Last post of the trip! Beaune, france

We’re back on the train heading to Paris, on our second to last day.  This morning we left Beaune, drove 40 minutes to Dijon, and dropped off our rental car.  I’m happy I was able to drive competently in France, and got us everywhere in one piece.  Allison is very proud of me as well, ha ha.  Let’s discuss Beaune, shall we? 

Beaune is the capital city of Burgundy.  As you know Allison and I really like wine.  Despite how hard we try, in the scheme of things we know little about it, especially French wine.  It seems all French wine is labeled by region and town.  It’s assumed by said region what varietal the wine is.  In Burgundy the varietal is typically either Chardonnay or Pinot Noir.  With that said, Burgundy is very proud of their wine, and rate them by levels, which I’m not going to get too deep into, but figure, good, better, great, the Beatles!  We didn’t have any Beatles, because that shit is owned by Michael Jackson, and we can’t afford MJ’s prices!  We did have some pretty great stuff and learned quite a bit from the few tastings we did.  All of the Burgundy white we had was very good. I suggest if you like wine, pick up any of their whites and you will like it, even if you don’t like California Chardonnay.  The reds are a little more tricky.  Here are a few towns we liked for red; Beaune, Auxey Durresses, and Pollard.   That’s about all I can type about that, maybe 10% of it was correct, but who cares.

Here’s a little about the town: it’s spotless and gorgeous.  And I mean spotless.  France has a dog poop problem.  In fact, as you get familiarized with a town, you learn where all the dog mines are and naturally step over them.  It’s everywhere, except Beaune, not one piece of dung.   All the buildings are much more uniform, mostly grey, with nice shutters and flower boxes.  It’s a fortified city and you can actually drive/walk around on the Ramparts, which make for really nice walks and views.  There is a wine shop at every turn, sometimes two or three side by side.  There are also a lot of bakeries.  On a side note, we have learned all the French names for different types of shops, but I’ve decided to keep this simple.  Vineyards surround the town.  When I say surrounded, I mean as far as the eye can see in every direction.  Yesterday we bought some sliced ham, cheese, wine, olives and a baguette, hopped in the car and started driving through the surrounding towns in search of a nice place to have lunch with our spread.  At a little intersection in the middle of slope side vineyards, we found a nice little area with a statue and picnic table.  No ordering, or attempting to use the very little French we know.  It was just nice to enjoy each other in the piece and quiet without distraction.  With all of the grand dining and sites we have experienced, that picnic was nice and low key and will be very memorable.

In closing, we went into Beaune with high expectations of wine tours and tastings, although we only did a few and felt a little overwhelmed (and very underprepared), we had a great experience there and learned some new info about French wine and how to choose a bottle.  We also had a nice romantic picnic, some amazing dinners and some beautiful sites.  We’re almost back to Paris, and we hope to end this honeymoon off with a few last days of relaxation and love, I’m not going to say anything else in fears of tempting the gods of chaos.  We miss everyone and look forward to sharing our stories in person, and hearing about what we missed while were we were away.  Thanks for following, and the feedback.  Thanks to Joe and Carrie for looking after the house and the fat cat, it means the world to us.   Thanks to Mom and Dad Boisvert for the rides to and from the airport.  I know it’s a pain even if you deny it.  Thanks to Mom and Dad Nigro for the amazing help with the wedding.  And thanks to everyone else who have been great friends and take as much interest in our lives as we do yours.  We’re so fortunate to have the friends and family we have.  Love you all…  

Au revoir!   

P.S. Thank you to my lovely wife Allison, you are the best travel companion.  You are extremely easy going and relatively low maintenance ; )…and you talk little trash about my poor grammar and spelling.  I appreciate your patience when I’m stressed out, or crabby about the locals.  You’ve been good about photography and mediocre at navigation…I love you and look forward to our next trip and the rest of our lives!

P.P.S. Get over it Jen Boisvert and anyone else who hates my sappy stuff ; ) 

   

Day 9 Menton and our dining experience at Mirazur

This entry is solely based on our experience in Mauro Colagreco's two star Michelin rated restaurant Mirazur in Menton, France.  I will warn you now that if you're not into food you won't enjoy this post, but if you are, I hope you enjoy it and the pictures.  We tried to capture everything so that we can remember this wonderful and fun eating experience.    
  Menton is another beautiful Riviera town situated on the French and Italian border.  Visiting Menton and eating here was on our wish list of things to do while staying in this area and we're thrilled it actually happened.  The restaurant itself as you can see from the pictures sits above the town with spectacular views.  The chef has his own gardens on the property and his philosophy is to use what he grows along with what's currently available in the market to create his menu, a theme that's not uncommon now in the U.S.  We don't get to eat food like this EVER.  It's fancy, elaborate, over-the-top and clearly expensive so our wallets do not typically allow such indulgences.  However, since this is our honeymoon we wanted to do something really special, so we decided to do lunch there when it would be daytime and we could fully appreciate the views.  The service at Mirazur is formal but extremely friendly and the atmosphere is actually more casual than you might think.  I know this whole thing may seem pretentious but many of you know how much we love food and wine.  We just enjoy seeing what people can do with food and we like eating it even more.  So to continue, the menu is such that you can choose based on the number of courses you wish to do.  You don't choose what you're going to eat, but you can tell them if there are certain foods you don't or can't eat.  We chose the six course Degustation option and told them we'd eat anything.  We're not entirely sure what they count as a course.  It appeared to us that we had 8 courses, but apparently some of the courses must not have counted as an actual course.  So, let's begin...

Amuse bouche - We started with a glass of Taittinger Cuvee Prestige champagne (that was for you Jen) and a few little bites.  We honestly can't remember what was on the rock with the moss in the background (sorry I guess we're not off to a great start), but in the middle are baby radishes with some minced veggies inside and on either side of that are beet chips with little balls of white and yellow beets on goat cheese.  They were yummy little bites for sure.

First course - At that point we ordered a bottle of wine to accompany our meal.  We opted for a white that the sommelier said would be appropriate for all the courses.  It was a 2009 Rhone Valley Viognier by Domaine Belle.  Our first course was oysters with a shallot creme and seaweed foam.  Although we eat oysters,  I've never had a raw oyster that was removed from the shell for me and that tasted so perfect.

Second course - Carpacchio of Seam bream fish with begonia flowers and some kind of baby peach. A++

Third course - Heirloom tomatoes, mango sorbet, mint leaves, cucumber, tomato gelee, tomato water.  No joke, the tomato gelee and the tomato water actually tasted like a real tomato, in fact it was the essence of tomato.

Fourth course - Mussels, fennel, summer squash, dill, saffron sauce and coriander emulsion.  I wanted to lick the saffron sauce off the plate.

Fifth course - Fillet of John Dory fish, stew of chickpeas and red pepper broth.  The fish was perfect in taste and texture, and the chickpeas were a surprising but welcomed addition.

Sixth course - Pork belly with plum sauce and lavender emulsion.  I'm drooling just typing that.  OMG that was some amazing pig.  Single best pork product I've ever eaten.

Seventh course - They called this "pre dessert", which was carpacchio of fig with anise sorbet.  I can't really describe the flavor combination, but the figs were really fresh and delicious.

Eighth course - Dessert was goat cheese tower with goat milk mousse underneath, cucumber sorbet, meringue of verbena.  I'm honestly not a huge sorbet person.  It's good, but I'm more of an ice cream girl.  The goat milk mousse was great but the cucumber sorbet was surprisingly incredible.

Espresso:  Just thought this was a cool picture.  In France they actually drink their coffee after dessert and not with dessert

Espresso accompaniments: Chocolate raspberry truffles and dark chocolate truffles.  I love chocolate, hence I loved these truffles.

Espresso accompaniments:  Erin, these little treats were absolutely heavenly.  Lemon macarons and something that I can only describe as having a caramelized outside and a doughy, almost french cruller-like inside.  We can't figure out what it is and we should have asked because it really was amazing.  Oh well.

Something not pictured was the bread.  I know, shame on us.  At the beginning they brought us something called "sharing bread" which were little pull-apart rolls along with olive oil.  Of course, I'm sure you know by now this was no ordinary olive oil.  It was lemon and ginger infused olive oil.  I'll be honest, at first I thought it sounded like a weird combination, but after eating it, I would bathe in the stuff.  They poured such a generous amount of it onto a plate that I thought we would never eat it all, but there wasn't one drop left.  They served different types of breads, rolls and baguettes throughout the meal and we dipped it all in that oil.  So good.  It was a terrific meal from start to finish and something we will remember forever.

Blog post courtesy of Allison Boisvert
Pictures courtesy of Mike Boisvert                    

Days 4 - 7 Villefranche-sur-mer and the French Riviera

  We have had little wifi in Villefranche, so my blogging has had to wait.  It's day 7 of the trip and we're sitting in our favorite drinking spot called L'X Cafe.  It has wifi, pronounced we-fee here in France,  reggae music and friendly bar staff.  They also make a pretty nice coffee.  When you order coffee in France it's either espresso or espresso with steamed milk. I'm sure there are plenty of other types, but those are the typical choices.  Last time I typed we were on the train from Paris to VilleFranche, which went very well.  It's a great way to travel.  We had to switch trains in Nice and take a local train to Villefranche. The station in Nice is very busy, and very chaotic, so it took us a moment to figure out where to buy train tickets and where to board the train. We figured it out, and eventually boarded the train, which was really cramped and a little stressful with all of our luggage, but we made it.  We arrived in Villefranche a few minutes later, exited the train squeezing through people and thanking those who helped us off.  We walked through a little tunnel and out onto the street.  Picture if you will a mixture of beautiful aqua and green sea, filled with yachts, a beautiful soft pebble beach, and a tiny cobble stone street lining the sea.  You can smell the fresh seafood, and hear the joy of the patrons in the cafes.   Although we had a long day of travel and some stress, we knew we made the right decision and picked a very charming little town to spend the week.   The last few days have been spent at the beach swimming and on foot exploring our little village, which is very hilly, with lots of steps, secret passage ways and tunnels.

 The food has been an amazing fusion of French and Italian cuisines.  From the octopus to the escargot, it's been an incredible experience.  Notably Les Garcons and Le Grignotiere have been the winners thus far.  The Scallop risotto with white truffle oil from Les Garcons is over the top good.  Risotto is a tricky one to get perfect and they make it look easy.  Villefranche has been extremely relaxing and extremely delicious.   It's exactly what we wanted, beach, food, ambiance and relaxation.  The only worry we had with our honeymoon itinerary in France, was a lack of relaxation. We found that here plus so much more.

  We decided today would be a great day to venture out of Villefranche and see Nice.  We got up early (9am) ; ) and took the train into Nice.  It's about a 7 minute train ride.  We headed straight down to the sea, and along the Promenade des Anglais to find a nice spot for a croissant and coffee.  I've been bad about making my croissant comparisons, but it's only because they are all great.  Even the bad ones are great.  The tastes are all over the board.  But the texture and buttery goodness make it the perfect breakfast. After breakfast we walked the old city. More maze-like alley ways with cafes and shops. You could really feel what it must have been like in medieval times.  After we walked to the top of a giant scenic overlook.  Allison got a picture of me  looking over the beach and city, which is in my flickr. account.  I think that is all I have for now.  Please enjoy the pictures.

  Tomorrow we head to Menton for lunch at a 2 star Michelin rated restaurant called Mirazur.  We're both really excited for Menton.  I believe I mentioned in the first post of this trip that Menton is the restaurant in Boston where I proposed, which is inspired by Menton, France.  At any rate, thank you for the comments and emails, it keeps me motivated to do this blogging business.