La Roche-Posay, France

We are a few days into our French cooking adventure and it has been quite a wild ride getting to this point. Some things have gone very well and others have been a wee bit of a nightmare. The trip from Toronto to Le Roche-Posay went as follows:

BAD: I got off work in plenty of time to make it to the airport. As we were flying out of the nearby Toronto island airport, we took our time before calling Diamond Taxi for a cab. 45 minutes later (after several intense phone calls) we gave up and walked 2 blocks to hail a cab (an hour after our initial call)!!! The traffic and construction resulted in a 40 minute ride, The only reason that we actually made the flight was the check-in kiosk before the ferry.

GOOD: Our flight to Paris was delayed so we had a chance to relax in the lounge in Montreal for a few minutes before boarding. To our delight, we got upgraded so we had a wonderful flight.

BAD: The flight arrived to a beautiful, crisp,morning but unfortunately our bags did not. Andre’s bags didn’t make it to the luggage belt and mine decided to spend a few days in Montreal.

GOOD: After a quick nap we grabbed a few personal items and bought some tea at Mariage Freres. We got back to the room to find out that Andre’s bag had been found and would be delivered in the evening. (Eventually found out it will take 4 more days to get mine). We ended the evening with a wonderful dinner at Aux Lyonnais (a bistro restaurant by Alain Ducasse). Andre was in heaven after his blood sausage!

BAD: To be polite I will say that I had an upset tummy the following morning. I was so sick that I was worried that I was going to miss the train to the Loire valley. After some medicine I settled down enough to make it though.

GOOD: Alison and Sidney, the owners the Le Calabash cooking school, picked us up at the train station to take us to our accommodations. We were absolutely floored to see that we are staying at the Chateau Valcreuse and, to top things off, the other couple taking the course cancelled so we have the chateau to ourselves!!! What a place – it is a fully restored chateau that is now a hotel/auberge. It is in such a nice setting that the Nazis took it as their regional base in WWII. After a lovely dinner we collapsed with the hope of getting over our jet lag.