Discovery
Our Featured Country
France
I love flying into Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. It is generally very early in the morning when we make our approach - just as dawn is breaking over the golden fields surrounding Paris. It is easy to imagine the hundreds of years of kings, queens and royal courts that traveled these beautiful grounds and the countless "ordinary folk" who served them. As soon as I arrive, I anticipate the exquisite pastry that I can only find perfectly made in France - the pain aux raisins. Actually, it not a "pastry" because it is made with "bread" - brioche. It is filled with raisins and a light custard. I must admit I have many more than I should - but I am in France - and I repeat this practice everytime I am there!
I have traveled quite a bit around the country, through Champagne caves of the Pommery Estate in Reims, about 80 miles northeast of Paris, where you also will find Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Reims the place where kings of France were traditionally crowned, to the exquisite Auberge du Pere Bise at Lake Annecy, in the Alps just outside Geneva, Switzerland. We had a most extraordinary meal at a table on the shore of the lake on a warm summer evening under the light of a full moon. Amazing!
Provence in Southern France is full of blue skies and sunshine. Each town has a market on the same day every week so you can spend several days traveling to different open air markets, often seeing the same vendors, who also travel from market to market! The remnants of other civilizations - like the Roman Empire - meet you along the way. I love to walk around places like the Colliseum in Arles and imagine the thousands of thousands of people that have traveled the same path!
But Paris is the place where dreams are made! The Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame de Paris, Louvre and of course the pain aux raisins!
A few interesting facts about France:
France is the most visited country on earth.
Government policies require a 35 hour workweek and 5 weeks of paid vacation a year.
Population is 60, 742,000.
France is a republic. The head of the executive is Nicolas Sarekozy. Parliament consists of the Assemblee nationale "National Assembly" and the Senat - "Senate".
The French always eat bread with a meal. If there is a cheese course and dessert, the cheese will come first. At least 3 different cheeses are offered. Cheese always eaten with bread, not crackers!
In Paris, all of the major museums are open to the public free of charge on the first Monday of every month.
Le Jacquard Francais 
Mustardseed & Moonshine 
Tournesol's Concierge 