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Date with a Plate: Le Salon d’Hélène
With a practised flourish Monsieur le chatty-chat-chat waiter revealed tuber melanosporum, a.k.a. the black Périgord truffle, and fluttered the glass box under our noses. It’s been a bad year for...
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Date with a Plate: Claude Colliot
It must be the sub-editor in me. Those English translations and spelling boo-boos on the menu are intentional….no, really? Yes, the smiling young serveuse insisted. Chicorée de foie gras – “duck...
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Out to Lunch: Déjeuner sur l’herbe
Nothing like sunshine and sizzling spring-almost-summer temperatures to get me out the door and into the nearest grassy space to loll about on a blanket imitating a Manet canvas (with clothes on!). If...
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In a Glass of its Own: Les Habits de Lumière
It’s not as if I need much persuading to spend time in Champagne. The name says it all: capital of perfection in a bottle. Yes, it’s often cold and yes, it does seem to rain a lot but let’s not get...
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Je t’adorn: Les Boules de Noël de Meisenthal
Alsace might have given us the Christmas tree but we have its less lauded neighbor Lorraine to thank for the pizzazz – the bells, the balls, the baubles. In days long gone by trees were traditionally...
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Date with a Plate: La Maison d’à Côté, Loire Valley
Expectations mount when the voice on the other end of the line vows “you won’t be disappointed”. The room – modern, boxy, in need of a lick of TLC – didn’t quite deliver. Happily, the restaurant did....
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Reel Feelings: Normandy
A survey by TCI Research, a tourism marketing agency, estimated that 40 million international tourists chose their travel destination last year mostly because they saw, and liked, a film shot in the...
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Festival de la Gastronomie Provençale
Châteauneuf-le-Rouge, a pretty ochre-tinged village just 12 kilometres from Aix-en-Provence, normally has a population of around 2500. Come Sunday July 7, their ranks swell as 10,000 food lovers...
View ArticleChocoholic Alert at Hotel Cazaudehore
Hotel Cazaudehore La Forestière in Saint Germain en Laye is rolling out an all-chocolate menu in honour of Easter, kicking off with a foie gras terrine marbled with white chocolate, followed by...
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Life in the Feast Lane: La Maison Troisgros
Whether it’s a Turkish pide joint, a family bistro, a pizzeria, or an extravagant fine diner, it’s important to feel good about being there, relaxed, un-stressed. I like it warm, welcoming, attractive,...
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