Yzeures-Sur-Creuze, France

Day 1 – Off to Le Calabash: We traveled 3 hours from Bayeux to the Le Calabash cooking school in the beautiful Loire Valley. For our first cooking session, we learned about chou pastry by making eclairs and profiteroles. The results were delicious!

We were treated to dinner at Maison Dallais, a 1 Michelin star restaurant in Le Petit-Pressigny. Once again, we enjoyed the well presented and wonderfully flavourful food with the pleasant conversation of our travelling companions.

Day 2 – Chateau Villandry and Masses of Shellfish: We were initially rather worried as we drove to Chateau Villandry, a regal chateau with a large religious art collection and absolutely stunning gardens. The gods were smiling on us as the rain stopped as soon as we left the chateau to head outside. The gardens definitely ‘exceeded expectations’ – I had expected that the rigid geometric design form of this type of garden would be rather sedate (and boring) – it was anything but…

In the afternoon we were taught how to prepare shell fish for a seafood tower that was assembled for dinner later in the evening. Very impressive!

Day 3 – Tours Market, Macarons and Dinner at the Chateau: I felt a little sorry for Sidney this morning. We parked in the underground’s parking of the Tours market before heading directly to breakfast. Trying to get a group of people on a culinary tour to walk through one the best markets in France must be like herding cats: we all had that ‘kid in a candy store’ look and were not moving too quickly. The variety of stores in the market is quite impressive with every kind of food shop imaginable including a shop by the winner of the best patissier/choclatier in France and a store that specializes in pepper.

We spent our last afternoon making macarons under Alison’s watchful (expert) eye. Flavours included salted caramel, praline, pistachio and rose. They macarons were packed up to take with us to our Andalusian paella dinner – ‘in a muddy field like farmers used to do in the past.’

We were all happy with the idea of a rustic paella feast but Rebekah, Sidney and Alison had other plans: instead of a muddy field, the car pulled into La Chateau de Celle-Guenand, an absolutely stunning bed and breakfast in a traditional chateau being lovingly restored by its owners. Needless to say, it was a memorable experience having dinner in the grand dining room – feeling like a cross between a Sunday family dinner and a formal banquet at a stately manner house. Definitely a night that will never be forgotten!