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byDouglas W Nelms????????
“L’Auberge” basically means a French country inn. Or, more often, the type of food served at a country restaurant. L’Auberge du Champs de Mars, snuggled into a block-long back street only a five-minute walk from the Eiffel Tower, provides an excellent chance to try some of this classic French food without leaving Paris.
The €19 “prix fixe” menu of an appetizer, entrée and dessert offers the quintessence of French country cooking as an excellent bargain for the low-budget traveler. However, as with most restaurants, drinks can drive the bill up a bit. A very nice champagne cocktail aperitif, a light house red wine with the meal and an after dinner cognac, plus a glass of the recommended Montbazillac wine for the goose foie gras I’d chosen for my appetizer, pushed the total bill to €45.30.
April 20th, 2008 | Posted in Douglas Nelms, food_and_drink | No Comments
Mike Kingdom-Hockings of New Freebooters takes a look at luxury barge cruising.
I was lucky. When I started ski-ing, the UK’s Colin Murison Small had just invented the chalet party concept. In each resort, he’d take over one or more complete chalets, each providing about ten two-bed rooms, a communal area, a dining area and a kitchen. He then hired two girls with Cordon Bleu cooking certificates to look after the chalet and its occupants. It wasn’t expensive food, but it was good - and for one day each week we’d take the girls with us to a restaurant in town to give them a break.
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January 15th, 2008 | Posted in Mike Kingdom_Hockings, canal boating, activities, food_and_drink | No Comments
Scott Anderson of The Enlightened Traveller offers us a glimpse of one of France’s wild walking places.
The Cévennes are located in south-central France. Whilst in an administrative sense they do not constitute a region, to all intents and purposes they possess a singular identity. Thus the ‘La Cevenne’ reference in the works of its most famed writer, Jean-Pierre Chabrol. (see Quand la Cevenne se soulevait/When the Cevennes rose up).
Few locations offer the beauty or variety of the Cévennes, ranging from granite tors to deeply incised river valleys and some of Europe’s most dramatic limestone gorges and caves. Read the rest of this entry
December 1st, 2007 | Posted in Walking, activities, places, Uncategorized | No Comments
A short introduction to a favourite part of France,
by Sébastien Camus
Jutting far out into the sea-green waters of the Channel, you could say that the department of Manche is off the beaten track. Read the rest of this entry
September 17th, 2007 | Posted in places | No Comments
One of the goals of www.lookat-france.com is to provide activity-based views of the information on the site as well as the traditional location-based view. This advertorial article, highlighting an original group walking tour offered by The Enlightened Traveller is one example of the kind of commercial offering we will publicise as well as providing general information about the chosen activity.
A little bit of history
What became known as the ‘Camisard Revolt’ or ‘War’ began with the assassination at Pont-de-Montvert in July 1702 Read the rest of this entry
September 8th, 2007 | Posted in Walking, activities, Uncategorized | No Comments
by Mark Rowlee
The warm August sun had transformed the French countryside around Lorraine to a golden hue as hundreds of hot air balloons readied to take to the sky. We arrived at the old NATO airfield at Chambley-Bussier, just west of Metz, just in time to witness this spectacle. Read the rest of this entry
June 17th, 2007 | Posted in Mark Rowlee, Ballooning, activities, Uncategorized | No Comments
byDouglas W Nelms
I love English beer. Granted, as an American, most of the time when I walk into an English pub I have no idea what the various beers are. What is a “Best Bitter”, really? But it’s great to just point to one of those giant handles and say, “I’ll try that one,” then watch it being hand pumped into those big pint glasses.
Which is why I jumped at the chance to check out a real English pub while attending a conference in the center of Paris. Read the rest of this entry
June 17th, 2007 | Posted in Douglas Nelms, food_and_drink, Uncategorized | 2 Comments
by Keith Kellett
Many people associate France with cycling. Fewer people are aware of the network of Grandes Randonnées – the long walks that take you over the top or through the middle of every part of France. In this excerpt from his e-book Eurocurios, travel writer and photographer Keith Kellett leads you through places which most tourists miss as they hurtle away from the car ferry dock, heading for Paris, the Dordogne, or Nice. This layout will differ from the one in the e-book.
Generally, we in Britain associate white cliffs with the “welcome home” from the famous ones at Dover. Read the rest of this entry
June 8th, 2007 | Posted in Keith Kellett, places, Uncategorized | 2 Comments
by Mark Rowlee
The heat of the afternoon sun was overtaking us as we were learning the game of pétanque. Our host brought out a tray with small glasses and two bottles of a drink we had never seen. In Provence, he told us, they drink pastis. But here in Charente it was this drink we were offered. We sat down in the shade and he began to tell us the story of Pineau des Charentes.
Wine and Cognac have been produced here for hundreds of years in the midst of vast fields of sunflowers. Read the rest of this entry
June 7th, 2007 | Posted in Mark Rowlee, food_and_drink, Uncategorized | No Comments
