On the recommendation of some recent cooking school clients, we were looking forward to going to this lovely restaurant for dinner. Neville had said it was in the Realis et Châteaux group but did not mention it had a Michelin star. He did say it was just a short walk from the Canal de Bourgogne, [...]
As most of you will know, I am a collector of plates and kitchen equipment! It will therefore come as no surprise that on our recent visit to Lyon,we headed for the famous Les Puces, the very large, famous antique, ‘flea’, market on the outskirts of Lyon, rated as one of the biggest and best [...]
We arrived back at our winter base, always with sadness to finish the barging. Now it is the packing, cleaning, organising for the winterisation of the barge and our departures. We moored next to a lovely barge, Rysland, and met the delightful English, French, Swiss owner Sophie, who is the Captain and sometimes her own [...]
It is a challenge finding a ‘perfect’ restaurant when you are barging along the canals. For me, this means a charming, pretty restaurant with a pleasant ambience and décor, with good quality, flavoursome, well-presented food, with a focus on the region; a small, quality wine list with a variety of price ranges; if you are [...]
This season of May and August 2016, we started our journey from Auxerre, Burgundy where we intend to be for the next few years. We barged north up the Yonne River and then we turned towards the east, at Migennes, to the Canal de Bourgogne. We travelled along the Canal be Bourgogne for 74 kilometres [...]
Burgundy is château country and we are fortunate to have two within easy walking distance of our canal. Yesterday, we visited Le Château d’Ancy-le-Franc, in the little village of Ancy-le-Franc is an amazing Renaissance ‘palace’, built by the Italian architect Serlio who was the architect of Francois I. It was built for Count Antione III [...]
It has been warm, hot really, with sunny, blue skies; absolutely marvellous. Makes you feel good when you wake to peaceful, warm mornings. The scenery is magnificent on this Canal de Bourgogne and we are enjoying every minute. It is said to be one of the most beautiful canal trips in France and it is [...]
Migennes and our dinner of cabillaud. Migennes, in Burgundy, is a short two hour drive south from Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. We arrived at CDG on an early flight out of Hong Kong, with Michael feeling very poorly, collected the Europcar and off we went GPS directing us to Auxerre where we need to [...]
I loved everything about this book! ‘A food lover’s pilgrimage to France: from the vineyards of Burgundy to the mountains of the Basque country food, wine, walking and history on the French pilgrim paths to Santiago de Compostella’ - it is one of the best books I have ever read. Remember, in my former life, [...]
Despite our great lunch at the Cristal room, we treated ourselves with another dinner out, as we could eat my lapin with calvados, apple cider and apples any night on the barge! La Coupole is one of the great Parisian brasseries of la belle époque’ and is the favourite of Celebrity English Chef, Rick Stein, [...]
