A sad goodbye...............

Our last couple of "barge days" included touring the wine region of Chablis, along with the all important tasting, and visiting other fascinating local sites and villages, complete with small local markets.  Every day required at least a few hours of walking and / or biking in order to work off the "three squares" that appeared like clockwork each and every day.

 To say that our Chef, Hanna, was a magician doesn't begin to cover it.  Every meal was a masterpiece, and all created in a tiny little kitchen.  My new favourite breakfast is baked eggs and fois gras...............get the picture!  And the wines literally got better every day, with the final Captain's dinner including two major winners............2007 Chassagne Montrachet 1er Cru and, the piece de resistance, a 2004 Charmes Chambertin Grand Cru.  It just does not get any better than that.

At our final dinner, as we said our formal goodbyes to the best darn barge crew on earth, I noticed a couple of damp eyes in the room.  Our Pilot, Akim, was unfortunately not in attendance, as he had been carted off to hospital with a stomach problem 2 days earlier.  Happily, he is returning to the barge on Sunday, fit and ready to go.  We have all enjoyed a magical week in a magical place with wonderful people, both old friends and new.  It was a week that would be tough to replicate.  Thank you to Florian, Janet, Hanna, Claire and Lola and the all important Akim.

The pics are:

1- Autumn is rapidly approaching.  The early morning mist, captured through our port hole, rapidly gave way to warm sunny days, each and every day of our cruise..........lucky us!

2- The medieval town of Noyers-sur-Serein provided a perfect backdrop for a small morning market featuring wonderful fresh produce that was on our table for the next several days.

3- Our gang prepares to tour Chateau d'Ancy-le-Franc, which contains priceless artworks and murals.

4- High atop a wooded hillside, protecting the Grand Cru vines of Chablis, we gird ourselves for yet more wine.

5- The aforementioned wine in the cellars of Domaine Regnard

6- Having "Champers" and canapés served each day prior to dinner by two delightful young women could quickly become habit forming!!!!!!L

7- A place setting for our final Captain's dinner..........did I happen to mention that our crew went to amazing lengths to cover every detail?

8- We were all sad to be leaving but they sure look like they were happy to be seeing the end of us............don't they?????

What a week!

The lack of reliable internet signal has meant no blogs however, here we are anticipating the captain's dinner on our last night on the barge and what a week it has been.  We may have started out with a few "skeptics" on board but we are now all  confirmed "barging people".  Our crew of six have bent over backward to accommodate our every whim.  We have a Captain, Pilot, Chef,......and what a chef, deck hand and 2 stewardesses.  I was unknowingly overhead telling Brenda that I had spotted a burgundy aged single malt scotch in a tiny shop in one of the Burgundian villages and, when we arrived back at the barge, one bottle was prominently displayed on our amazingly stocked bar.  One night a jazz duo arrived on board for a pre-dinner jam which quickly morphed into a dance party and sing-along, delaying dinner in the process.  No big deal to the crew!

The stories from this cruise will live on for many years I am sure.  One week of perfect weather has not hurt either.

The pics are:

1- The girls are lost in quiet contemplation................yeah......right!

2- Loading the bikes back onto the barge after a morning of biking around the countryside

3- Another al fresco lunch.........the meals have EXCEEDED everyone's expectation

4-Jan and Jerry boogy before dinner

5- Hanna, our fabulous chef and Lola, our actress stewardess, provide treats to "lock dogs" along the canal

6 - touring one of the many chateaus and abbeys along the way. 

7 - We biked ahead of the barge and took a pic from a bridge along the way

8- Joan "races" to catch the barge......................

Brockville babes and their bad boys wearing berets board their Burgundy barge

At exactly 11:00 A.M. sirens screamed, police converged from every direction and vans containing barricades emptied their loads and, in mere seconds the Champs Elysee was closed to traffic.  All in recognition of the Journee Sans Voiture.  In no time at all, all the major routes in Paris were barred to motorized vehicles.  Pedestrians appeared out of nowhere and the streets all became pedestrian malls.  Brenda and I witnessed all of this from the comfort of the famous Fouguet's, a Champs Elysee bistro that is so famous, they can charge very silly prices for everything on their menu.  We had been walking all morning and, after yet another wonderful bistro lunch, it appeared that we would be unable to make it back to the hotel for the arranged van pickup.  So, we had to grab a cab back.  Fortunately taxis were exempt from the traffic ban.  In fact our cab driver had the radio cranked up, was singing at the top of his voice and proclaiming that he was "king for a day".  I must say that taking a Paris cab with no other cars on the road was an almost surreal experience.  Needless to say, we made it back to the hotel for the pickup with time to spare.

Right on time, two dark blue vans arrived at our hotel to take our motley crew the three hours to the barge tied alongside a narrow canal, with cattle and peaceful countryside all around.  Our adventure had begun and in mere seconds our champagne welcome began.  The rest of the afternoon / evening began to get a bit hazier but suffice to say that a memorable first night on board was had by all.  Tomorrow at 8:45, the lines will be cast off and we will be underway.

The pics are:

1- Closing the Champs Elysee

2- Brenda returning to the "scene of the crime.......in joke"..........Fouquet's

3- The girls "van up" for the ride to the barge

4- After a three hour drive the champagne sure tasted great

5- All in berets for the first amazing dinner......and they are only getting better

The team is at full strength

The initial impetus for our trip to France was a week aboard a chartered barge, cruising the Canal de Burgogne, with 8 friends from Brockville.  Up to this point, for us it has all been a build up to the "main event".  So, over the past two days, our barge mates have been amassing at our "team hotel" in Paris.  As of dinner last night, everyone was "present and accounted for" and ready to go.  We have all been exploring Paris on our own, each couple having spots to revisit or to try for the first time.  Brenda and I visited the relatively new Picasso Museum late yesterday afternoon only to learn at dinner that 4 of the others had been there independently earlier in the day.  So much for herding cats!

Today, more art for us at the Orangerie, an amazing collection amassed "back in the day" by significant Parisienne art dealer and collector, Paul Guillaume, his wife Domenica, and Domenica's second husband after Guillaume's death, Jean Walter.  This is a remarkable collections of Picassos, Cezanes, and all the major artists of the time coupled with a purpose built portion of the building which houses the world's major collection of Les Nympheas (the Waterlilies), by Claude Monet.  We actually were so enthralled with the art that we nearly missed our lunch rez at Phillippe Excoffier (not to be confused with the long dead Escoffier).  Excoffier was the long time executive chef at the American embassy in Paris prior to striking out on his own and runs a small, intimate restaurant on a tiny back street, where unlike many of the "known" chefs, he is actually in the kitchen preparing your meal!

The team will be grouping again this evening at Willie's bar (no relation) and after a final planning session over dinner, it will be off to the barge tomorrow.  Let the games begin......................

The pics are:

1- Hail, hail, the gang's all here!

2- One of our number modelling the crew berets in a "sneak peek" before boarding the barge

3- Sacre Coeur dominates the skyline, looking north from our hotel balcony

4- The aforementioned balcony.......we decided to cancel our planned balcony cocktail party.  Any guesses why?

5- 2 enormous elliptical rooms house Monet's Waterlily canvasses, wrapping the entirety of each room

6- Les "Sappeurs et Pompiers" (firemen) stationed near our hotel have developed the ultimate approach to window washing

Faaaaaast travel day

It has been a long while since I have been a passenger on the TGV.  I had forgotten how damn fast that train travels!  We hopped on in Lyon and 2 hours later hopped off in Paris.  The countryside flew by and, with only 2 stops along the way, we were just nicely settled, then we were getting off.

Two of the Brockville couples that we are meeting arrived before us.........Ardis and Marsha were firmly ensconced in the sack to work off jet lag and, after a brief "hi......how are you?", Bill and Penny were fast behind them.  Brenda and I wandered the city which was as busy as ever and finally met up with Bill and Penny for dinner in an intimate little restaurant on the left bank.  Our hotel is wonderfully located on the right bank, a couple of blocks south the l'Opera and, has typical "can't swing a cat" bedrooms which will likely seem quite large after we get to "our" barge on Sunday.

The pics are:

1- Some of the hundreds of thousands of locks which were attached to the Pont des Artes.  The locks have all been removed from the bridge structure itself, for fear that the lock's weight would collapse the bridge.

2- Wandering through the Louvre, Brenda stopped to admire the gardens.

3- The quintessential rive Rive Gauche shot in Paris.

Paul Bocuse - encore une fois

Roaming around the "old city" of Lyon you quickly realize that it is pretty "touristy", but I guess that is what we are.  We took the funicular railway, through the mountain, to the top of Fourviere hill, atop which the locals built Notre Dame de Fourviere, a magnificent basilica, itself topped with a golden Statue of "Notre Dame".  Several centuries ago, Lyon was spared from several bouts of plague and enemy attacks, prompting the construction of the basilica.  Interestingly, the Lyonnaise promised to build the basilica after the city was spared from an initial plague however, it took several more disasters from which the city was spared, to spur on construction.  I guess inertia is not just a modern phenomena.

We hiked back down the hill to the site of two Roman theatres, dating to BC, which are still in use today for outdoor summer concerts.  Maybe the Romans should be consulted regarding the renovation of Ontario's crumbling infrastructure, maybe starting with the Gardiner Expressway!  Surely we can get at least a couple of decades out of that stuff.  The Roman sites have a commanding view out over the modern day city of Lyon and would be an amazing site at which to experience a concert.

As always, dining figures prominently into a day in Lyon and it was back to our old friend Paul Bocuse for lunch.  4 of his local bistros are named: Le Nord; Le Sud, L'Est, and L'Ouest and, I will let you guess in which areas of the city each is located.  We selected Le Sud for lunch, which is conveniently just around the corner from our hotel.  The fare is far simpler than our dinner the other night and MUCH more reasonably priced as well.  However, the flavours and the service certainly carry the signature of an expert restauranteur.

Tomorrow we head for Paris and serious troop reinforcements.  Our Brockville friends will begin arriving and massing in Paris for our assault on Burgundy.  God help the crew of our chartered barge.  I suspect that even they will have a week to remember ;-)

The pics are:

1- A tiny golden "Notre Dame" looks out from the top of a dome over the city of Lyon below

2- The funicular speeds up inside the mountainto the top of Fourviere hill

3- Those Romans knew how to build.  How much modern infrastructure will still be in use in 2 millennia?

3- The "old city" is a web of narrow streets and alleys full of bouchons, bistros and restaurants 

4- "Le Sud" de Monsieur Bocuse

5- Madame est bien heureux!

Lyon

Lyon, the third largest city in France, is a unique study in contrasts, with old Roman ruins, beautiful historic neighbourhoods and wildly modern buildings and infrastructure.  It may have lost its long time, world beating gastronomic reputation to Copenhagen, Saint Sebastian, Spain, or somewhere in South America but it is still a "foody" paradise.  Small local bistros called "bouchons", still serve typical Lyonnaise fare at reasonable prices (for France) and they are packed at noon and for dinner.  Each one has a daily "formule", or daily special, which, from our experience is tremendous.  They even have a unique standard measure for wine..........the 46 cl. bottle, called a "pot Lyonnaise".  Back in the day, when Lyon was a major textile city, the silk workers were each entitled to a half litre (50 cl.) of wine per day, at work.  Their stingy bosses, created a bottle that was the same size as a 50 cl. bottle, but with an extra thick bottom which held.........you guessed it, only 46cl.  So.......one litre of wine would serve 2 workers with a little something left over for the boss.  To this day, the pot Lyonnaise is still a standard wine order in the local bouchons.

The impact that one man, Paul Bocuse, has had on this city cannot be overstated.  Immediately adjacent to our hotel, on the largest public square in the city, is located the Paul Bocuse institute, a culinary school and gastronomy centre.  Local restaurants proudly display their Paul Bocuse awards and, his 6 local restaurants are the most sought after tables in town.  We also passed several displays around the city where Bocuse is celebrated as a local hero.  Not bad for a guy who "way back when" could not get a job in a kitchen!

More exploring today then TGV to Paris tomorrow......

The pics are:

1- Our hotel in Lyon with the Institute Paul Bocuse next door

2- A small sample of renovated old riverside neighbourhoods

3- And there is also a lot of this kind of architecture

4- Outside our noon time bouchon.....wonderful Lyonnaise meal

5- A pot Lyonnaise........you would think those silk workers would have noticed the extra thick bottom?????

The culinary summit

One of the main reasons to include the city of Lyon in this trip was to finally obtain a reservation at L'Auberge du Pont de Collonges, the flagship restaurant of Paul Bocuse, arguably the originator of nouvelle cuisine.  He prepared the menus for the inaugural flight of the Concorde.  Bocuse has 6 or 7 restaurants around Lyon but as our cab driver said on the way, "you are dining at the BIG Bocuse". 

The day dawned sunny and warm, with the heat increasing when we stopped dead on the autoroute on the way to the airport in Bordeaux due to a very unfortunate fatal accident ahead of us.  We made the flight with time to spare and arrived in Lyon, obtaining an impromptu tour of the beautiful city on the lengthy cab ride in from the airport.  It looks like we will have wonderful exploring opportunities for the next two days.

L'Auberge is celebrating 50 years of operation, having maintained 3 Michelin stars for several decades of that time.  Bocuse, at 89 years old, is unfortunately too frail to pay his daily visits to the restaurant however, Madame Bocuse still personally greats each patron at their tables and wishes each a memorable stay.  She is a delight!  We have sampled more innovative menus and we have eaten more complex food preparations however it was truly a treat to try the Bocuse menu which features many of his famous signature dishes.  Everything about the experience was perfect, from the venue, the service, the decor and of course.......the food.  The bill was pretty special too but, what the heck........we are only doing this once!  To me the telling tale of the "total package" in world class restaurants is the staff attitude.  Almost all great restaurants serve up memorable food (although we have tried a few where that was not the case) but often the staff take themselves way too seriously.  At L'Auberge we were joking and laughing with the staff and even had one waiter head to kitchen for "more information" when we disagreed on where Bocuse had trained in his early years (we were both wrong!!!)

The long cab ride back from the restaurant took us along the illuminated river banks with all the historic buildings glowing.  The ride further illustrated that we have much to see in the next two days.  Gotta get going...............

The pics are:

1- We arrived early at 8:30 p.m. however the place filled up shortly thereafter

2- Happy to be here!

3- Have you ever seen such a generous serving of foie gras?

4- There has to be something on those desert tables that we will want to try ;-)

The beach........sun........Cap Ferret

Not to be confused with the far more chi-chi Cap Ferrat, on the Med, Cap Ferret is located at the tip of a peninsula which creates the Bassin D'Arcachon, a bay between the French eastern coast and the Atlantic Ocean.  It is under a two hour drive from Bordeaux.  From the Cap........next stop North America.  This locale is the Nirvana of French oyster aquaculture and tastings and oyster degustations can be experienced everywhere.  Today has been the first brilliantly sunny day that we have had so far, creating the perfect "beach day".  Many French must have agreed.  Getting into the better restaurants was impossible and the beaches and walkways were crowded but, everyone was friendly and just enjoying the day.

The pics are:

1- I have never seen a surf fisherman catch a fish.......today being no exception

2- Across the bay are the largest sand dunes in France 

3- A beautiful peninsula with a real "vacation vibe"

4- The local oysters are magnificent and there several different types to try

5- Hey ........where did all the water go?

6- Vive la France.......where everyone can go topless!

7- The highways out to the Cap were alive with Heather in full bloom

8- The blog gods decided that two pics are better than one???????