The Tomato Knife

In Bracieux, France, the same small village that inspired Alexandre Dumas to write about the fictive musketeer, Porthos, you’ll find a chocolate factory. Not far from Blois in the Loire Valley, chocolate-maker Max Vauché, has set up a chocolatier worth visiting. We took a tour of the contemporary facilities (where dried cacao beans stuffed into [...]

Amboise, a small town in the Loire Valley, is known primarily for its overbearing medieval castle- once home to some of France’s most famous rulers, as well as to Catherine of Medici’s ten children! Amboise is also renowned for Clos-Lucé, the stately home where Leonardo da Vinci (invited by the French King Francois I) spent [...]

It all started with the bourru wine I talked about in this post. Thanks to my sister, last weekend we got the chance to visit a seventh-generation, family-owned vineyard in Cour-Cheverny, a small rural town near Blois in the Loire Valley.  After writing about bourru, Sébastien and I were wondering if it was only a [...]

We didn’t really know if we were supposed to eat the heads or not! Looking back at our most-recent two days in the Loire Valley, I’m still proud of myself for trying the tiny fish you see in the photo.  Friture de petits poissons was listed as an appetizer on La Croisette’s menu.  We were [...]