Irish Pub for N. Ireland vs. Germany Seine walk for Fete de la Musique
Notre Dame d'Paris
Pub for Spain vs. Croatia
Beaune
The best laundry experience, ever
Hospices de Beaune
Culinary shopping
Caveau des Arches for dinner in a wine cellar
Our family travels with Travis again!
Meet the group: Tour day 1
At our first tour hotel, we were very excited to meet our group and were so happy that our tour escort was none other than Travis, the assistant guide from our family tour in 2013! There are many guides in the tour company, and we understand it's unusual to be booked with the same one twice. Another pleasant surprise was that our former lead guide, Margaret, was leading a Best of Europe in 14 days tour that coincided with our My Way tour. We ran into her several times throughout the trip! After introductions, finding our buddies, and covering the basics of the tour, we were off!
Gare Saint Lazare shoe shopping for a pair that was forgotten at home. If you forget to pack anything, it's easy to buy on the trip and the shopping itself is an adventure!
Rue Cler, for a delicious dinner and to watch England play Wales in the UEFA Euro 2016 tournament. Our arrival in France was during week 2 of the tournament. We knew all games were being played in France prior to our departure. Because of the fighting during the game between Russia and England shortly before our departure, we wanted to stay as far from the games as possible. This turned out to be completely unnecessary. There was amazing security at all games and public viewing areas. Fans from all over Europe were everywhere in Paris and completely decked out in their country's gear. It was so fun to watch games in each country in pubs and restaurants where it felt like we were united with our best friends and family.
The first of several UEFA tournament matches watched in Europe
The Eiffel Tower decorated for the UEFA tournament
Paris: Tour day 2
If visiting the Eiffel Tower, it's crucial to purchase tickets in advance unless you are willing to wait in line for hours. For this trip, we opted for tickets to take us all the way to the top. You can see that the tower was also decked out for the UEFA tournament. While it's fun for a panoramic view of all of Paris, the views are not as iconic as you might expect since they don't actually include the tower.
A sketch in our notebook: The French are very serious about their baguettes - the law specifies the size, shape and weight of the bread!
After a quick metro ride, we were back to the Latin Quarter and had time for a stop into Shakespeare and Company before crossing to the right bank of the Seine for a bread making class at La Cuisine Paris.
Romain was our teacher for the day and our class was very small and family-friendly with our family of four and four additional students. We had the pleasure of learning they key ingredients to make baguettes and fougasses.
There are laws in France that specify the ingredients, dimensions, and weight of the baguette. It's interesting that baguettes have so much variety considering they must only contain flour, water, yeast and salt.
Fougasse is similar to focaccia and is often shaped like the top of a stalk of wheat. Ours was topped with olives, garlic, rosemary, red onion, and tomatoes.
So how did our class measure up compared to national standards? Not too shabby for beginning boulangers! See for yourself:
If you like to cook, a visit to E. Dehillerin is a must in Paris! We first read about it in Ina Garten's Barefoot in Paris. Not only does her book give easy to make French recipes, but she has kindly included a sourcing guide for specialty foods, bread, cheese, wine, cookware, etc. in Paris. She describes this shop:
(E. Dehillerin) is the IT of cookware. I dream about going to this place. They have every piece of professional French cookware imaginable and the nicest staff to help you. I promise you'll be inspired.
A madeleine pan is a small and memorable souvenir. Even if you're not going to use specialty French cookware at home, you can easily purchase a set of measuring spoons, which are even more compact and will bring you back to your time in Paris every time you use them! The staff are indeed friendly and will carefully package your purchases before you leave. The piece of tape from this parcel has turned into a bookmark for one of our favorite cookbooks!
The new Madeleine pans made it home safely and have produced many delicious treats!
With cooking souvenirs in hand, we realized it was time for Northern Ireland to play Germany and stopped into a nearby Irish pub for a beer and the match.
Later, we walked on both banks of the Seine to enjoy the Fete de la Musique with a stop inside the Notre Dame Cathedral. Several types of music were played in each area along the river. What a lovely evening to be in Paris!
Back at the hotel for the evening, we decided to cross over to a small cafe full of fans of Spain for a match against Croatia. Unfortunately for our new friends, Croatia prevailed.
THIS is how you do laundry in Beaune! Charcuterie, country pate, baguettes, and wine!
Beaune: Tour day 3
After nearly a week in and around Paris, it was time to meet our expert bus driver and travel to Beaune, in the heart of Burgundy.
Since a week had passed, this meant we were ready to do some laundry. Our first order of business in Beaune was to walk about a mile to the laundromat.
Laundry Tips
Folded into a carryon bag was a sturdy duffle bag with wheels and a handle that is suitable as checked luggage. Once in Europe, this served as our hamper for easy separation of clean and dirty clothes and easier transport to the laundromat.
In the laundromat, easy picture instructions were available as well as detergent for purchase.
Have plenty of Euro coins on hand to buy materials and start the machines.
Realizing it would take a few hours to complete, we grabbed a table on the patio of the wine bar next door: Les Mille et Une Vignes. This was most certainly the best way to do laundry!
We also ventured to the nearby Cook's Atelier where Americans teach French cooking in English. From our pre-tour planning, we knew our arrival in Beaune would be too late to take the course offered that day, but stopped in to visit their shop. Low and behold, they offered another size of Madeleine pan and we all know two sizes are better than one! The shop was kind enough to share their Madeleine recipe and we are happy to report that these cooking souvenirs also made it home safely and have been used several times.
With clean laundry available, we had just enough time to visit the Hospices de Beaune before dinner. This medieval charity hospital functioned from 1443 - 1971 and has a beautiful tiled roof and exterior.
The World Heritage Committee added the "Climats," or wine-growing plots of Burgundy, to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2015. The plots in this area are a unique design, formed over hundreds of years. When in the area, there are countless ways to try the local wines. We chose to try them at dinner at the Caveau des Arches. We definitely cooled off by dining in the lower stone cellar.
Regardless of the wine you choose in Beaune, you should raise your glass and say santé - to health!
A quick guide to the wines of Burgundy:
The terroir of Burgundy is unique because of the region was a sea ages ago - and the remnants of this sea have created a limestone soil.
Europeans describe wine first by where it's from and then the grape variety. In the US, we're used to describing the variety first.
There are 6 subregions in Burgundy: Côte d'Auxerre (Chablis) Côte de Nuits------\ Together are called Côte d'Or Côte de Beaune---/ Côte Chalonnaise Maconnais Beaujolais
The two primary types of grapes in Burgundy are pinot noir and chardonnay.
Wine is further classified into 4 basic levels of quality based on the grape quality:
Grand Cru (1%)
Premier Cru (10%)
Village Wines (37%)
Regional Wines (52%)
Chablis has it's own quality classification.
Following dinner, we walked through the heart of Beaune. Remember our two French Bulldogs? A gallery in Beaune featured several French Bulldog sculptures and this very large version was positioned in the city center.