Diana and Pat's French Wine Extravaganza

Diana and Pat's French Wine Extravaganza

The history of our trip

This is really important because it shows how committed we were to making this trip a reality!! 😁. In 2020, Diana and I planned a couple weeks in France visiting wineries in a couple areas.  We were to leave on Tuesday March 17, 2020.  The world went crazy, so we postponed to May, 2020, then September 2020.  We all know how it went.  Cancelling and rebooking, requesting refunds, contacting for updates….it was an exercise in futility.  Along comes early 2022, and a bit of hope!  We made our air reservations and started planning our route, checking on hotels, researching wineries, dusting off previous cancelled reservations and checking if they were open.  Little by little things opened.  Not all, but enough.  Over February, we had our route, hotels, rental car, and booked regional wine tours in each area we visited.  The only thing left was individual wineries, which we did!  Our plan: 3 nights Paris; 3 nights Epernay, the heart of the champagne region; 3 nights Colmar, heart of the Alsace; 4 nights Beaune, the heart of Burgundy; 3 nights Tours, heart of the Loire valley; and a final night in Paris.  We left SFO March March 28, arriving CDG on March 29; we left CDG April 15, arriving SFO the same date.  This writing is after we returned, so most of you have already seen our Instagram and Facebook posts and know our trip really was an extravaganza!  And except for a couple little glitches, everything worked out so well!  We couldn’t have asked for a better trip!!!  Here are the highlights of ourtrip:  one constant- cold and rain and cold rain, with snow and hail.  We had occasional sun:-)

Paris

Paris is beautiful!! We wandered, we drank wine, we wandered some more, drank more wine, ate, drank more wine, and marveled at the beauty of this city!!!

Of note, at one restaurant, with the urging of both the waiter and Diana, I ate a mussel! Just one, but it was good! It was the first time (and last time😋). I went to the catacombs because, well, I like fun, creepy things- LOL. We went to Sainte Chappelle for the stained glass, saw a couple churches, and ate and drank! Our second day, it rained, and rained, and rained. So Hop On Hop Off it was.

The weather pretty much sucked the entire trip- cold, wet, rain, hail, snow!!! But it was magical!!! We had dressed for the weather, so we were prepared. But when the sun did come out- WOW!!

Our first wine and coffee!!!

Always something interesting to see!!!

Beef Bourguignon dinner!

Catacombs!

The Catacombs are amazing!!  And creepy!  And interesting!!!  (https://www.catacombes.paris.fr/en).  Almost 60 feet under Paris, these catacombs are several blocks long, filled with piles of bones collected from cemetaries around Paris!  Not just piled, arranged!  Quirky for sure!

Sainte Chappelle (http://www.sainte-chapelle.fr/en/)

Stained Glass is the hallmark of this beautiful church!

Views of Paris

Notre Dame- still under construction from that devastating fire😢

Mussels in white wine sauce, fries for me, and wine!!

Epernay

Diana found this amazing AirBnB in Epernay, the heart of the Champagne region, named “Le Balloon”.  When you see the view from both the bedroom and living room, you will understand the name!  Epernay itself is really cute.  We took the Sparkling-Tour (https://www.sparkling-tour.com/fr/accueil/)  tour of the surrounding champagne region which included 3 different champagne houses, lunch, pick up and drop off from the Rheims train station (about a 30 minute train ride from Epernay, where we were staying), and a stop at Dom Perignon’s birthplace!  It was amazing!!  And we met two women from England and a couple from San Francisco who were also on our tour, drank great champagne (a LOT of Champagne!!!), and learned all about champagne productions!   

The next day we had reservations at, and toured the Moet Chandon champagne house (so beautiful!!)  and the Mercier champagne house- they have a train take you through the caves as you learn about champagne production!  It was fantastic!!!!  Each house gave generous and numerous pour’s of their products!

Each champagne house, and really wineries in France in General, allow you to make reservations for different tours of their properties. The tours range from a full tour of the winery, education on the history of the property, explanations for wine making, and various numbers of wines to taste. Or, just wine tasting!

View from our room!  The Epernay Balloon- thus, Le Balloon Air BnB

Our first champagne tasting!

Our guide Ana at our first Champagne House

Birthplace of Dom Perignon, monk and creator of Champagne!

Our Champagne tour group- fun people all!


Moet Chandon!!!

We saw this little place and just decided we needed more Champagne!  
Such is life in France- LOL

Colmar

Colmar is this incredibly cute town in the Alsace region of France.  This region toggled between Germany and France over the centuries, so the German influence, especially in architecture, is totally evident!  I have wanted to visit this area, with Strasbourg as the capitol, for so long!  And as the center of white wine, which I really needed to learn to like (LOL), this was the perfect opportunity!  The town is far cuter than I could have imagined!  And far cuter than the pictures made it out to be!  With canals, clapboard buildings, windey cute streets, it was perfect!!!  We stayed at Le Merechal hotel (https://www.hotel-le-marechal.com/fr/hotel-charme-colmar-alsace?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=mybusiness&utm_content=hotel) right in the heat- a wonderful little hotel with a Michelin star restaurant (yes, we ate there:-)).  Our room, tiny as it was, had windows over the canal with a view of the town!!!!  It was amazing!!!

We chose L’Alsaciette wine tours (http://www.alsaciette.com/?lang=en) as the tour of this area.  One of the owners, Arnaud, guided this incredible tour that included 2 different wineries, pick up/drop off, walking tours of the greatest towns, and lunch!  Arnaud was incredible!  I loved this tour!!!    On our free day, we walked around Colmar, drank wine, took a boat tour of the canals, drank more wine.  We planned a very cool picnic in the afternoon with a bottle of the most delicious white wine, cheese and charcuterie and veggie skewers and olives we bought.  Sadly, the hotel told us we couldn’t sit and eat on the patio because of French law (??? whatever), so we went to the town square where we had earlier eaten croissants and drank coffee.  As we set everything up, I was busy getting ready to take a picture (how unusual- LOL), to the side, I heard Diana talking to someone.  Not unusual, she is so social!!  All of a sudden, she said we had to leave….????  This Karen-hag told her to leave and she was going to call the police!!  WTF?!?!  We packed and walked away….just as a police car came by (ruh roh!).  We ended up on a bench in the city park where an elderly woman wished us bon appetite, and a homeless man hovered:-).  But we loved the wine and the food was delicious!

The only weird thing to happen…. The drive from Reims to Colmar was to be 4 hours.  Luckily, Diana and I had no understanding of the navigation system, so we expanded that 4 hour drive to 6 hours!!! LOL! Then, we decided to park our tiny little Citroen car in a garage off-site.  Sadly, the garage was also tiny.  A scratched passenger door handle and cracked mirror confirmed I am truly the worst at parking, ever!!!!  Thank God I decided to get the insurance!!

The view from our room!!!  Colmar, and the entire Alsace region
is so incredibly picturesque!!!

Our hotel

The hotel restaurant was so cute!!

Diana had the beef, and

I had the fish

L'Alsaciette wine tour, with Arnaud as our guide, took us to several towns within the region!!  This is Eguisheim (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eguisheim)

Our companion from Finland and Arnaud

A tribute to American soldiers supporting and helping the French 
defeat the Nazi's during WWII

The French cemetary of French soldiers who lost their lives 
defending Alsace and defeating the Nazi's

The town of Riquewihr- another picturesque town in Alsace!!

Everything is so picturesque!

And back to Colmar

A boat ride through the canals of Colmar

Beaune

Beaune, the heart of the Burgundy region, really stole our heart!!!!  Incredibly cute, wonderful wine, wonderful food, wonderful people, we LOVED Beaune!!  So happy we decided on 4 nights!!!  We stayed at the Belle Epoch hotel just outside the town walls!  It was a great hotel with rooms large enough to walk around in and a bar  in the lobby! (https://www.logishotels.com/fr/hotel/logis-hotel-belle-epoque-14277?partid=1535).

For our winery tour, we chose Burgundy Discovery full day premier tour (http://www.burgundydiscovery.com/our-tours/daily-tours/).  Joy, one of the owners, was our guide.  She was amazing!!!  WSET certified, she supplemented the information each of the 3 wineries provided on wine production and how Burgundy rules divide the land and determine which appellation can be planted and designated where.  It’s VERY complicated, and we were amazed at how well they were understood by the wineries!  The tour included the 3 great wineries, each with a tour of their caves, a driving tour of the vineyards, with explanations, lunch, and Joy’s amazing knowledge!  We had reserved 2 other individual winery tours, which were amazing!!!  Domaine de la Pousse d'Or in Volnay (required a taxi ride to get there) was amazing!  Their cellars are from the 1500’s!!!!  And Bouchard Pere et Fils (https://www.bouchard-pereetfils.com/en/home-page/) where Clement gave an excellent tour, we tasted 6 of the very best wines we have ever drank, and made the most memorable comment I have ever heard, and have repeated several times.  He was very clear the best time to drink wine was 10 AM because the palate is clean.  Finally, the permission I have sought for so many years- LOLOLOLOLOL.

Beaune has a Saturday market in the old town that has some of the most beautiful vegetables we have seen!  The Hospice de Beaune is located in the old town; the oldest hospital in the area, it is a museum worth visiting!

As we had an extra day, we wanted to do a day trip to Dijon.  We only knew one thing about Dijon, France; that it is known for mustard.  Interestingly, the one thing we thought we knew, was wrong- LOL.  It is just a recipe, not an origination story.  Luckily, Dijon has an incredible medieval area, and the cathedral is covered with gargoyles!!!!!  

Our one car story here:  we had parked at the back of the property, so wanted to check on the car.  We went out back, checked it our- the mirror and door handle damage was not as bad as we thought.  But someone stole a hub cap- UGH!!!  Oh well.  We hit the alarm, and the car next to us beeps.  We laugh because two cars have the same signal- LOL.  So I take my bag to the back seat and open the door…. And see boxes of baby clothes!!!  Yikes!  We were checking the wrong car….LOLOLOLOL!

La Pousse d'Or, our first winery in Beaune.  Diana was told about this winery from a contact at her work at 3 Steve's winery in Livermore.  Sadly, I cannot remember the name of the woman who gave us a tour as she was excellent!!!!  This winery has been in existance for centuries!

The cellars date from the 16th century!

Relaxing with wine in our hotel

Our first winery on our tour: 

Our second winery with Andre as our guide! Henri de Villamont!

Lunch!!!

Our third winery was located in this beautiful setting!!!  The sun had finally come out!  Cloe was our guide.

The Saturday Market

The chickens had the heads still on!!!

Cute town!!!

Beaune is also known for mustard!

Hospice de Beaune- one of the first public hospitals supported by the landed gentry

Beaune is as picturesque as one can ask!

Beaune retains some of the original walls and towers

Clement!  My new MUSE!!  Terrible picture of him- trust me, you
can get lost in those blue eyes as he talks about wine and tells you 
10 AM is the best time to drink wine!

We had to have a delicious dinner!!

A day trip to Dijon!  What a cute and picturesque town!!  Here is the main square with a carousel!

Wine, in the morning, just like Clement said!!!

Look at all the gargoyles on the cathedral!!!  I was in heaven!

Tours

Our last region was the Loire Valley, with a stay in Tours.  We originally wanted a small town, Blois was the one we were looking at.  Sadly, there were no wine tours that originated in, or would pick up in Blois, or any other town.  The wine tour companies, all very responsive, really recommended we stay in Tours, so we did.  We chose the hotel L’Adresse, a simple two star hotel that fully served the purpose of comfortable sleeping, with the best location we could have thought; just  one street over from the main square of the medieval quarter!  Tours turned out to be an amazing city!!!!  So alive, so many medieval streets, and very walkable outside the medieval quarter.

We chose Vino Loire (https://www.vinoloire-winetours.com/) for our full day winery tour.  Aurelie was our guide- funny, knowledgeable, energetic, she was amazing!!!  And she took us to great wineries!  The day included the 3 winery tours with more than sufficient wine, a lunch of locally home made food, with wine, at one of the wineries, and a tour of the town of Chinon, with a fortress and statue of Joan of Arc.  Sadly, it rained like crazy so we looked through the van window.

The main square of Tours- we spent alot of time here eating and drinking😀

The Tours city hall!

The windy medieval streets were so fun to walk!

d

Diana tackling a burger in Tours.
We watched as the French ate their burgers and fries with a knife and fork!
Diana chose the American method😋😂, but did successfully eat much of 
it the French way.

Our first winery of the day!

Aurelie providing us information on wine making

There was a lot of wine here!!!

Our second winery.  Sadly, I cannot recall his name, but excellent 
at touring the chateau and talking about wine!

Dreaming of owning a French Chateau

Our 3rd winery!  Michael is from Lakeville Minnesota!!
So young, and so accomplished!

The fort of Chion

Joan of Arc- but through a rain covered window, sadly enough

This lunch was so fantastic!!!

Tours, tower in French, has towers from the original medieval city

Wine is life!!!

We spent a ton of time wandering, stopping for wine, and wandering more!! Our last full day was spent driving back to Paris as we wanted one last night there, and needed to return the car to CDG. What we didn't know is we had to drive through Paris to get to the airport! YIKES! But we did it!!!!! It was an adventure, and adventure I prefer not to repeat LOL

Our wine trip to France was so fantastic!!! Writing this brought back all the wonderful memories of the great people we met, the beautiful and picturesque towns and cities we visited, the GREAT wine we drank, the passion of all the wine guides we met, and of course their deep knowledge and commitment to making sure we enjoyed their wineries. And the food that was so good!!! The kindness of the French people cannot be over-stated. I loved this trip, and encourage anyone and everyone to go and experience France! A country I had little desire to see has won my heart.

The only downside- trying to decide what pictures to add. These are a fraction of the pictures I took, and I didn't want to overwhelm you with hours of photos😘, hopefully you will enjoy the ones I did post and it will encourage you to visit this amazing country!!