Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Chimay

Our whole trip got planned around a visit to Chimay. Chimay is a Trappist Beer, and brewed by Trappist Monks at an abbey. They don't give tours, but you can wander the grounds, look at the monks, and smell the beer. It was very peaceful and beautiful. We stayed at the Auberge de Poteaupre, which is owned by Chimay. You can also stay at the Abbey, but you have to live like a monk... no talking, robes, etc. We decided eating meatballs and drinking our weight in Chimay was a better plan. The drive from Champagne to Chimay was interesting. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere, and the roads are kinda... tiny. At one point we had to pull off into a ditch for some interesting oncoming traffic. The hotel itself is in the middle of lovely fields with lots of cows.
Our rooms was fantastic. Huge soft bed, huge bathroom and the worlds best mini bar. We ate Chimay cheese and drank Chimay beer until we were bursting.
We also visited dowtown, and when to a castle. Learned a little bit about the history of Chimay, and then it was time to drink again. :-)
Slept like rocks, and tomorrow, it's off to Brugges.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Reims

So... we got to Reims, and I found that the hotel I chose has a pool, and a restaurant, and free breakfast... and is in the middle of nowhere. On a map, it looked like out hotel was right around the corner from Pommery... Hrm... not quite. It was around the corner... down a very long and busy block. Re-examining the map... I'm not sure there was a better choice...
See... Reims is not set up quite like Epernay... there is no main street with all the champagne houses lined all in a row for the worlds best champagne pub crawl. Nope. There is one house, then about mile away, there is another... 2 miles the other direction, one more, then the town of Reims, where the food & shops are located... still further away.
So... there was a lot of walking.
In the Champagne houses, the champagne is made underground in very deep very cold chalk mines that were dug by the Romans. There is "tagging" from the 1800's... which is kind of cool.
We hit Pommery,
Tattinger
Vranken
and Veuve Clicquot . :-)
New favorite champagne, however, is Ruinart. Very very good.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Stop 2: Epernay (yay!)

Sooooo giddy. The whole drive to the Champagne region was as difficult as the drive to Disneyland for a sugared up 6 year old. Epernay is wonderful. Very small... very well laid out. All the Champagne houses are on the same street and they are all beautiful. We did 2 houses. Castellane and Moet & Chandon... They pronounce it "Moe-et" not "Moe-aye" which is what I thought was correct. See... it was an educational trip :-)

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Stop 1: Dijon

Dijon is adorable. Yep, the mustard is from here... they have mustard on TAP!
and is in the heart of Burgundy... which means a lot of wine... which led to a very funny story about cake... Went window shopping and saw lots of pretty stuff...
Bet ya didnt know I have my own pub, did ya?
lots of cool architecture,
ranging from fairy tale towns to elaborite facades...

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

New Favorite food.

After watching 4 seasons of Hell's Kitchen, and hearing Gordon Ramsay yell, "Where's the F***ing Wellington!?" we were curious enough to attempt the dish ourselves. We researched it and found that there is some debate as the whether the dish is French or English. After making it and eating it... it has to be French... cause it's our new favorite food. Not the quickest dish to prepare... but SO worth the time... If you need to impress someone... I venture to say this would do it. And it's healthy cause we steamed broccoli to go with it!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

My Plum Tree

Our house has 3 weird little plum trees. Our friend Nina has the same one and made some really yummy compote from the plums... so I tried to so the same thing... however, what I made turned out to be SO tart, that it made warheads seem sweet by comparison... The plums weren't quite ripe enough... blah. But look how pretty! I also made apricot muffins which were delicious.

Monday, August 2, 2010

SUNFLOWERS!!!

We found the sunflowers!!!

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Antiques! French ones!!!

We went to a little place called L'Isle sur la Sorgue... it is mostly known for antiques... what we found was lots of really old neat stuff, and a fancy lunch... but nothing to take home with us... however... on the way home, we went to a local brocante, and found antiques... French ones!!!
A Limoge Teacup, and a pair of over 100 year old sugar tongs!
Yay!