I went to France last weekend.
Mum and Dad like to do trips over to try new wines and stock up for a couple months. My brother, his lovely girlfriend and I fancied tagging along so we went too.
On Friday morning we all piled into the car and headed across the channel.
3 days of champagne, wine, enough food to feed a ravenous army and a Rod Stewart CD played on a loop.
We started in Champagne, at Drappier.
Champagne tasting is my idea of heaven. Bottle after bottle of crisp, cold bubbly was brought out for us to try. We left feeling pretty merry…
We strolled through sunflower fields as the sun set.
Before retiring to our hotel in Chablis for supper.
After a leisurely breakfast we made our way to Abbaye De Pontigny. A huge old abbey which has been almost completely gutted. None of the catholic finery you usually find, just beautiful limestone and candles. It would be the most incredible setting for a wedding.
We headed to a little medieval village called Noyers for lunch. A tiny place with winding cobbled streets of higgledy-piggledy timber houses and flowers spilling from their window boxes. As French as fresh croissants.
Lunch was a three course show stopper at Masion Pailott. No menus. Everyone has three courses which change daily. The waiter gives you your choices (one of three for each course) and you eat what you’re given, beside a roaring fire. Wonderfully simple, I wish more places did the same in London.
I had smoked salmon steeped in the local wine (a bit like ceviche really).
Line caught cod.
And tarte aux pommes for pudding.
My jumper and gilet are both Ralph Lauren, jeans by Nobody and fur is a vintage find from here . (I only wear vintage fur.) Mummy’s wearing a Mulberry mac. Our afternoon was spent underground, wine tasting at Louis Moreau.
On Sunday Mummy and I wandered into Chablis town for a little shopping.
But my favourite part of the whole trip was our final meal… I started with pan fried fois gras and figs.
Followed it with a mammouth steak. (Not mammouth meat. Just really big… cow steak.)
And topped it all off with a chocolate fondant pudding.
A seriously decadent weekend with some of my favourite people in the world.If you’ve never done a booze cruise to France I really recommend it. It’s a great, fairly inexpensive, different holiday idea and you get to come home with loads of wine!What could be better?.
