Isn’t this what cheese should be like? Gooey Camembert 4.8 Euro for 250g

Pam during her hours of research found a restaurant that she wanted to go to when back in New Zealand. Their web site said they did not accept email reservations and you had to phone.

I tried to phone, in my pigeon French, forgot to leave my name. Then I got a lady from work who is French to contact them, but after 7 days no response to that either. So I ended up emailing them and finally our booking was confirmed.

Apon arrival in Honfleur we were quite amazed at the number of restaurants – literally 100’s of them everywhere, although most you could tell are typical tourist rubbish filled with chips on every order.

We booked in at 8pm and walked the 2 minutes to it from our room.

We said we had a reservation for "Crowe” and then he said are you “Holiday” which is my email address for holiday related stuff.

This was a nice fine dinning place, but like the rest of HonFleur  most of the restaurants have fixed menus. A lot of restaurants also have standard menu items to order, but this place did not just basically a 30 Euro (with 40 Euro Option) or a 50 Euro (with a 60 Euro Option)

I really wanted to try the Foie Gras but it was on the main 50 Euro menu and the other items I wanted were on the 30 euro menu.

So I thought I can try the Foie Gras another day.

Pam & I both ordered the duck, with different starters and different deserts.

We ordered a bottle of Pinot Gris from Alsace – 30 Euro and quite nice with a very good length.

When we got there they served a small amuse bouche (no photo) and then they served a small pre-starter of a raw beetroot wafer along with salmon filled with a green pea mousse.

Pam ordered a “Velouté de Petits Pois Printanier, with Mozzarella di Buffala grillée et chorizo.” which basically is a pea soup with grilled buffalo mozzarella cheese at the bottom along with pea fronds.

I ordered the “Mousse, Nougat, de chevrè aux Fruits secs grillés salés, along with Asperges vertes et Jambon Ibérique vinaigrette miel et jus  Betterave” and received the following dish which was Asparagus, an air dried salted ham, and silky smooth goat cheese with Pistachios and Almonds along with lovely little red droplets of Iberian honey vinaigrette and beetroot juice.

For the main we both had the dish titled “Poitrine de Canette Dorée ay sautoir, Epinard et Navet aigre doux citron Badiane, jus épicé.” which was duck with very smooth mashed potatoes, a sound disk of apple (quite thick) and a very rich jus”

For desert I ordered “Panna Cotta Passion Tartare D’annanas à l’estragon, Sorbet Litchi”

and Pam ordered “Dôme Chocolat Noisettes Caramélisées, Créme glacée noisettes torréfiées”

At the end of this we were quite full.

The then offered us a Calvados (for free) which was very nice and unexpected as we saw others did not receive this gift.

Overall a lovely night and not too expensive considering the location and class of restaurant.

• Two Meals / 3 courses – 30 Euro each
• 1 bottle of wine – 30 Euro
• 1 bottle of sparkling water – 7 Euro

so all up 97 Euro

http://www.lafleurdesel-honfleur.com/#

The day started pretty lazily and we decided to have a coffee, there is a coffee machine in our room so we had a coffee first and then ventured out to find some breakfast and another coffee about 9:30am.

We went to a bakery bought some lovely bread, an apple and a plum tart and an almond croissant (did not look like a croissant).

We could not find anywhere that sold coffee, they seem to have tea shops here not coffee so we walked back to the room.

Along the way a few shops were starting to open including another that sells cider and calvados – a local apple brandy.

We tried a few ciders, a calvados 15yr old, and a blend of them both. We bought a bottle of the blend – Coquerei – 16.50 Euro and about 17%.

We then spotted a fromagerie and bought a large camembert cheese – 4.80 Euro

Back to the room and a small feast of bread  & cheese and tarts

I tried a taste of the cider we had not opened last night and we had a rest.

We went out to visit the old wooden church which is right outside our window.

Around the other side of the church is more cider and calvados shops

We planned the afternoon which was a drive to the town of Trouville-Sur-Mer.

It was a nice looking town with some very large buildings, and a beach. We parked and found you had to pay to park everywhere. We did not have much change and scrambled together 1 euro which gave us only 30 minutes.

But we had a quick look around at the beach and wondered around a bit.

After this we decided to drive to Chateu Du Breuil – which makes Calvados

We tried a few in the tasting room, starting with the 15yr old, followed by 20yr old and finished with the 30yr old.

Young Calvados is quite hot and bity, the 30 was smoother so we ended up buying a bottle of that – 112 Euro

After this we drive back to Honfleur for a rest before dinner.

We survived the day and started to fell pretty buggered by the time dinner time came around. We went out for a cider in a local bar/restaurant.

It was pretty small – about 250ml if that, and it was about 4.50 Euro

We decided to go back to the room and stopped off at one of the many cider shops around the town – this was only 2 doors down from our place and just  a small shop.

The lady was very helpful and spoke some English and we bought two bottles of cider, about 750ml each for 9 euro.

We bought a Rosè and a brut – very simple with the rosè being only 3% and the brut 5%, along with some cheese and we were happy.

The ciders are very different than in NZ, basically they are fresh fermented juice and then I think they carbonate them and sell them. No aging by the sounds of things.

We had decided to venture out and eat some oysters a bit later but ending up sleeping instead.

We arrived in Honfleur about 1:30pm and it looked really busy with people everywhere. We searched for a car park and ended up finding one about 1KM from the place we were staying and locked up and walked to find the lady who was waiting for us.

Honfleur is a very pretty little town with cobbled streets and lovely old buildings and of course the Vieux Bassin.

Our hotel room (little apartment) on the first floor has wonderful views over the Bassin and also the old wooden church (180 degrees behind)

Pam & I got a ride to the airport which was great by Mark. We got there about 8:30 for a 10:50am flight so plenty of time.

We got through the check-in very quickly as there was no body in the queue at all.

The flight left on time and was pretty full.

We has pre-ordered our food (seafood meal), the first one was great (nice Salmon fillet), the 2nd not so good, with the fish tasting a bit odd so we both flagged it.

We arrived into Singapore at 5:40pm (local time) – Pam got some sleep but I did not and I really wanted to stay awake so I could sleep on the next flight.

We were going to do a free Singapore tour at 6:30pm to fill in the time until our next flight in midnight. But when we went to the counter they said the office was closed at 5:30pm – so not trip for us.

We had previously seen that if you bought a flight from October 2013 and transited in the airport under 24 hours then you could receive $40 Changi Dollars which can be used in a lot of shops.

After searching we found the location to get the $ and then wondered what we should do, I did not want to sit in the airport for 6 hours even though Singapore  airport is one of the best in the world.

I convinced pam we should catch the train into town. Singapore airport has a location where you can leave your hand luggage for a fee – $3.20 per piece for 24 hours – so we had 2 pieces $6.40 (cheap)

We had to go through immigration – there was 1 other person in the whole area. A huge area – I should have taken a photo – maybe I will on the return journey and put it here.

After immigration we went to the train station in the airport.

The train was not too  full on departure, but you have to change trains 2 stops later and then it started to get very very full.

We were going to go to Raffles hotel and have a Singapore sling but got out at a stop called Raffles City 1 stop too far. We did not know this at the time and obviously the brain was not in full swing. So we decided to have a beer in a small restaurant / bar.

After this we decided to just go back to the airport – again the train was very very full.

We were back in the airport after 40 minutes and sat down to chill out for the next flight.

To confirm the brain fade we did not even think about buying any Duty Free  booze for France.

I was almost a sleep and finally we boarded and they fed us not too long later (60-90 minutes)

I took a couple of pain killers and went to sleep – the flight was 13 hours and I think I ended up sleeping for 8+ hours of it, off and on. Pam slept quite a lot as well….

We arrived in France on time at 7:20am local time, it seemed fore ever since we left New Zealand.

Immigration was quick and efficient – unlike USA where it is terrible.

All up including waiting in line was 5 minutes, compared to the last time through Houston which was about 100 minutes and that was only because we ended up jumping the queue!

We could see the EuropCar sign while waiting for our bag and we then went to pick up the car.

We had ordered an Audi A4 or similar, we go a Citroën DS5. Pam knew about it – I did not.

Quite a flash car, with buttons and gizmos everywhere.

6 speed manual, heads up display in the windshield while driving, Full leather interior, built in GPS, heated seats, massager in the seat (not sure how I turned it on) and quite spacious. A weird hand brake, a button not a manual thing.

Once we picked it up we had to drive to Honfleur on the Normandy coast about 3 hours away.

View towards the town of Sablet

The view from Les Quatre Terrasses

Les Quatre Terrasses is a beautifully renovated 14th century Provencal village house

Situated west of Mont Ventoux and at the foot of the Dentelles de Montmirail, this authentic, medieval, village house provides modern facilities for those seeking for a luxurious holiday in the Cote du Rhone wine region. This unique property offers spacious living and sleeping accommodation incorporating on the ground floor, a living room with wood burning stove, and grand terrace for dining and relaxing, professional kitchen with small breakfast terrace along with a smaller prep kitchen and cloakroom. Enjoy the romantic sunsets on the terrace just off the reading room on the first floor where there is also a master bedroom with en suite bathroom & shower. A private terrace for sunbathing can be accessed from the top floor. Separate living and sleeping area on the lower ground floor provides, two bedrooms, one shower room with toilet, a laundry area with sauna. Shade from the sun is provided by the vine in the small secure garden overlooking the Place des Barry with its popular viewing point.

http://www.homeaway.co.uk/p415777

La Ravenne
51210 Le Breuil

http://www.gite.com/france/la-ravenne

La Ravenne is a 19th century stone farmhouse set among the great vineyards of the Champagne region, fully renovated for comfortable modern living, while maintaining the character and ambiance of a French country residence.

The three storey house has five bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms with beds for eleven guests

We are staying for 5 nights here

http://www.hotel-arts.com/uk/index.php

HOTEL DES ARTS
10, place Marché Cochons de Lait
67000 Strasbourg

Situated in the heart of Strasbourg, the administrative centre of the Alsace region and the Bas-Rhin department, the Hotel des Arts** enjoys a privileged location at the foot of the Cathedral.

The hotel has 24 rooms, each one fully equipped and decorated in a clean and modern style. Its location near the shops and restaurants of Strasbourg’s historic pedestrian city centre, and near the Notre Dame Cathedral, gives the hotel a unique atmosphere.