Robot Journal : Hola Cognac and Champagne!

6/24/2012

Buenos Dias France
I just got back from a week in France. Yes, France. You, regular reader and/or stalker, might be thinking, “were you not just in France a while ago? And then a while before? And didn’t you wear those brown slacks there?”. Yes. All of that would be true.
This is not boastful - I’m as shocked as you are. How have I gone to France three times this year already? How have I gone there four times in 12 months?
The reason is simple: I really like their butter.

This Time
All of these trips have been work related and this trip was a slightly educational jaunt that we put together for some of our vendors. Take them to France and show them a good time.

I’m so tired I can barely write here.
Let’s look at photos.

Cognac
We spent a few days in the Cognac region. That was fun. There was a hot air balloon and we met international famous artist person Futura 2000. There were many good things eaten, but my favorites had to be the following.

Scrambled eggs with baby asparagus at Hotel L'Yeuse. Warm. Balsamic reduction drizzled on it. Tender asparagus. Brilliant.

Fruit of the sea. This was our first course at a dinner at the somewhat famous Chateau Bagnolet.

Dinner at Chateau Bagnolet: Fruits of the Sea

Tiny tender and sweet shrimp, mussels, crab meat, sea snails, and oysters. It was a huge first course.

Champagne
From Cognac, we hopped on a train and went up to Paris and transferred to a train to the city of Reims in the Champagne region. We did a wonderful city tour and visited their grand cathedral. In Reims, we had dinner at the (I think) well known (for Reims) restaurant Le Foch (which we had fun pronouncing).
They did a brilliant foie gras, green apple, and baked pear “burger”. Oh, crikey.

We also had a tremendous lunch at the Hotel du Marc - but I didn’t get any decent photos of the food (it seemed almost sacrilege). The main course was vintage rose champagne served with a rack of lamb and grilled squash. Three of my favorite things in the world.

In the town of Epernay, I had some delicious duck that was served with more foie gras. Later that day, we visited the abbey/church where Dom Perignon lived/worked and tasted some champagne. Yow.

Dom Perignon 2003 at the Abbey of Hautvillers

Saturday
Our last full day was this past Friday and we headed back to Paris to spend the night. We had hired a small bus and arrived at our (holy smokes pretty nice) hotel at 9:00pm. After a late dinner, I strolled down the street to look at the Eiffel Tower as it seemed wrong to be a few blocks from it and not go say ‘hi’.

I get back to my room by midnight and furiously re-pack my bags as I been given a few bottles of booze that required I’d need to check my bag.
In bed by 1:15am.

Alarm goes off at 4:45am so I can wake up and shower and get a 5:45 cab for a ride to the airport for my 8am flight.
What a long day that was. I ate at least six meals that day: two breakfasts, two lunches, snacks, and dinner. If you leave Paris at 8am, you arrive in NYC at 10am. Crazy. That works out pretty well if you were able to rest on the plane.

Tired.

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