French Heaven

As many of you know, especially those who have seen the photos of beautiful French food that I’ve been posting, my daughter and I flew to Bordeaux to spend four days with Stéphane. He is the author of My French Heaven, his blog, andYour French Heaven, his business.

As soon as he picked us up at the airport, we knew we were in good hands. Stéphane is so likable. Lovable, in fact. He’s funny, smart, and slightly irreverent, which suited our personalities to a T.

I’m not here only to promote Stéphane’s business; it needs no help from me. But for a little explanation in case you’re not familiar with it, he customizes your visit to the part of France where he was born and raised, based on your likes and desires and how many days you have to spend.

Of course for me and my daughter as well, our daily plans revolved around shopping for food, cooking it, and eating it.

But we also got to see the stunning countryside, enjoy the local wines, and see some sights for the benefit of my daughter and her specific interests in the world of art history.

We also shopped at a brocante, which was a new word for me. It’s a combination of an antiques shop and flea market.

This blog post could easily be a book because of how much we packed into each day.

I’ll keep most of the details to myself as cherished memories, because Stéphane designed our time together just for us. He will most likely never duplicate these days, because of course all of the food we prepared together was based on what was fresh and available at the daily markets.

Some people may not want to have the same extreme foodie days as we did!

As much as I enjoy meat, we wanted to focus primarily on the lovely seafood available in that corner of France.

My daughter and I stayed at Chateau Saint Jacques Calon, near St. Emilion, which is the B & B that belongs to Stéphane’s family. That is not mandatory, but it added to the magic of our holiday. (Not available any longer.)

In fact, the weather was so perfect on 3 of the 4 days that we took breaks and sat by the beautiful pool.

After a generous breakfast every morning, we drove to a different market.

No matter where we went in the area, everybody seemed to know Stéphane. It was lovely hearing him chat away in his native French.

And speaking of that, Stéphane’s English is perfect. I had moments of remembering French words and phrases, as French was shared with English in my home as a child, but mostly I let Stéphane do the talking.

Stephane always had a general menu in mind for the day, but it all depended on what was available at the market, of course.

On the first day together, I got to get my hands “dirty” when I helped prepare a foie gras terrine that was planned for our last day.

That first evening, we walked to a local restaurant, owned by friends of Stephane, and enjoyed a wonderful meal as we watched the sun set.

The most exciting thing for me was the walk through the French countryside, with grape vines just popping new leaves, and flowers showing off their spring splendor.

The one good thing about hanging out with another blogger is that it’s okay to constantly take photos. My daughter was often the focus of our photos, because of her innocent beauty. She might have cared, but she didn’t show it, which is a testament to her calm and patient personality.

She was often my model.

As well as my hand model.

Every morning we went to the market, and also stopped by Stéphane’s favorite bread baker for fresh baguettes.

Then we’d go back to his house to prepare and enjoy lunch, typically outside because the weather was so perfect.

One day we visited the beautiful village of St. Emilion.

Which is where we also went to a wine tasting.

Stéphane also showed us a beautiful part of Bordeaux.

I’ve never been to this corner of France before, so everything was new to me. The expansive vineyards are quite impressive, especially along the Dordogne.

Stéphane made sure we always sampled the many different regional wines, and kept us well stocked.

He also made sure we enjoyed some of our favorite cheeses, as well as experience a few I’ve never heard of before. Fabulous!

On our final full day with Stéphane, he put out a variety of cakes that he’d ordered from his favorite patisserie in Libourne.

Both of our birthdays, mine and Stéphane’s, are in April, so we celebrated Easter as well as birthdays!

I even got a birthday candle!!!

For our final dinner together, we began with the foie gras terrine paired with Sauterne. Life just doesn’t get much better than that!

It was bittersweet leaving France, but at least I got to spend a few days with my daughter in London, before leaving her behind and returning home. But we both shared fun, beautiful, and delicious experiences, thanks to our host, Stéphane Gabart.

And I didn’t have to do dishes!!!