FRANCE: Paris, Champagne, Bordeaux and Cognac

I spent almost two weeks in France last month, mainly in a lifetime experience with Champagne, Bordeaux and Cognac, albeit almost neutralized by the ordeal of getting there and back, plus the dangers of just walking around Paris, exacerbated by those train rides.  I yesterday gave the following presentation at 15 Craigside:

I will limit the verbal portion, but let me start with France, where you can identify the regions of Champagne, Bordeaux and Cognac:

My travel accommodations were arranged by a "friend," and was necessarily economical.  So much so that we were on stand-by on the roundtrip from Honolulu to Los Angeles.  This is not my kind of travel, as an announcement was made of the doors closing, when they called our names to board.  The flight was fine and we stayed the night at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott.  Here to the left is our plane returning to Hawaii.

The next day, on our way to our Air France 10-hour overnight flight, I noticed Petrossian, a French caviar restaurant, where we had caviar with a French vodka, Grey Goose, and French champagne:

We boarded an Airbus 380, the largest passenger plane there is, and it got just about all filled.

I hate overnight flights, but this one went relatively well, with fine cuisine and free drinks.  After arrival at Charles de Gaulle Airport, we caught a cab to the Renaissance Hotel, close by the Louvre.  This was Valentine's, so we had a fine meal at Flotte:

That is not Mystery Lady, but our server, and I had this photo taken because our first tasting stop was to be at Taittinger Champagne.

The next day was a challenge, for on our way to lunch, we walked through a public garden area were we were accosted by half a dozen Romanian youths.  We escaped, I think unscathed, but it is possible that my right index finger had two razor cuts.  On the other hand, the humidity was low and that finger was particularly dry.  Then, just outside the gardens, six young female Romanians did the same, we got away, they followed us, but finally gave up.  Getting to La Tour d'Argent was like arriving at an oasis.

We got the best table in the house with a view of the Seine:

The French cuisine was exceptional:

Tour d'Argent specializes in duck.  There is one in the Tokyo New Otani Hotel.

We then walked to the Louvre:

Note the reflection of the people in the audience, for Mona Lisa is quite protected with layers of glass.  We only spent two hours here, a shame, for this is the most visited art museum in the world.

The next day we had lunch scheduled in the Eiffel Tower.  However, the Yellow Vest protest blocked many of the streets.  We finally made it there (note the glass window half way up...that was restaurant):

A truly ridiculous situation here is that you need to go through an airport security-like process to catch the Eiffel Tower elevators.  This means you even take off your money belt, so potential pickpockets know exactly where everything is on you when your stuff is returned.

We overcame this potential trouble spot and had an enjoyable French meal with view:

The next day we trained to Reims.  You need to carry your luggage up the train steps.  No roll on and off like the Shinkansen.  Also, we used a bicycle tire chain to link our suitcases to the train.  The peace of mind was worth the effort.

Otherwise, the trip to Reims went well, we found our hotel, checked into our tiny rooms and went out to lunch:

A night view with the Smiling Angel plus Moon:

The next morning to Taittinger Champagne:

We almost drank three bottles with four people.  Practically next door was Veuve Clicquot, which was closed to the public.

Walking back to our hotel, stopped by St. Maurice for lunch.  I had real escargots:

The leader of our group, Elvis, standing next to the owner.  Can you believe Elvis is 65 and the owner is 55?

We saw a lot of churches, and went-in to several.  All the same, awesome with beautiful stained glass windows:

The next day we trained to Bordeaux.  Walking to dinner I noticed an eerie Moon:

My dinner was a tough steak:

The dessert special was a well-crafted mix of French words, which turned out to be French toast with jam:

A typical French breakfast follows, which is free with the room:

We rented a car to take us around Bordeaux.  One of our stops was Dune of Pilat, heading toward Arachon, which is noted for having the best oysters in the world.  The climb up those dunes were too much for me.

Then on to Arachon, which is a attractive small town.  This region is known to have the best oysters in the world.  So we went to something called Oyster Bar:

Thomas, who is an Optical Engineer for the Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea and speaks French, did the driving.  This restaurant was in a market, so I took a photo of a large fish:

A short walk took us to  the ocean, and you could see that oysters grew everywhere:

Back to Bordeaux for another church, outside of which are outdoor bars in the proximity of artworks:

Dinner for me was seared foie gras over  risotto:

Next door was a casino, so we went in for a look:

The next morning, our first stop was to La Cite du Vin, the world's largest wine museum.  It just opened in 2016 and was the most high tech museum I've ever experienced.  Fascinating.

Bordeaux is the acknowledged "best" wine there is.  The region is split into the left bank and right bank.  On the left, the wine is dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, while on the right, it is Merlot:

In the afternoon, our pie'ce de resistance (I'm not a fan of diacritical marks), Chateau Lafite Rothschild, on the bucket list of our Elvis:

We had a whole bottle of Chateau Lafite Rothschild, which sells for $900.  I might add that the wine and champagne stops were all free, courtesy of Elvis' connections.

The next day on the right bank at Chateau Lasseuge:

Christine, who toured us, and Nicola, own this winer.  Their marriage is a fairy tale.  His family once gave a talk at Yale University, where Christine was a law student and president of the wine society.  They eventually got married and they now operate this company.  Christine gave a bottle to Mystery Lady, which you'll soon see.

Mystery Lady and I then left Elvis and Tom for our side-trip to Cognac, where we stayed at one of the finest hotels I've seen, Hotel Chaise Monnet, which just opened last year and is a few steps away from Remy Martin.  We had an excellent dinner there:

The next day we had a memorable duck lunch:

Then on to Remy Martin:

We tasted two of these Remy cognacs with foie gras pate' and duck.  But we were then taken deep into the cellars to a cask that was ready for bottling, where our guide pippetted ten ounces of Louis the XIII Cognac and gave us 4 oz each.  A bottle sells for $4000, so we must have drunk $1200 worth of this cognac.  We carried our glass with this elixer, and we were next led us to a room that, she said, was opened only 13  times/year, where most staff members had not ever entered...a memorable museum.  We could not take any photos and were asked not to say what we saw.

Noticed that Martell Cognac was close by, but like the others, they are shut down for tourists during this period.

The next day we took a train to Charles de Gaulle Airport, and had a meal at our seat:

We stayed overnight at the Marriott, and dined in our room, on Penne Bolognese and Chicken Caesar Salad, with a bottle of Chateau Lasseuge:

The next morning our Air France flight took eleven hours to Las Angeles, and I show this photo because we had free meals and drank Bordeaux, cognac and champagne, with beer:

Again, we had to wait until the very last minute before standbys were announced to enter our Hawaiian Air plane.  But we did make it back to Honolulu:

Leaving our hotel at 5:30AM, I got to 15 Craigside at 9:30PM, 28 hours later.  While eminently trying, for the physical ordeal was too much, it was worth the agony, for the tastings were unique memories very few will ever experience.

-