Burgundy & France

We have a Gagnant!

We have a Gagnant!

It was our 20th wedding anniversary yesterday. In keeping with tradition, we forgot...

A New Moi & Much News

A New Moi & Much News

Where has she been? Turns out I have a stellar answer... 

MY GRAPE ESCAPE is FREE for download

MY GRAPE ESCAPE is FREE for download

MY GRAPE ESCAPE is FREE for download for the next few hours...

A Skeptic's Pilgrimage to Lourdes

A Skeptic's Pilgrimage to Lourdes

When I was diagnosed with a rare and untreatable auto-immune liver disease five years ago called PSC I had no idea how to cope. My family has always had horse-shoes shoved up their rears as far as health went. Nobody in my family had ever, as I have come to call it, "lost their medical virginity" i.e. been diagnosed with a disease that could prove fatal. 

I had no road map to follow. Franck, however, did...

A Beaune Morning

A Beaune Morning

I have been slowly going through my photos taken over the past five years of our summers in Burgundy with the girls. I'm posting some here some of my favorites taken during one sunny August market morning in Beaune.

Five Further French Habits to Adopt

Five Further French Habits to Adopt

Thanks to the popularity of my first two posts in this series, Five Life-Enhancing French Habits to Adopt Today and Three More French Habits to Enhance Your Life I've come up with some further things I was first exposed to during my many years living in France and which add pleasure, ease, and authenticity to our daily lives here at chez Germain, such as...

Chasing the January Blues - My Grape Year FREE from January 5-9th

Chasing the January Blues - My Grape Year FREE from January 5-9th

January can be tough. The excitement and cheese consumption of the holidays are sadly over. The Month of Reckoning has begun - our bank balances are depleted, our belts are significantly tighter, and we discover yet again that New Year's Resolutions aren't as much fun to keep as to make.  

Joyeux Noël

Joyeux Noël

Wishing you all the merriest of Christmases, whether you find yourselves in Burgundy, or Africa, or Northern Canada. I hope you are surrounded by loved ones and joy. Here is an excerpt I wrote about a past Christmas in Burgundy (including plenty of food & wine porn) when we were knee deep in renovations at La Maison des Chaumes...Joyeux Noël!

French Shutters

French Shutters

One of the things I love most about our slower days in France is the routine of opening up the shutters at La Maison des Chaumes in the morning and shutting them again in the evening... 

Contemplating the Fall Colors of Burgundy

Contemplating the Fall Colors of Burgundy

I remember watching out that bus window as the color evolved and changed day by day. After the flurry and excitement of my arrival in France, those fall vineyards put me in a contemplative mood, full of wonderings and questions about what the next three seasons in France would bring... 

Al Fresco Deliciousness in France

Al Fresco Deliciousness in France

One of our favourite things to do in Burgundy is to have picnics. There are so many stunning spots around Beaune, Magny-les-Villers, and Villers-la-Faye and something about the fresh air and sunlight make the already delicious french food taste even better...

The Family Winemakers of Burgundy

The Family Winemakers of Burgundy

Many of our friends and family in Burgundy are involved in the wine trade in one way or another. Burgundy is famous for its big wine houses, of course, the ones that most people have heard of like Patriarche, Champy, Louis Latour and so on. 

In my opinion though the true lifeblood of wine production In the Côte D'Or is the small family-held Domaines...

To The Beaune Market...

To The Beaune Market...

It is the simple activities I enjoy the most when we are at La Maison des Chaumes, our house in the vineyards of Burgundy, France. Top of my list is going to the Saturday morning market in Beaune.

A 13th Century Wine Cellar in Burgundy

A 13th Century Wine Cellar in Burgundy

"Merde, I almost forgot," the owner said as we sat in the notary's office. We were just about to sign the final papers to purchase an 18th Century apartment in the medieval heart of the winemaking town of Beaune, France. "What am I going to do with that extra cellar?" ...