Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Paris and Burgundy On a Plate





I knew that Casey and Amber's visit would involve a great amount of good food and drink, and I certainly wasn't disappointed!  There were so many great restaurants we wanted to share with them during their visit to Paris, but we barely scratched the surface.  I think we hit the major aspects of a Parisian culinary tour, however.  From first night dinner at our FAVORITE restaurant in town, Le 24 (obligatory visit for all guests), to a gastronomic experience at the 2-Star Michel Rostang, we ate a lot.  And drank a lot...




Pre-Dinner Drinks at Flute Champagne Bar



We did a lot of physical activity to counteract the Roman Holiday that was each evening, however.  There were walks along the river to the the Eiffel Tower,   



a trip up to Montmartre to see the lights and eat oysters,



and the highlight of their visit (at least in my opinion), an overnight trip to Burgundy!


Jon had Thursday and Friday off, so we caught an EARLY morning train west to the fabled land of wine.   I had arranged a day tour involving a truffle hunt and a wine tasting through the company called Burgundy on a Plate, run by the lovely Brit, Sue Boxell.  She single-handedly showed us a fantastic snippet of Burgundy that was both fun and informative.  I can know honestly say that I now know a little something about Burgundy wines, enough to have gotten excited when I saw a bottle of wine from one of the vineyards we visited in the grocery today.  Here's a glimpse of some of the things we did during our Thursday tour:


Truffle hunting with Roxanne and Her Master.

 

Amber shows off just one of the many truffles found by Roxanne that morning.

 

Monsieur Postansque, owner of Le Chateau Entre-Deux-Monts where the truffle hunt was held, explains the history of his family's property.




A drive through the Grand Cru vineyards of Romanee Conti, Cotes de Nuit, afforded us a rare glimpse of the horse who plows the fields.

 

A treat of a wine tasting: sampling the 2007s at the Domaine Michel Gros.

 

Our intrepid guide, Sue.

 

We bought four bottles for our cave.

After our tour, we stayed the night in Beaune, the second-largest town in Burgundy.  On Friday, we rented a car and took our own drive through the countryside, stopping in Gevrey-Chambertin for lunch and another wine-tasting (we bought two more bottles).

 


We ended up in Dijon- the seat of Burgundy.  Dijon is a great old town with fantastic cathedrals, a ducal palace, and of course- mustard!  We had to visit the Maille store-front, there since 1777.  I also wanted to try an authentic Kir, made with cassis de dijon.


 
 
That evening, we took a train back to Paris, exhausted yet content with our fabulous visit to Burgundy.

All in all, having Casey and Amber here was a real treat.  They were more than likely our last guests during this year abroad, a thought which really hit home the fact that our Parisian adventure is almost over.  We even have our plane tickets back to the States!  Six weeks left means it's time to squeeze in a few more adventures...

If you'd like to see the whole album from our Burgundy trip, please visit here:
Burgundy Trip, November 2009



2 comments:

  1. kate...you are looking tres chic in these photos. Love the pink wrap sweater with the grey turtleneck. Looks like so much fun!

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  2. oh awesome, so very very jealous! especially Paris at Christmas, it is SO beautiful!!!!

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