CHABLIS, France – This town tastes good. Sounds good, too, rolling along the tongue like its namesake product, the golden elixir: shah-BLEE. Or, as my friend, Stefano “Frugal” Furgal, pronounces it, “shaaahhh-blee. Because, “That’s the feeling this wine gives me – an extended, ‘Ah!’ ” He is saying, “Ah!” a lot today since the hospitable folks at Domaine Laroche are having … [Read more...] about AN INSPIRED RIDE THROUGH CHABLIS
France
A GALAXY UNTO ITSELF, L’ETOILE CONFOUNDS US
PARIS, FRANCE – Fasten your seat belts and unfasten the cap on the Valium bottle because we’re going to be starstruck, enclosed, embroiled, trapped in l’Etoile. It sounds like a swell place, l’Etoile (the Star), but beware. It’s a nice place to visit – in a tank or armored car – but you wouldn’t want to drive there. The guidebook says: “For motorists it is the ultimate … [Read more...] about A GALAXY UNTO ITSELF, L’ETOILE CONFOUNDS US
LIVING LIFE ON A BARGE
SENS, France – Whenever boating is the topic, a hot flash goes through my brain in the form of a vivid oil painting, a piece about the size of Rhode Island, from the brushes of a Frenchman named Jean Louis Andre Theodore Gericault. I saw it again recently at the Louvre, this 182-year-old canvas titled “The Raft of the Medusa,” and it hasn’t mellowed with age. In … [Read more...] about LIVING LIFE ON A BARGE