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 [...]
John’s birthday lunch at the Cristal Room, Baccarat Museum. Michael has talked about taking me the Baccarat Cristal Room restaurant for a long time; usually our visits to Paris are too short. Now, we have time as we are staying for 3 nights in The Arsenal, the barge mooring, right in the centre of Paris, [...]
La Madeleine, with 2 star Michelin chef, Patrick Gauthier, was the special highlight dinner during my 2007 stay at La Varenne residential cooking school in Burgundy. Coming back to Sens this time on the barge was a wonderful opportunity for us to book La Madeleine and for me to meet up with Chef [...]
After my wonderful few days in Paris, I eventually met up with Michael who arrived from Australia late last Friday night. Instead of going into Paris for the night, we chose to stay at an airport hotel, ready for our early departure Saturday morning. We drove for the 3 hours to Bar-le-Duc, where our friend [...]
Travelling in France is one of my wonderful joys in life. I love the beautiful countryside, the delightful and interesting people, the history of the places we visit, plus of course French food and wine. On each visit I look forward to a few special dinners or lunches at some wonderful restaurants and brasseries, both [...]
This trip to France and barging into Germany is quite different to our usual travels on the French canals. We barge only on the Moselle and do not travel at all on the canals. River barging, ‘cruising’, is quite different in many ways; the current on the rivers is significantly strong, this effects the travelling [...]
We have been barging west for 6 days and are now at Bar-Le-Duc in Lorraine, travelling well, without the wheelhouse roof. It is wonderful when the sun shines, not so good in the rain and wind. We have coped well in a midnight storm with winds, lightning and thunder. It was quite a gale and [...]
I love travelling in France; I love the food, wine, people, countryside, history and language, everything about it really. However, our last trip in June…was a test of my devotion. I constantly said to myself – I love France, I love being here! And I really do and did think that. But do not envy [...]
We returned from France last week and we are very excited about the upcoming new Spring and Summer classes at Cooking on the Bay. I have some interesting new menu ideas and discovered a few new foods...there are always some things you learn each time...no matter how well I think I know French food! This [...]
