The Perfect Sunday Day Trip from Paris

Little Champagne Village on the Mt de Reims

Solving "le cafard du dimanche" with a day of Champagne Small Producer Tasting

Oh Sunday's in France. Traffic is light, stores have the "fermée" signs blanketing their doors and the non-stop action packed days which are the usual norm routine of a tourist (you know days where you walk so much you're left with sore aching feet, tight hip flexors and nonstop motivation). Well, these days all of a sudden come to screeching halt as your realize, wait, everything is closed in France on Sundays?! What, oh what to do on such a day? I have an idea about how to solve the French Sunday Blues or the le cafard du dimanche.

It's the perfect day to get out of town for a little day trip. Do you think it's possible that you could find a similar bottle to the Veuve Clicquot you drank last night for 200 euro at Chez L'ami Louis for 25 odd euro in the region it's from?

I think you can and shhhh I know how! All you need to do is hire a chaffeur/ guide and translator to to take you on the 1.5 hr drive out of the standstill of Paris and into the old age beauty of Champagne. Then, as fast as likity split you can be having a Sunday funday filled with lounging in living rooms of small champagne producers while getting a bit tipsy and partaking in the degustation of 5-6 different cuvees, tasting local escargot at a farm, eating some Choucroute at a local Brasserie that won awards for it's microbrew, skipping through a 800 year old breathtaking Cathedral and checking out an old 16th century Chateau for your next visit complete with a tennis court, pool and Grand chef. You can do all of this while tasting at one of 1000's of small producers who most likely sold their liquid gold to the Veuve clicquots of the world who then did some fancy marketing and stuck their pricey price tag on it.

A few Sundays ago that is just what I did with 3 clients of Tasy Side to Life Tours http://www.tastysidetolifetours.com. Picking them up in Paris at 10 am we headed on the road.

In no time and after some great croissants were in their bellies we made it to our first stop. We were Chateau/ hotel viewing in a little town 30 mins from Reims, Courcelles Sur Vesles. My clients wanted to check it out to see if on their next trip they would want to stay the night. We pulled up to the Chateau http://www.chateau-de-courcelles.fr/ on the dirt road that looked to have existed since the Medieval times. We passed the pool, tennis courts and pulled into the parking lot. Immediately we smelled the tantalizing whiff of the kitchen preparing the days meal. We did a quick tour of the rooms, the grounds and talked to the front desk for a little bit. The clients decided to skip the incredible 50 euro grand chef 5 course menu offered here and head into Reims for lunch at a traditional bistro followed by viewing of the Cathedral.

A Beautiful room at Chateau Les Courcelles

After a big traditional Alcase lunch of Choucroute (sauerkraut (aromatic pickled cabbage) served hot with sausage, pork or ham)

washed down with a tasting of the resto's brewed beer (which just won numerous awards) we headed off to the see the Cathedral. It really is a breathtaking site and in my opinion it never gets old. I could tour through it everyday, easily :) After taking in the wonder of the Cathedral we were off to a few tastings.

The 800 year old Cathedral

I'll go through one of the producers we saw during the day. The pictures below are from a small producer Champagne Roger Manceaux. http://www.champagne-roger-manceaux.com/. Each time I choose a producer I make sure he's of top quality. IE that they have won awards or mentioned in the Hachette de Vin.

Champagne Roger Manceaux won awards in the GUIDE HACHETTE DES VINS for 2009 & 2010, was also included in the GUIDE EUVRARD GARNIER 2011 and the GUIDE VINS & TERROIRS AUTHENTIQUES HIVER 2010-2011. So, he's got a good thing going on.

His grapes sit on 13 hectares and his terroir is classified as "Premier Cru". Their champagne is made up of 40 % Pinot noir - 35 % Pinot meunier - 25 % Chardonnay. They produce 49,000 bottles a year and their prices range from 11-25 euro a bottle. Not bad, right? His Champagne is smooth and aromatic with notes of raw fruits. He gave us a great tour of his caves, let us taste Champagne straight from the steel barrels and spent a good hour talking with us (of course his conservation was translated for the clients!).

And the small producer tour begins
Tasting straight from the barrels
Pretty cool shot of the yeast which has yet to be extracted

And the bottle rotating processDetailed description of the "terroir" or land

After our detailed tour and explanation about the Champagne making process now it is time for the tasting

Yummmm

All in all was a great day of tasting and meeting locals from the region and I think quite a change from the normal "le cafard de dimanche"! If you're interested in a trip please email:

Tasty Side To Life Tours

Attn: Sydney Krueger

15 Rue Conservatoire 75009 Paris France

Email: tastysidetolifetours@gmail.com or sydneykrueger@gmail.com

website: www.Tastysidetolifetours.com

Les Petites Chaises Art Expo- Paris

"Diving into the miniature world through the creative eyes of Alexandre Mussard, 25 years, you are thrown into a universe filled with poetry and humor which enchants the young and old like…" -Le Figaro, Paris

Alex Mussard is displaying his art in Paris for the next month until the 31st of December. After seeing his 1st exhibit a year ago I was astonished with his new pieces which include huge installations, large sculptures and a quite incredible and mesmerizing revolving Vietnamese hand weaved tent titled "Le Chapiteau"(shown in the video above). His pieces are all almost obsessively fixated on 1 main subject: his miniature, delicate, and perfectly constructed little chair. Prices range from 400 euro-15,000 euro. If you're in Paris the month of December you should really stop by!

http://alexandremussard.blogspot.com/

Alexandre Mussard : Les Petites chaises

Galerie Antonine Catzéflis - Paris Ier

Du 17 novembre 2010 au 31 décembre 2010.
mar à sam de 12h à 19h.

01 42 86 02 58

Market Restaurant-A little California and Asian Inspired Twist To Paris

Photo courtesy of Les Restos.com

Despite the conventional thinking that in France eat French food, mixing it up a bit with a restaurant that has a definite California twist can be pretty uber delicious as well and is a must if your in Paris.

Market is a restaurant by superchef Jean-Georges Vongerichten http://www.jean-georges.com/who is recognized througout of the world and has a pretty great background. Ok so with a name like that the guy has to be french and can't be American, right? Ok, he is french but he's lived in the US for the past 28 years and his food is Asian/ nouvelle French inspired and the cuisine is fresh, bright and delicious reminding me of what you would find in a Globe http://www.yelp.com/biz/globe-san-francisco or a great spot in San Francisco.

Photo coutesy of NY Grubstreet

I love Jean-Georges story of growing up in France and helping his mamma and grandma prepare lunch daily for their 50 employees. I mean it's pretty impressive that for his 16th birthday Jean didn't get a shiny new red bmw or throw a MTV style sweet 16 bash but this guy at the age of 16 was gifted from his family a 3 star Michelin rated auberge for his birthday. Jesus, when do birthdays at 16 get that good? Acclaimed with 4 star restaurants in NY, having taken Food critic Ruth Reichl's "breath away" and essentially single handedly invented America's answer to nouvelle cuisine I am going to go ahead and say this guy is the real deal.

His space, Market, is big, wide and open with dark wood, raw materials, lots of natural light and huge windows (designed by Christian Liagre who does a beautiful job with wood http://www.christian-liaigre.fr/?lang=en_US). The neighborhood around Market is chic and right next to Chrisites auction house so if you feel like looking at some incredible paintings and sculptures that you can't afford but want to dream about after a truffled pizza and a few glasses of bubbly it could be a good idea. Apparently the Chef's table is often reserved by celebrities (I know Gwyneth Paltrow loves it from her blog).

Overall the place is cute, trendy and a bit expensive but not overly. The dishes are original, the plating is vibrant and the dessert is delicious. The menu changes daily and the service is pretty good. I'd order a few table appetizers to start: the pizza with shaved black truffle and fontina, the watermelon soup with fried shrimp if they have it and the tuna tartare. Then maybe the oven cooked Cabillaud fish with basil oil marinated veggies, the market burger with brie and truffle vinegareete or the farm raised chicken crusted in parmesean and dusted with lemongrass butter. For desserts the cheese cake or passionfruit sorbet is killer.

My sis and I getting ready for the super meal

Watermelon Gazpacho with Tempura Shrimp, Cucumber cream fraiche and lychees- Flavor combination blew my mind. Already re-created this one and I left my guests a bit confused as most of them being from Asian countries had never heard of gazpacho. Watermelon gazpacho really threw them off.

Tuna sushi with 3 sauces (the various sauces were a sweet and sour combination and the rolls were soft, light and tasty)

Coconut Milk and Chicken soup with Galangal, mushrooms, lemongrass and asian herbs served alongside thai rice

Fontina Pizza with Mushrooms, White truffle oil and Field greens

Cabillaud Fish Oven Roasted served with Gnocchi, Pesto oil, Parmesan and Oven Roasted Tomatoes

Farm Raised Chicken Crusted in Parmesan, Lemon Butter and Basil served with Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Vanilla and Carmel Ice Cream with Toffee Popcorn and a Sugar Crisp

Creme Fraiche Cheesecake with Raspberry coulis

Grand Mariner Souffle with Passion Fruit Sorbet- This one was incredible

Molten Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Icecream