisked away to our hotel from the airport by Rome Cabs...we had such great service with them last year it was a no-brainer to book them again this year!

Holy Smokes....only 24 more days...

Until Rome! Ok, until Christmas too, but I'm flying to Rome on Christmas day, so in my book it's both! What a way to spend the holiday...flying through the air to one of my favorite destinations.

With just returning from France in mid-October, then a 4 day trip to NYC in mid-November, friends in town over Thanksgiving I'm feeling a bit unorganized for this Rome trip. All the "biggies" are taken care of , but I need to buckle down and make a few more arrangements plus keep things at work on course...ahhh...there's no rest for the weary! :)

This week I need to find a restaurant for New Year's Eve dinner and book our transportation to and from the airport in Rome, and everything else will be in a "play it by ear" mode for our 8 days in the Eternal City.

Of course I did buy another Rome guide book a couple weeks ago and haven't even cracked it open yet, it could be good reading for the next few weekends!

The Countdown to Rome and Preparation for Amalfii Begin!

That's Right...December 25th I am jetting off to Roma! Ahhhh...the Eternal City at Christmas...LOVE it! And this time around I will be there for New Year's Eve...time to find a restaurant for dinner and reveling on New Year's Eve and make a reservation!

And not that I don't love doing preparations for Rome...but now I get to start thinking about the Amalfi coast in April with the 10 Year Anniversary contingent...now that is one trip I am REALLY looking forward too.

Instead of Tuscany Sandy and Alan decided to go with the Amalfi coast for the "event" and I'm hoping it will be a little warmer there then in Tuscany at the end of April. And if that wasn't good enough news...Regi and Scott are coming along too...this is going to be one fun week!

Stay tuned for all the planning details and pictures!

Mega Muscial Weekend...NYC trip report.

Mom and I decided to make a long weekend of the Veteran's Day holiday and went to NYC the Saturday before Veteran's Day and returned home Tuesday.

We were fortunate to get a good deal on the airfare direct from Savannah, GA to LaGuardia on Delta. Once the flight was booked I found the Washington Jefferson Hotel on 51st St. for $370 a night and made the room reservation. The hotel could be cancelled up to a day prior to arrival without penalty, which was a good thing.

I had booked the hotel a couple months in advance, but the Wednesday before we were to leave I was checking out hotwire and to my surprise a 4 star hotel in the theater district was listed at $269 per night. I had never used hotwire before, but for $100 savings per night I cancelled the Washington Jefferson and booked the hotwire hotel.

To my astonishment we got the Broadway Millennium Hotel at 145 W. 44th Street between 6th & 7th Avenues. We loved the hotel and we even got a corner room on the 49th floor. We looked one way and saw Times Square the other way the Chrysler Building...we were off to great start!

For months prior to this trip I was continually checking theater ticket discounts on http://www.playbill.com/. That paid off too.We had tickets for Billy Elliot on Saturday night, Gypsy for the Sunday matinee, Chicago on Sunday evening and Shrek the Musical on Monday evening. All were discounts, and yes, all balcony seats, but no problems seeing the stages.

Saturday evening we had a pre-theater dinner at Vice Versa located at 325 W. 51st St. between 8th & 9th. The meal was excellent. We had the eggplant roll starter. I had the potato gnocchi with proscuitto and porcini mushrooms in cream sauce. Mom had the braised lamb shank with polenta and vegetable gravy. Both were delicious. With 4 glasses of wine and 2 espressos the total for the meal was $115.

Then we were off to see Billy Elliot. This was by far our favorite show of the weekend. The music and dancing were fantastic. I highly recommend this show.

Sunday morning we had brunch at Havana Central and honestly, we were underwhelmed. I picked this place for one reason and that was I could earn 1000 points on OpenTable.com if I made an 11:45am reservation and that's why I chose this place. I had the huevos con frijoles which were ok and mom had the eggs florentine. The food was just luke warm, which is a demerit in mom's book because she loves her food "atomic" hot!

After brunch we headed down to Macy's to kill some time before the 3pm matinee of Gypsy. A little retail therapy never hurts!

Let me preface this by saying I adore Patti Lupone and when I was a youngster I had the good fortune to have parents who loved the theater and I saw Patti Lupone in Evita the day after she won the Tony award for that roll, so I am a little biased when it comes to Patti Lupone. I enjoyed Gypsy and Patti Lupone's performance was great, but I did feel a little "flat" leaving the theater. I can't pinpoint why, maybe because I loved Billy Elliot so much the night before, but I just wasn't blown away by Gypsy. I understand that Gypsy will be closing in March, and I am glad I got to see Patti Lupone again.

After Gypsy ended, close to 6pm we had just enough time to go back to the hotel, get our jackets and head up to the Ambassador Theater to see the 7pm performance of Chicago.

I really enjoyed Chicago, this was the 3rd time mom had seen this show, but she said it was the best performance she had seen of this show. I thought the woman who played Velma Kelly (Brenda Braxton) was great...she has an incredable voice!

The show ended at about 9:30pm and we had a 10pm reservation at Roberto Passon located at 741 9th Avenue (corner of 50th St.). This was by far our favorite meal of the trip and we would not ever hesitate to go to this restaurant again. We had the grilled portobello, grilled tomato and sheep's cheese starter and it was "to die for". I would have been happy if that was the only thing we had. But, we each had an entree. I had the salmon topped with carmelized onions on a bed of garlic spinach and vegetables. It was absolutely delicious. Mom had the calf livers with potato cake and spinach. The best calf livers mom had ever had. For dessert I chose to have the tiramisu and it was wonderful, very light, and creamy. With 2 glasses of wine, a kir royal and 2 espressos this meal was $90.

Monday we had breakfast at Maison located at 7th Ave. and 53rd Street. We had been to this restaurant before for breakfast and like it alot. Prices are very reasonable for NYC and the food is good. We really like the orange juice there!

After breakfast we made our way to the corner of 5th Ave and 60th street to meet our tour guide for a guided walk through Central Park.Our guide was Bob Gelber (walkinny.com). When we were in NYC last spring we had Bob as a guide on the Foods of NY Chelsea Market tour. We thought he was terrific and I found his own website and found that he does a variety of walking tours. He had a planned Central Park walking tour the Monday before we would be in NYC but he was available for a private tour the Monday we were there and booked him. We really like Bob's style. Very casual, but he is a wealth of information. We met him at 10:30am and spent 3 hours walking through the park, he points out interesting pieces of history about the park and NYC in general. We meandered through the park including the Ramble, Bethesda Fountain and ended at the Belvedeer Castle. At the end of the tour Bob walked with us over to Zabar's to make sure we found our way there.

Yes, it was a private tour, and it did cost $75 for 3 hours, but his scheduled group tours are $15 per person. Unfortunately for us, the group tour didn't work into our schedule, but we were glad he was available for a private tour. I would not hesitate to use his services again for another tour.

This afternoon we were scheduled for the 3:30pm backstage tour of the Metropolitan Opera House, so we made our way over to Lincoln Center. The tour was very interesting and we got to see not only backstage, but also the dressing rooms, and the rehersal studios, costume production and scenic production workshops. The only negative I have to say is that the woman guiding the tour undoubtedly knows alot about opera and the inner workings of the Met, but her delivery of the information for a group of 15 needs a little work. At times it was very difficult to hear her (yes they were setting up for a performance that evening) but also, logistically she had us going up and down in the elevator and back-tracking. I do recommend this tour, I just think it is the luck of the draw on who is leading the tour.

We were done with the tour by 5:20pm and we had a 5:45pm dinner reservation at Sosa Borella at 832 8th Ave (near 50th St., I think). This is an Argentine Italian restaurant and we had another terrific meal here.

The service was outstanding. We had glasses of Argentine wine selected by our server and she did an outstanding job selecting the wines.

For starters mom had the squash soup and I had the carpaccio breasoala (aged beef with Argentine parmesean cheese) on arugala. Both were excellent. For our entres mom had the roasted rosemary chicken with gorgonzola mashed potatoes which were out of this world good. I had the spinach ravioli stuffed with ricotta and lamb ragout, which was very good. For dessert we had the orange flavored bread pudding, which was light and perfection! With 2 espressos to finish things off the total was $135.

We had tickets for the 8pm performance of Shrek the Musical, which had just started previews 2 nights before. As expected there were lots of children in the audience, but like the movie, lots of adult humor in the show. The cast was outstanding and the music was terrific.

Tuesday arrived all to quickly and the car service (Carmel) was there to pick us up right on time Tuesday morning and we were on our way back home.

The Fantastic French Riveria

Day Fifteen: Thursday, Oct. 2nd, 2008

Today we are on our way to Nice…ahhh…the French Riveria. We stopped in Antibes just after 12noon for a lunch break and to poke around the town.

Instead of running around trying to see a bunch of sites mom and I took a short walk through the old town and then sat down for a leisurely lunch. We found Le Jardin restaurant at 5, rue Sade, and were seated outside in the pretty back patio, which was filling up quickly. Mom had the Thai crab salad which was another big delicious salad. I had the tomato and goat cheese ravioli salad, also delicious. With two lemonades the total for lunch was €40.50.

After lunch we had some time before we had to meet the group so we walked around the harbour and ogled all the expensive yachts. We were back on the road at 3pm and were at our hotel in Nice. We stayed at the Nice Marche aux Fleur hotel (a Mercure hotel), that is right on the Promenade Anglais. It’s a great location and a clean and comfortable hotel.

About an hour after checking into the hotel Patrick took us for a short, one hour orientation tour of the old city. Around 7pm mom and I took Patrick’s advice and had Nice street food for dinner. We stopped at Lou Pilha Leva for pissaladiere. We got one slice of pissaladiere and a piece of quiche. The pissaladiere was so good we each got another piece. Including a carafe of wine and 2 espressos the total was €19!!! Now that’s a bargain meal!

We loved the pissaladire, this is a Nicoise speciality and the only way I can describe it as an carmelized onion topped foccacia, as a carbohydrate junkie, I LOVED it!

On the way back to the hotel we stopped for gelato at Fennochi, we were told this is the oldest gelato stand in Nice. It was pretty good, but we would have better in the next few days. We took our time wandering back to the hotel exploring some of the nooks and crannies of the old town.

Day Sixteen: Friday, Oct. 3rd, 2008

Today was another picture perfect weather day. We had breakfast, at the hotel, which was sufficient, but not spectacular and were out the door by 9:30am and on the bus to Monaco by 10am.

We took the #100 (Nice-Menton) bus from the Nice Gare Routiere. The bus fare was €1 one way. The bus was packed with people, but we managed to find seats for the approximately 45 minute ride to Monaco. This bus route goes along the Low Corniche which hugs the coastline from Nice to Monaco.

Since the bus was so full, and I was on the left side of the bus, it was difficult to see the names of all the bus stops, but the scenery along this route was stunning. I did manage to get off at the right stop (Place d’Armes stop) and after taking a wrong turn, we managed to find our way to the Palace and Old Town.

We could not have asked for a more ideal setting, the clear blue sky, the sparkling blue water, the sun shining. The only crimp in this otherwise perfect weather was the wind, it was blowing so hard our hair was just about standing up on end…but a small hassle to put up with in a near idyllic day! By the time we arrived at the palace area the changing of the guard was about 30 minutes away, we could see the crowds of people already starting to form. We decided to not stay for the event but rather wander around and go into the cathedral. We then walked through the lovely botanical gardens and all the way down the hill to the harbour. In spite of the “breezy” conditions, it was great walking weather!

We stopped for lunch along the harbour at the Hotel Miramar, where we most likely paid way too much for 2 sandwiches and 2 oranginas, €35 but we enjoyed a leisurely lunch watching all the activity in the harbour.

After lunch we continued our walk and went to the Monte Carlo Casino. All I can say is WOW! In my opinion, definitely OTT (over the top). The Casino is opulent, and we did get to go inside and check out the entry area. If I wanted to play some video poker there was a room to the right of the entrance where “mere mortals” could play, but I’m not the gambling type, so we just had a look around, peeking into one of the gaming rooms, where I could only dream of getting entry into, even if I was a gambling kind of gal.
The park area in front of and around the casino was immaculately manicured and there was a vintage car show going on in the front of the casino which added even more people milling about and gawking, but hey, we were part of the gawkers too.

When we were finished being “wowed” by the casino we walked through the park area to the Boulevard Princess Charlotte where there is a bus stop for the #112 bus that goes to Eze le Village. This bus is not very frequent; I believe the schedule indicated in runs something like every 1.5 hours give or take. We did wait about an hour but this is the first stop on this line and it was right on time. It was only a 15 minute ride to Eze and this route goes along the Middle Corniche, so we were able to get some great views of the Mediterranean.

Eze le Village is a tiny hill top village and mostly filled with artist’s shops. But there were some spectacular views which meant great photos opportunities for me. We did find an interesting artist’s shop where her paintings were on pillow covers. Many of the paintings were of doorways and windows in the village and other were of areas of Provence. They were really quite lovely and mom and I succumbed to a little retail therapy at this particular shop! But now as we sit at home and gaze at the pillows adorning our sofas, we think back to this great trip!

By 5pm we were ready to get back to Nice and walked down to the bus stop to wait for the bus. The bus arrived at about 5:30pm and we were back in Nice shortly after 6pm. The public buses were great for getting around and at €1 a ride the price couldn’t have been better!

Once back at the hotel we got ready to meet the group for our farewell dinner (last supper sounds too ominous!). This was another good meal (but not great). It was at a restaurant in a hotel on Avenue Felix Faure (I can’t remember the name). Mom and I had the goat cheese salad for our starter and our main dish was veal with vegetables and mashed potatoes. We finished with fig tarte, which was just so-so and espresso. It really did pale in comparison to the meal at Corazon in Arles but all group meals won’t be perfect.

After dinner Patrick had us meet on the Promenade Anglais in front of the Med and we all toasted with sparkling wine to a good trip. It was nice way to end a great tour. After saying our goodbyes we went back to our room knowing we could sleep in tomorrow and look forward to experiencing a new hotel!

Day Seventeen: Saturday, Oct. 4th, 2008

We slept in a bit today and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and checked out of the hotel at about 10am. We took the 15 minute walk to our “new” hotel. When planning this trip I knew we wanted to stay in Nice a few days after the tour ended and we could have stayed in the perfectly fine Nice Marche aux Fleur hotel, but I wanted to try another hotel while we were in Nice. After lots of research on the Fodors message boards, Le Hotel Grimaldi rose to the top of my list.

When we arrived I was very happy to find out we were getting a room upgrade! For €115 per night we had a 3rd floor room that looked out the front of the building with a pretty church across the street. The room and bathroom were spacious, clean and very comfortable.

After settling in we decided to go to Ville Franche sur Mer for the afternoon. We walked over to the bus station and got the #100 bus and took the 15 minute ride to Ville Franche sur Mer.

We arrived at just after noon and we walked around the Old Town and harbour and found a little outdoor café to have lunch. We each had a pain bagnot, which is basically a Nicoise salad on a huge round loaf of bread…it was good! After lunch and walking around a bit more we got the bus back to Nice. In the early evening we stopped for an aperitif at La Civetta du Cours right in the Cours Saleya. This café was packed and appeared to be the “place to be and been seen”.

We decided to go to Nissa Soca, a Pudlo restaurant recommendation, for dinner. We got there just before 7:30pm and we were lucky to get the last table!

I was all set to have the eggplant main dish. We ordered the fried beignets for our starters and then had major disappointment when the server told me there was no more eggplant left, ok, I’ll have the lasagne. Halfway through our starter our server became my angel, because she came over and said they had one more eggplant dish left and did I want it? Of course! So I had the eggplant main dish and mom had the lasagne main. Both were terrific. We both had the apple tarte for dessert, it was light and delicious and we followed that with espressos. With a bottle of wine the total was €50. We went home very satisfied.

Day Eighteen: Sunday, Oct. 5th, 2008

Today was an early morning for us. We booked a market tour and socca breakfast with Rosa Jackson of Petits Farcis (www.petitsfarcis.com/) and (http://www.rosajackson.com/) who is a local food and travel writer who conducts food tours and cooking classes. This was not an inexpensive venture, but in our opinion it was worth it because we had a great time. The tour we chose was the market tour and breakfast at Rosa’s apartment and it was €120 per person.

At 8am Rosa met us at the Cours Saleya market and we sat down for coffee and a bit of history at Le Civetta du Cours café. By 9am we were walking through the market like locals, tasting olives and buying ingredients for breakfast. We also stopped at a local bakery for some mouth watering treats!

We then made our way to Rosa’s apartment in the Old Town where her husband had been doing the prep work to help make our breakfast. The main feature was socca that Rosa made for us, with a little of the fresh rosemary we bought at the market.

Socca is a local speciality. It’s a chickpea crepe-like treat. It was delicious. Along with the socca we had a couple different types of goat cheese, olives, baked eggs, fruit bread, ciabatta, a local sweet pastry made with chard (which I can’t remember the name of, but was wonderful) and for dessert (as if all that food wasn’t enough!) we had fresh berries with fromage blanc. All this before 11:30am!

This was a fun way for us to spend the morning and see a bit more of the local side of Nice, Rosa shops the market daily and knows almost all the vendors, so it was interesting to see the personal interaction.

After leaving Rosa’s (or maybe I should say, rolling out of Rosa’s apartment!) we walked along the Promenade Anglais for a little while and then decided to go see the Russian Cathedral. We caught the tram (€1) to the train station and from there is was about a 15 minute walk to the cathedral.

What a neat building, as we turned the corning we saw the onion shaped domes peeking out above the trees. For as elaborate as the domes outside were, I was surprised it was rather small inside, just one large room, but some exquisite art work.

When we left he cathedral I could tell from our map we could walk back to the hotel using a different route. It took us about 30 minutes, but we got to see more of the new town of Nice.

After taking a short rest we set out for our evening aperitif. Tonight we had drinks at Antonia café on the square where the church of St. Reparte is. By 7pm we decided to take Rosa’s recommendation and had dinner at Casa Mia at 4, rue du Pontin. Our meal here was excellent. When we arrived we were the only ones in the restaurant, but it filled up quickly.

For starters I had what they called October salad; it had Parma ham, fennel, and apples, just delicious. Mom had the polenta with gorgonzola cheese, it tasted like heaven! I had the veal scaloppini with gorgonzola and mom had the veal saltimbocca for our main dishes. Both were excellent. I had the molten chocolate cake that was almost like pudding and mom had espresso. With a bottle of wine the total was €75.

We walked leisurely back to the hotel through the Old Town and fell asleep with full bellies.

Day Nineteen: Monday, Oct. 6th, 2008

We had entertained the idea of taking the train up into the mountains and exploring some of the little towns there. But that would have required and early start to the day and at this point we were enjoying being in “vacation mode” and instead chose to make today a museum day.

We had breakfast at the Hotel Grimaldi today and by 10am we took the #15 bus to the Matisse Museum. We were lucky again and entry was free to the museum today, we never did find out why. It took about an hour to see the exhibits and then we hopped back on the #15 bus and took it to the Chagall Museum.

The Chagall Museum was &euro:17 for the 2 of us. We spent about an hour walking through. I didn’t really know anything about Chagall before going to the museum and found that I liked several of his pieces more then I thought I would. When we were finished with our museum day we got back on bus #15 and took it back to our morning starting point.

When we got off the bus we were right in front of the Galleries Lafayette. We went in and I looked at all the beautiful hand bags. My tongue was really wagging at the variety of Longchamp bags. Before the trip I jokingly said I wanted to come back home with a Longchamp bag, to my disadvantage there was one particular bag that I was really taken with. I hemmed and hawed over the price and then decided I needed a coffee break to think over if I really should splurge.

We found a café and sat for about an hour with our coffees. And, yes, I did go back and buy the coveted bag. Yes, it was a major splurge, but I absolutely love this bag. After my credit card stopped smoking, we went back to the hotel for a short rest.

At 6pm we went out for our evening aperitif, this time we went back to the café at the Cours Saleya and had a few drinks. For dinner we chose a restaurant that was both a Pudlo and Rosa Jackson recommendation. The restaurant was Le Merenda and from the outside it does not look like much. Inside was tiny, it seats maybe 25 people, but it was one of the best meals on this trip.
I started with beignets of zucchini flowers and mom had ratatouille, both were excellent. Mom and I both had the daube de beouf which is a beef stew provencal. It was so tender we didn’t even need a knife. For dessert we both had a local dessert, which is a pie of chard, but it was a bit different then the one we had with Rosa. Actually this one was much better; it had a slight lemon flavour. With 2 espressos to finish things off and a bottle of white wine the total was €89.

This was another terrific ending to a great day. Tomorrow will be our last full day in Nice before heading home.

Day Twenty: Tuesday, Oct. 7th, 2008

We had a very leisurely day today and didn’t get started until 10am. We walked through the Old Town and flower market making a few last minute purchases. We then spent some time walking along the Promenade Anglais.

It started to get close to lunch time and we decided we couldn’t leave Nice without having some more socca. We went back to Lou Pilha Leva, where we had the pissaladiere the other night and had 2 orders of socca. For the socca and a pitcher of lemonade the total was €10.50. We sat outside on the benches and enjoyed our lunch and the sunny weather.

The rest of the afternoon was low-key. We walked back to the hotel and started to pack our bags for our departure tomorrow.

By 5:30pm we were ready for our daily aperitif and we walked over to the café at the Cours Saleya. We had a few drinks before going to dinner. Tonight’s restaurant was recommended by Rosa and we were very glad we took her advice. As a matter of fact, we actually met the restaurant owner at the market on Sunday.

The name of the restaurant is L’Oliviera at 8 bis, rue du Collet (http://www.oliviera.com/). The owner could not have been more accommodating. His speciality is olive oil, but also, everything on his menu is fresh from the market.

I started with a cold eggplant and cheese puree with roasted red peppers which were out of this world, the flavours were amazing. Mom had the feta wrapped in phylo dough, also excellent. Prior to the starter we tasted fresh Nice olive oil, like no other olive oil I’ve tasted, really light.

My main dish was linguini al pesto with diced fresh heirloom tomatoes, it was just delicious. Mom had roasted white eggplant stuffed with meat and topped with fresh tomato sauce and served with a vegetable gratin, both main dishes were great.

We tasted another local olive oil that once we tried it, left the slightest hint of unripe banana, I know it sounds weird, but it tasted great.

We decided to share the tiramisu dessert which was good, but when the owner poured some olive oil on the side and said to try it on the tiramisu I was a sceptic. Well no more! This olive oil was specially aged with no air (I don’t get all the science behind this, something about this no air process stops the oil from going rancid?), the olive oil with the tiramisu made this dessert the most unbelievably delicious tiramisu I have ever had, and believe me, I’ve tried a lot of tiramisu!
We ended the meal with 2 espressos. With a bottle of wine the total for this meal came to &euro:83. It was a wonderful way to end our trip to France. And the owner (Nadim) was just delightful. He took the time to explain everything on the menu and all about the different olive oils.

We walked back to the hotel and did a final pack for our impending departure.


Day Twenty-One and Twenty-Two: Wednesday, Oct. 8th & Thursday, Oct. 9th, 2008

We were up early today for the shuttle van pick-up at 8am. We booked the shuttle service through the hotel and the price was &euro:30 for the 2 of us. The shuttle arrived right on time and we had one other pick-up before going to the airport. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time and had no lines at the check-in desk. We made it through security and immigration/passport control and we were at the gate with an hour to spare. The flight left on time and we landed at JFK on time.

To our pleasant surprise we were off the plane, through passport control, retrieved our bags and through customs in less then an hour! Once we were in the arrivals hall I called the car service I had reserved and within 10 minutes we were on our way into NYC to spend the night.

We arrived in the West Village at the Washington Square Hotel (103 Waverly Place) right around 3:30pm, just 2 hours from touch-down! I planned our trip with this stop in NYC to try and help combat jet lag and it really did help. We went to dinner at 6:30pm at a terrific new restaurant in NYC called Apiary (it was excellent! And involved a goat cheesecake for dessert…hey, why abandon the goat cheese just because I’m not in France!).

We got to sleep early and were up early the next day to catch a direct flight from LaGuardia to Savannah and were back home by 4:30 Thursday afternoon. And for the first time in my life, my suitcase was the very first on the luggage carousel! A happy ending to a Faboulous French vacation!

Hilltop Les Beaux and Colorful Roussillon

Day Fourteen: Wednesday, Oct. 1st, 2008

We left Arles with our final destination being Roussillon. We stopped for the morning in the hilltop town of Les Beaux. This is a cute little town with winding streets and the remains of a chateau at the top of the town. Fortunately we arrived early and avoided the throngs of people that descended upon the town later in the day.

We roamed around the chateau ruins and took lots of pictures, it was an incredibly clear day, but very windy. Lunch was a group meal at a terrific restaurant, which I failed to get the name of. We were served a BIG salad and I do mean big. This “salad” included roasted chicken (a huge piece), proscuitto, melon, a whole tomato, and mixed greens. The salad would have been plenty to feed two people but then there was dessert, another molten chocolate cake, since I didn’t get enough from the night before!

After lunch we left Les Beaux and drove to Roussillon to see the ochre cliffs. The colors in this town were simply incredible, so vibrant! We walked through the cliffs and got to see them up close, really breath taking. We stayed at the cute little Hotel Reves d’Ocres and had a room on the top floor over looking the countryside which offered a great view during sunset. We were on our own for dinner tonight and decided to walk up the hill to the little restaurant call Le Bistrot and we had a light dinner. Mom had a terrific salad with mini ravioli, haricots, and balsamic dressing. I had Le Bistrot tarte, which was a piece of puff pastry with tomato, mozzarella and basil with a little salad it was the perfect light meal. We had a bottle of wine and dessert all for €47.

After dinner we took a leisurely walk back to the hotel and settled in for the night in anticipation for our drive to Nice.

Amazing Arles

Day Twelve: Monday, Sept. 29th, 2008

On our way to Arles today we stopped in St. Christol at a local winery (Chateau des Hospitaliers) for a tour, wine tasting and lunch. The winery is a family operation run by Serge and Sylvie and they were terrific hosts. They have built their winery from the ground up; truly, Serge did the building himself, and they are being environmentally friendly with everything in their operation, from the construction to the harvest.

The wines are marvellous and starting at €3 a bottle the price is definitely right. During the wine tasting we also got to sample their apple cider made from the apples grown in their orchard and it was the best apple cider I have ever tasted.

After the wine tasting Sylvie and Serge invited the group into their home on the winery property for a wonderful homemade lunch. There was a variety of salads, cheeses, and breads and fresh apple tart for dessert. It was a great meal in a lovely setting.

By 2:30pm we were back on the road and heading towards the Pont du Gard. What an amazing engineering structure. And we had perfect weather and by visiting late in the day the afternoon sun was illuminating the structure for more great photo opportunities! At 5:30pm we were on our way to Arles. We arrived at the cute Le Calendal Hotel. This hotel is in a perfect location. Just out the front door lies the Ancient Theater and to the right is the Roman Arena. If a central spot is what you are looking for in Arles this hotel is it. The room had ample room and the lobby and restaurant were bright and inviting. The breakfast offered at this hotel was by far the best of the whole trip. There was a really nice variety of pastry, meats, cheeses, eggs, juices and coffees.

After we freshened up we went on short walking tour with the group to get familiar with the town and then we had dinner on our own. I really wanted to try Le Cilantro, which was listed in the Pudlo book and conveniently located down the street from the hotel. But it was a Monday night and unfortunately it was closed…a good reason to go back to Arles!

We walked around the old town area for a bit and found a place listed in the Rick Steves’ guidebook that looked good, called La Pailotte, so we went in. This was another good pick. I really wanted to try the bull and it was on the menu and it was delicious, wrapped in phylo dough. Mom had the pork which was also very good. We both had the eggplant and tomato puree for the starter and for dessert we both had the blanc fromage with fruit and chocolate sauce. The whole meal was terrific.

We ended the night with a short walk back to the hotel looking forward to a full day exploring Arles tomorrow.

Day Thirteen: Tuesday, Sept. 30th, 2008

This morning we met our local guide, Jacqueline, for an hour and a half walking tour or Arles. We saw some of the spots were Van Gogh painted and several of the Roman ruins. At the end of the tour Patrick gave us our museum passes and we had the rest of the day on our own. Mom and I started at the Roman Arena which is still used today for bull fights. It is in remarkable condition and while we were there a portion of the outside of the structure was being cleaned; it was a big contrast to the un-cleaned portions. During our walking tour earlier in the day we found out there was an exhibit of Christian LaCroix dresses at the Reattu Museum and we decided to go and see it. Wow! Doesn’t even begin to describe these dresses which I thought were works of art on their own. Apparently LaCroix is a home town boy of Arles and many of the dresses in this exhibition were inspired by some of the artwork displayed there. It was a great exhibit.

We decide to take a brief coffee break at about 12:30pm and stopped at Café de la Major a cute little coffee place not far from the Reattu Museum. After getting sufficiently caffeinated we set out meandering along the streets and did some window shopping. We went back to the Van Gogh hospital for a look around and then took a walk to the Ancient History Museum. It was a bit of a walk to the Ancient History Museum from the old town area, but not more then 20 minutes. I really liked this museum, it was set up in a very user friendly way. From the outside this giant blue and glass building didn’t really impress, but inside the space was open and light and the exhibits were placed in an easy to follow order.

The descriptions were in French, but we were given an English translation book that helped us figure things out. I liked the mosaics and the models of the Roman ruins the most. I highly recommend a visit to this museum. We were able to see all we wanted in just over one hour.

From the museum we walked back to the old town along the river and found Soleilei. This is a little ice cream shop at 9, rue du Dr. Fanton. We each had a cone with one scoop of olive oil ice cream and one scoop of chocolate, it was a great combination! Who knew olive oil ice cream even existed…not me!

After our ice cream break, we walked to the Ancient Theater and had the place practically to ourselves. I must have been doing ok with my French at this point because when I said “Bonjour” to the woman in the ticket booth, she asked me (in French, of course) if I would like the brochure/guide to the site in French…I had to smile to myself, I guess I had mastered the correct pronunciation of Bonjour! But I asked for the English version.

We didn’t have to meet the group until 7:15pm for dinner, so we went to the Forum Plaza where there are several cafes and we had our evening aperitif.

For dinner we met the group for THE BEST group meal of the whole tour. The name of the restaurant was Corazon. Mom and I started with the eggplant and goat cheese starter, it was so good I don’t even remember what the other starter choice for the group was. I could have probably made that starter an entire meal, but it didn’t stop there! Both mom and I chose the lamb shank in orange and ginger glaze for our main dish. The lamb was “fall off the bone” tender, we didn’t even need to use a knife. It was served with sweet potatoes. As if that wasn’t perfect enough, I had the chocolate molten cake for dessert which was absolutely decadent and mom had the trio of sorbets which included peach, pear and I can’t remember the third flavour). This was another delicious meal and a great way to end our stay in Arles.

Tomorrow we are off to the Les Baux and the ochre cliffs of Rousillon.

Carcassonne...Cassoulet Capital!

Day Eleven: Sunday, Sept. 28th, 2008

We left Sarlat this morning in route to Carcassonne, it’s about a 4 hour drive and we made a stop along the way for lunch. We stopped at the Canal di Midi and Patrick brought a picnic lunch for all of us. We boarded a little boat for a one hour cruise and picnic lunch on the canal. We went through one lock on the canal and enjoyed being outside in the great weather. The hour long mini cruise went too quickly and before we knew it we were back at the dock and heading out on the road. After lunch it was a quick 45 minute ride to the town of Carcassonne. We checked into the hotel, which was just outside the city walls, at about 2pm and by 3pm we were at the city walls with the group for a one hour walking tour. Inside the walls it is very touristy, but if you look beyond that, the town has twisty little streets that are fun to explore. After walking around and poking into several shops and checking out restaurant options for dinner we decided to go to Bar A Vins for an aperitif. We spent a couple hours there and got to talking with a couple from Canada who were seated next to us. They were very interested in discussing American politics. After a while I saw some tapas plates going out to other tables and they looked really good. Since we didn’t have a big lunch we ordered the grilled vegetables (eggplant, peppers, and artichokes) and they were a delicious addition to our beverages.

At about 7pm we walked over to Chez Saskia (part of the Hotel de la Cite), it looked so cute, but unfortunately they were not open for dinner, another reason to return to Carcassonne! Instead we fell back on another Pudlo recommendation a place called Auberge Dame Carcas at 3, place du Chateau.

We were so glad we ate at this restaurant, everything was delicious. We decided to have the €15 menu and it was a lot of food. We both chose the pate with onion jam starter and since Carcassonne is known for cassoulet and since it would be our only chance for it, we both had the cassoulet for our main dish. It was excellent, served bubbling hot in a ceramic baking dish with duck, sausage, and white beans, it definitely tasted like a comfort food to me. To go along with the cassoulet we had a bottle of Rose. For dessert we both had the chocolate cake which was light and airy sponge cake but still very chocolaty. We finished the meal with 2 espressos. For all this the total was €45 we thought this was one of the best bargain meals we had the whole trip.

I really liked this restaurant. It was rustic looking inside and had an open kitchen. We sat inside but there was also outside seating.

I was a bit apprehensive when we walked in because there were not many people there, but within an hour every table inside and out was full. A couple of British gals were seated next to us and we had a very nice conversation with them during dinner. We walked back to the hotel and had an early night since we would be driving to Arles in the morning!

Spectacular Sarlat...

Day Eight: Thursday, Sept. 25th, 2008

Today we left Chinon and headed to Sarlat where we will spend 3 nights. Along the way we stopped in a little town and had a picnic lunch provided by Patrick.

Patrick did a great job with the picnic supplies. We had a variety of cheeses, pate (including rabbit pate which was excellent), fruit, salads, and wine.

After our picnic lunch we stopped at the village of Oradour Sur Glane. This village was attacked by Nazi troops during World War II. They killed all the villagers who were in the village at the time, including men, women and children, about 625 people. Then, they burned the village.
The surviving villagers (because they were in another town working) decided to leave the village exactly as it was the day after the Nazis came through. I could hardly believe what I was walking through, streets with burned out buildings including bakeries, hair salons, auto garages and the church, burned and rusted vehicles, bicycles, and sewing machines just to name some of the devastation. There were plaques on building walls listing the names and ages of those who had perished. Although there were many people in the village walking around this day it was almost completely silent.

When we were done visiting the village it was time to get back on the road and head towards my favourite town on the trip: Sarlat where we would spend the next 3 night.

We arrived in Sarlat at about 5pm and after checking into the hotel we did a quick walk around the old town. We had a group dinner this night at the hotel. The starter at this meal was pate and the main dish was fish (dorado), which tasted like nothing. The dessert was a walnut ice-cream which also wasn’t very impressive. But after the meal we had the night before we dealt with the less then spectacular group meal.

After dinner we did a short walking tour of the old town and got to experience Sarlat by street lamp light, which felt like it was right out of a child’s story book. The cobblestone streets, the flowers flowing out of window boxes and the soft lamp light on each street created a magical feeling.

When the walking tour ended we headed back to the hotel to get a good rest since the next day we would be seeing pre-historic caves and canoeing down the Dordogne River!

Day Nine: Friday, Sept. 26th, 2008

This morning the first stop we made was at the Grotte de Rouffignac, which is a pre-historic cave near Sarlat. This cave had a little train that we boarded and were taken down a small track into the cave. The guide who served double-duty as the train engineer gave a good commentary about the paintings and markings on the walls and ceilings, although is was sometimes difficult to hear her because of the acoustics in the cave. Do note there is no light in this cave except when the train is stopped to look at a particular section of wall, which is then illuminated by small lights and the guide uses a flash light to point out items of interest. It was pretty incredible to think these pre-historic people drew these pictures of animals in almost perfect proportion.

After we emerged from the cave we headed for the little village of Domme, perched high on a hill. It was such a picturesque little place. Mom and I bought duck pate sandwiches and sat in a park overlooking the Dordogne River, it was very scenic and a terrific photo opportunity. The sandwiches were absolutely delicious, and maybe it was the beautiful view that helped enhance the sandwich!

When we were finished with lunch it was time to Canoe! Mom decided to sit out the canoe ride, (she’s not to “into” water activities), and so I teamed up with our guide Patrick to canoe down the Dordogne. It was a great day to paddle, cool and a bit cloudy, so no hot sun to deal with.

As we paddled I took lots of pictures, no surprise there! And we made our way down the river passing picture perfect little villages. We paddled for just 11/2 hours and ended in the town of Beynac. Once we were all out of the water we piled back into the bus and went back to Sarlat. After a short rest at the hotel we set out to take a look at a couple restaurants for dinner potential. While meandering through the streets there was an artist’s studio that caught my eye, actually it was one of her pictures that caught my eye. The artist herself was there and she could not have been nicer. I began looking through her work and there were several prints that I was really drawn too, so I bought all 4 prints (at €10 each) Each print was a scene of Sarlat and they each had all the perfect colors that would go with the colors I have throughout my home.

We then found our first pick restaurant for dinner, the Presidial (a Pudlo pick), and made an 8pm reservation. It looked great from the outside and the menu looked even better. By now we were ready to have our usual pre-dinner aperitif, so we found a café in the town square and we had a few drinks while watching the sun go down and the street lights come on.

Just before 8pm we walked back over to the Presidial at 6, rue Landry. This was one of the larger restaurants we ate at; there were 2 dinning rooms, one rather large and then a smaller one that had only 6 tables. There was also ample covered outside dinning. When we arrived almost every table inside was full.

We both had the €42 menu. I started with the lobster ravioli and mom had the foie gras, both were excellent. My main was pan fried scallops, there were 6 huge scallops, and puree of broccoli surrounded by a wide peel of carrot. Mom had the tournad of beef with haricots and potatoes. My main dish was delicious, but mom definitely had the winner in this meal. The beef was done to perfection! We also had a bottle of Rose wine.

Next was the cheese course and we both had the goat cheese served with lettuce and a walnut dressing which was wonderful…well, let me be honest, there isn’t really any cheese that I wouldn’t like!

The best part of the meal for me was the dessert. We both had the same thing and it was called Emotion of Dark Chocolate. It was a base of dark chocolate cookie with chocolate mousse on top served in the form of a disk, it was chocolaty goodness! We capped it off with espresso.

A really delicious meal and the total for it all was €115. I would rate this meal our second best after L’Oceanic in Chinon. After our 3 hour meal we walked back to our hotel and ended the day happily satisfied.

Day Ten: Saturday, Sept. 27th, 2008

Today was market day in Sarlat and what a market it was…there was just about any item you could possibly want from food to clothing to soap and cutlery. The market began on the street right outside of our hotel…how convenient!

Since the whole day was on our own, we had a leisurely morning and went out to the market at about 10am. We perused through the food section of the market first picking up bread and cheese for a picnic lunch later in the day. As we made our way through the crowded streets of the market we came upon a little boutique. The scarves outside drew me in but what kept me there were some really great ponchos. We each bought one, mine green, mom’s black and grey, they are tres chic!

As we continued through the market I then came across a really “funky” purse and it was just too cool to pass up. It’s green and blue in color and triangular shaped and has a bunch of pockets in the front. My description is not doing it justice, I may have to take a picture of it and post it!

By 1:30pm we dropped off our purchases in our room and took our picnic supplies to the public garden for an outdoor lunch of cheese, bread and fruit. After relaxing at lunch we took another walk around the market and poked around in several of the town shops. After mailing our last few postcards we found a café in the town square for an aperitif before meeting up with the group for another group meal at the hotel.

Tonight’s group meal at the hotel was a step- up from 2 nights ago, but not the best of the trip. We started with a Roquefort salad with endive and walnuts, the main was duck confit with potatoes and chocolate cake for dessert.

We were ready to hit the hay early for our trip to Carcassonne in the morning.

The Lovely Loire Valley...

Day Six: Tuesday, Sept. 23rd, 2008

We were on the bus and ready to leave Paris by 8:30am today. It was another great weather day and by noon we stopped in the cute little town of Amboise. We had a couple hours here to poke around and have lunch. There is a chateau in the town, but we did not go into it. Instead we headed up the main pedestrian street in search of a place for lunch.

Since I didn’t know this would be the town we were stopping in and I didn’t bring the huge Pudlo book with me, we were left to our own devices when choosing a restaurant. We decided to walk the whole length of the street to figure out what our options were. We found an adorable little tea room on the main street and it was L’Ancree des Artistes. The menu was all in French and I tried out my limited language skills and managed to order 2 mouth-watering crepes, but I believe they called them galletes.

Mom had the Provencal version and I had the pays (or country) version which had ham, mushrooms, and cheese (I definitely had a pattern when it came to lunch crepes!). I can’t recall the ingredients in Mom’s crepe but they were presented beautifully on the plate. They were square shaped with the corners folded inward and a mixed green salad was served on the side, with the delicious vinaigrette dressing. With bottled water and coffee the total was €24.50.

The interior of L’Ancree des Artistes had maybe 10 tables and a couple tables outside. The exposed brick walls and sisal carpet with light wood tables and chairs and a variety of paintings on the walls made for a very inviting atmosphere. The street address is 35, rue Nationale, Amboise.

After lunch we were on our way to the Chateau de Chenonceau. The Chateau and surrounding grounds are very gorgeous. The interior of the chateau has beautiful furnishings and the gardens are well maintained. For us, the most interesting part of the chateau were the kitchens where the tools used back in the 16th century were displayed as they would have been used…think, knives, pots, pans, ovens, fireplace, bread oven.

We spent a couple hours at Chateau de Chenonceau and in late afternoon we made our way to our hotel in Chinon where we would spend the next 2 nights. After a quick walk around the lower part of the town we decided to go have a glass of wine at one of the cafes in the square next to our hotel. We each had one glass of white wine for the wine and a pleasant evening setting we paid a total of €5. I had to double check the bill…what a pleasant surprise!

Tonight was our second group meal and it was in the hotel’s dining room. I wasn’t quite sure how the meal would measure up, but it was pretty good. We started with a salad with ham and poached egg on mixed greens, actually the salad was the highlight of the whole meal, it was delicious. The main was guinea hen with vegetables, and potatoes, it was ok, but some people mentioned their guinea hen was a bit dry, I lucked out and mine was fine, but that’s what happens when cooking for a group of 25. The dessert was a charlotte caramel that was light and not too sweet. We didn’t have far to go after dinner, upstairs and to our room to get a good night’s sleep for exploring more chateaus the next day.

Day Seven: Wednesday, Sept. 24th, 2008

This morning started out cloudy and rainy but as the day progressed the weather got better. The first chateau of the day would be Villandry and we did not go into the chateau, but we did spend about an hour and half in the remarkable gardens there. I could have spent much more time there taking pictures. I took well over 100 pictures here alone and it was a drizzly cloudy day, I can only imagine how long I would have stayed if the weather was better. Honestly I think the pictures I did take during our time there were some of the best of the whole trip!

As we left Villandry the rain was stopping and we made our way to the next chateau which was Azay le Rideau. This was a fairytale looking chateau in a beautiful setting. The rooms have been restored to look as they did in the 16th century. We did the audio guide of the chateau and grounds and it was put together very nicely.

By the time we finished touring the inside of the chateau the sun had come out and it was a great opportunity to walk around the grounds and the little pond. The audio tour lasted about 1 hour. When we were finished we walked up the street to the small town square that was full of pretty flowers.

We found a little café where we had a quick bite to eat. I had my first croquet monsieur and mom had a crepe. With a coffee and carafe of water the total came to €18.90. Unfortunately I didn’t take down the name of this café. And, since we had walked around the town a bit before eating we were pressed for time and it was probably the fastest lunch we ever ate. We were in and out of the place in 30 minutes.

We were back in Chinon by mid-afternoon and I decided to climb up to the Chateau of Chinon to check out of the views of the Loire River. It was €3 entrance fee and there was some renovation going on of the royal apartments so they weren’t accessible, but the views from the towers on the grounds were as spectacular as I thought they would be.

I met mom back at the hotel and took a short rest before we meet with the group for a historic tour of the medieval part of town. Patrick pointed out some interesting points about Joan of Arc and that the town of Chinon is a UNESCO heritage site.

After the tour we all walked to the Hotel Diderot at 4, rue Buffon et 7, rue Diderot (www.hoteldiderot.com) for a wine tasting. The hotel is owned by 2 brothers and a sister and one of the brothers, Laurent, welcomed us into this adorable hotel and led us in a terrific wine tasting. We had 5 wines to taste, 3 white and 2 red all from Chinon. We learned a bit about how French wines are classified (by region rather than by grape type…I know nothing about wines so this was new for me).

Laurent has quite funny and entertaining as well as being very knowledgeable about wines, well; with my limited wine familiarity I thought he was very knowledgeable! I regret that I did not write down any of the names of the wines, but I liked the first white which was a sparkling wine and the third white which was a sweet wine but was not overly sweet.

After the wine tasting ended mom and I decided to go to dinner at L’Oceanic at 12, rue Rabelais in Chinon. This restaurant was listed in Pudlo and we had checked out the menu earlier in the day and liked what we saw. When we arrived we were greeted immediately but did not have a reservation. This was not a problem and we were seated in the small dining room with the bar. There was a second dinning room that looked to fit more people then the one we were in.

We both decided to have the €24 menu which was 4 courses, and yes, this was THE MOST MEMORABLE MEAL of the trip.

We started with a raspberry Kir aperitif that was the best Kir I had during the whole trip. I really liked the raspberry flavour. We were served an amuse bouche trio of lobster mousse with paprika, onion tarte and tiny crepe topped with salmon and cheese spread. All were excellent. I chose the melon starter which was another trio, a melon sorbet, frothy melon drink, and melon cubes wrapped in proscuitto. Mom had the sardine mousse starter. Both were delicious and a lovely presentation.

For our main dishes we both had the salmon. Not only was this salmon delicious, the presentation was phenomenal. The salmon was on a bed of pureed potatoes colored green (strange until I tell you what’s next). The salmon itself was shaped like a rose! I have absolutely no idea how this was done, was it shaped into a rose before cooking or after? I don’t know, but never in my life have I ever seen such a beautiful presentation. There were also tiny cubes of eggplant and sautéed cabbage on the plate. I am now kicking myself for not taking a picture of this dish, but the tables around us were full and I didn’t want to make a big deal and whip out my camera. I will never make that mistake again! And the meal wasn’t even done yet, there were still 2 courses left!

The next course was the cheese course and we both had the herb cheese served in a bowl, like a thick cold cheese soup with a toasted round of bread. The only way I can describe the taste of these cheese is fresh.

The finale (or so we thought) for me was an apple in pastry, think a square apple turnover in puff pastry with caramel ice-cream that tasted just like my favourite Starbucks coffee drink a caramel macchiato. Mom’s dessert was a pistachio ice-cream and chocolate mousse. Both desserts were terrific.

We wanted to finish (like all that food already wasn’t enough!) with espresso. We thought we simply would request two cafes, but the server asked what type of coffee we wanted and after describing the 3 choices to us we chose the Jamaican coffee. Oh My God…this coffee was served like another dessert. Each cup was served on a plate that resembled an artist’s pallet with about 10 different miniature sweets! My eyes must have gotten as big as saucers because the couple at the table next to us just smiled and laughed when they saw my reaction!

Now for the cost of this memorable meal…€74. We waddled back to the hotel after this meal and fell into bed with full stomachs.