We had quite the utopian existence for our days in Biarritz on the Basque Coast: sleep in, breakfast, morning swim, lunch, afternoon surf, afternoon Basque nibbles, dinner, sleep, repeat. Biarritz […]
France
Arcachon and Bordeaux
After a week in the wine country of Burgundy and the Loire the kids and I were about done with vines, so while Lisa hobnobbed with French winemakers across the […]
The Bordeaux Wine Region
Given how many Bordeaux wines I’ve made, I was very eager to learn more about the Bordeaux region itself. As I experienced in Chinon and Vouvray and Bourgogne and Chalon-sur-Saône, […]
Chinon and Vouvray
Chinon The vineyards of Chinon are primarily planted along the steep slopes of the River Vienne, with soils that are mostly gravel over Turonian limestone. Only 2-3% of the grapes […]
Tours and the Loire
It was a bit of a mission to get from Bourgogne and Chalon-sur-Saône across central France to the Loire Valley: the main high-speed train routes fan out from Paris and […]
Bourgogne and Chalon-sur-Saône
A trip to Burgundy has always been on my bucket list, and while our timing wasn’t perfect – it was a later vintage than usual so all of the small […]
Lyon
Lyon was a quick overnight stop for us on our way west, a way to break up the journey from Switzerland’s Valais canton to the Burgundy wine region. Often compared […]
Nice and the French Riviera
Our trip from Paris to Nice was the first of what will be many European train journeys, the roughly six hour adventure took us hurtling across central France on one […]
Paris
As our Air France flight disembarked from San Francisco I had to pinch myself a little: we were finally off to Europe! In spite of COVID and a significant portion […]