Another Weekend in Paris

I woke up early Saturday morning to take the TGV up to Paris, where I met my special lady friend, who was flying in from Houston. After some initial confusion about hotel rooms, we finally got settled just outside of the Gare de Lyon and struck out to enjoy the day. Instead of an aggressive schedule of museum visits and sight seeing, though, our entire plan consisted of a run in the Jardin des Plantes, a a nap, and an early dinner.

Dinner was, however, a spectacular affaire in and of itself. Based on a recommendation from Wine Spectator we had reservations at La Truffiere. At 7 PM we were clearly the first customers of the night and, accordingly, we were waited on hand and foot by the entire staff. It was a good way to start off the evening being "bon soir"ed by no less than seven employees on the short walk to our table. Another indication that we were in for a good evening came when the wine list arrived : a tome so extensive that it came with its own pedestal to support its weight.

It was difficult to choose among the thousands of possibilities but the sommelier was helpful and we eventually settled on Château Leoville Barton Saint-Julien 1999. It was rich with tart red fruit and gentle, carressing tannins up front, followed by dark, warm spice on a long finish—just what the doctor ordered! It turned out to be the last such bottle in the house, a good omen. The sommelier got extra points for fantastic presentation. Sure, he broke the first tasting glass (before there was wine in it, fortunately!) but we’ll just write that off as a warm up. J

Choosing what to eat was much easier. As the name of the restaurant indicates, their specialty is dark truffles. Accordingly, that was the focus of our courses. Before any food arrived at our table, the maitre d’ presented us with a bowl of fresh truffles, which were incredibly fragrant. I had always thought of truffles as being very earthy but this was the first time that I came to appreciate how fruity and nutty their pungent aromas could be as well. We selected our truffle for the evening (one that was oddly shaped and therefore would surely be full of mysteries!). It was weighed, priced (costing more than our wine!!!), and then hand shaved (by a black-gloved hand) in front of our table—again, points for presentation!

The truffle shavings then became an integral part of our meal for the rest of the evening. We began with toasted bread, olive oil, fleur de sel, and truffle shavings—so simple and so delicious! It helped that the truffles went magnificently with our wine. And of course a dinner in Paris w/o snails would be somehow . . . unfulfilling. So we also ordered the escargot. It came in three different varieties: sauteed with white asparagus on phyllo, emulsified with parsley and garlic and served in the shell, and suspended in an emulsification of garlic and bone marrow. So good!

Next round: Salmon with green tea mousse and parmentier of foie gras—again with truffle shavings galore. About this time it was clear that our noble Saint-Julien would need reinforcements. Our sommelier recommended a Chateau de la Negly La Porte du Ciel 2003 Rhone blend from Languedoc-Rousillon, claiming that it was like nothing that we had ever tasted from that region. It had been opened in the morning and was in a perfect state for consumption. He was right on both accounts. It was an oppulent, fruity wine—more purple and less red—and definitely stood up to our hearty meal.

Before dessert arrived, it was mandated that we cleanse our palettes with cheese. The rolling cheese cart was more of a fortress, containing and displaying at least 20 cheeses from around the world and varying in age from 1 – 5 years. Oh well, since it was mandated, we had to partake. I can’t even remember what we had, except that most of it was strong and stinky—like me!

Dessert then took the truffle experience to the next level. We had a moka chocolate tort and a dark truffle souffle, which was amazing. The both paired fantastically with a glass of muscat and that was it. By the time we finished dessert, 3.5 hours had passed (We received little palette cleansers between each course.), 17 grams of truffle shavings had been consumed, and we could have rolled all the way home.

When the bill arrived, it was, not surprisingly, the most I have ever paid for dinner for two. While I don’t plan on making such extravagent expenses a habit, it was certainly worth it to do once on this special occasion. 

This morning we woke up late, had a leisurely brunch, and hopped the train back to Lausanne. The evening featured fine dining (frozen pizza, now that I actually have a kitchen with an oven!) and catching up on the current season of 30 Rock. With every episode I watch, I continue to love Alec Baldwin's character (Jack Donaghy) more and more. "We all have our ways of coping; for me, it was sex and awesomeness." It was a lazy, wonderful weekend in Paris and I am looking forward to the coming week with my guest in town!

Weekend in Paris Part Deux

Paris was 24 hours of awesome. My favorite wingman met me at Gare de Lyon, we dropped off my stuff--which all fit in my laptop bag--and kicked off the day with lunch in an outdoor cafe near the Louvre. The sun was shining, the people-watching was great, and we won our first battle against grapes, duck livers, and snails. After a lazy lunch, though, what to do, what to do?

I pulled up Google Maps on my phone and searched for Museums around us; it didn't let me down. The National Picasso Museum, while not exactly close, looked the most interesting and digestable in an afternoon. So we walked over to the East side of Paris, enjoying the glorious weather.

Picasso's works weren't exactly what I was expecting--which was a pleasant surprise. They were presented chronologically, which my readers know I love (a la my musical explorations), so it was apparent how his style evolved over time. It was interesting to see that he had dabbled in classical and impressionist (like his good friend Henri Matisse) styles before really finding the cubist and other styles for which he is--in my mind--famous. I also didn't realize that he had done so much sculpting, so it was interesting to see his later-life sculptural interpretations of his earlier-life paintings. Cool.

We then ambled all the way back to Paris's west side to visit Lavinia, a wine store that had been recommended to us as the "Spec's of Paris." Spec's (the largest wine/spirits store in the world, just a few blocks from my house in Houston) it was not, but it was definitely cool and had an awesome selection of French wines, which was exactly what we were seeking. We spent 90 minutes inspecting every bottle and debating the pros and cons to kill time before dinner. We walked across the Seine, stopped for a quick cafe, and then finally arrived at Aux Charpentiers, my favorite little restaurant in Paris.

Joel, the general manager is always extremely gracious and this time was no exception. We started off with some champagne to nourish us while we poured over the menu. At long last we decided on three courses and got down to work. First up: foie gras paired with a sauternes and, naturally, escargot. Hassin and Cox: 2, Duck livers and snails: 0.

Next course: roast duck in a dark sauce (the contents of which escape me) and sardine fillets marinated in citrus. The piece de resistance here, though, was the 2002 Chateau Lynch-Bages Pauillac. 2002 wasn't a stellar year in Bordeaux but Lynch-Bages has never let us down and we figured that the 2002 might be more approachable now than a blockbuster like 2003 or 2005. We were right! It was drinking beautifully and, although it would have paired better with one of the beef entrees, it still went smashingly. Well structured, layers of currant and peppery spice with a long finish. Delicious!

We ended with a poached pear drowned in a cassis wine reduction and something very chocolatey with raspberry sauce. Perhaps the sweetest treat of all, though, was our bill, which was 1/2 what we paid for lunch. I love Aux Charpentiers!

Having won another victory over grapes, duck livers, snails, AND the recession, we had no choice but to celebrate. We decided that the rest of the night would be devoted to Guinness. We wound our way to the Latin Quarter, resolving to stop at every bar we encountered that advertised Guinness. The fact that we didn't know exactly where the Latin Quarter was (In fact, looking at a map now, we may have actually already been in the Latin Quarter when we embarked!) only supported our Guinnessification.

Our meandering took us into places ranging from dodgy pubs to swank cocktail lounges. In one of the latter establishments we saw advertised a Cocktail du Jour. We asked the bartender, who must have been 8' tall, what it was and she didn't know; we were the first to inquire about it all day. Naturally, we had to have it and it turned out to be a foaming, glowing punch bowl of sorts with lots of straws. So much for our Guinness-only night but we figured that a diverse porfolio never hurt anyone.

Finally we arrived at a bar that was playing great rock music. Plus we met some law students from La Sorbonne who were cool so we decided to stay. A couple of Guinnesses turned into a few, flaming shots were ordered, and here the details start to become hazy. The pictures indicate that we had an awesome time and I would expect no less!

Our bar eventually shut down and the girls invited us to come with them to an after-hours location. We headed off toward this mystery destination but one of the girls got very upset when I jokingly tried to sell her to her friend for 10 euros. This meant one of two things: either this girl was a total drama queen or I had had enough to drink that things I found funny weren't quite as amusing to others. In either case, we figured it was time to call it a night.

Sunday morning came too early and I had over 100 new emails to sift through on the train back to Lausanne. Oh well, what a great time and I'll be back there next weekend!

Last Day in France

Today was a travel day. We began with a poolside breakfast then toured Chateau Figeac in the St. Emilion AOC. We were part of a larger group here, but our guide was excellent. We finished with a tasting of the Chateau Figeac St. Emilion 1988 (84), which was still as youthful as the day it was bottled--very impressive!

We then spent the rest of the day on the road en route to Marseille. About half of this time was spent in traffic once we had already entered the city! For dinner we returned to Le Miramar, where Cox and I had dined two weeks before. Once again we all had the Bouillabaise and once again we were not disappointed.

All though the FIVB beach volley world series is going on here right now, we won't have a chance to stop in for a match before we depart for Italy. Oh well, maybe next time!

Pictures are in my facebook album.

Sauternes

Today we departed from the usual Bordeaux tasting plan by spending the day in Sauternes. We began at first-growth Chateau Guiraud, where our private tour was an excellent introduction to the Sauternes-making process. In contrast with most Medoc tours, this one was much more informal and it was clear that the chateau wasn't really set up for guests. This was A-OK with us as we were able to poke around all we wanted and have all of our questions answered.

We finished the tour with a six-vintage vertical tasting of the Chateau Guiraud Sauternes: 1996 (unrated), 1998 (89), 2000 (90), 2001 (96), 2002 (89), and 2003 (95)--what a way to start the day! The complexities and differences between each vintage were astounding. Guiraud uses exclusively the natural yeast on the berries which, when combined with the varying levels of sugar each year, makes for radically different fermentation durations each year. They also vary the proportion of semillion to sauvignon blanc depending on the quality of each varietal each season. Accordingly, the differences in style, taste, nose, and body between many of the vintages were tremendous. I was also amazed by how rich and dark Sauternes become as they age. The 1996, with the same varietal composition as the 2003, would not have been recognizable as the same wine.

After six glasses of wine and no breakfast, we really needed some lunch to sober up! We found a little restaurant near the town center and sat out on a terrace overlooking the vineyards. The food was wonderful and we took a nap in the car afterward. Refreshed and ready to go, we then made our way to the legendary Chateau d'Yquem, the only Bordeaux winery to receive the Premier Cru Superieur designation in the classification of 1855.

The Yquem tour was in French and was shared with three other small groups so I acted as translator for the rest of our motley crew. Unfortunately our guide really, really loved the sound of his voice and went on and and on, motivating us to zone out and discuss on our own.

Apparently Yquem uses exactly the same vinification process as Guiraud (and all the other first growths), so the question was raised, "What distinguishes Yquem to make it 'Superieur?'" The answer was typically French: terroir. It was not just the quality of the terroir, though, which is shared by the other first growths. Yquem is the largest land owner in Sauternes by far and their parcels are spread throughout the region. This gives them significant soil variety, enabling them to choose the best grapes from different vineyards each year. So, if the year is hot and dry, they can favor grapes from vineyards that do better in hot, dry weather. If the year is cool and moist, they can favor grapes that thrive in such an environment.

The proof is in the pudding, or rather in the Sauternes. We tasted the Chateau d'Yquem Sauternes 2004 (97) and it was delicious. It was clearly very young but showed layer after layer of balanced complexity. Given the bottles of Yquem from the early 1800s lying around (and I thought 1996 was dark!), which are apparently still very drinkable, these wines are seriously built to last.

So, although the tour was much longer than it needed to be, the estate and the wine were beautiful. We then wound our way through Bordeaux to St. Emilion, where we would stay the night. Our B&B was a gorgeous chateau just outside of the city. It sat on a large property that included several windmills, one of which could be climbed for breathtaking views of the area. After some walking around the local vineyards, a refreshing dip in the chateau's pool, and dinner in St. Emilion, we slept very, very well.

Pictures are in my facebook album.

Margaux

Ron wasn't feeling too well this morning so we skipped our first appointment at Chateau Palmer. We did manage to make our afternoon appointment at Chateau Margaux, though, and I am certainly glad that we did. The estate was beautiful and, again, our guide was very knowledgeable. This time we shared the visit with a group of four Germans and tasted the 2004 vintage of their first label (93) at the end. It was young and tight, but you could tell that there was a world of complexity waiting to come out over the next decades.

For dinner we met the John/Natalye clan and many of their friends in the architecture community at a restaurant in Saintes. Dinner was delicious and was followed by a tour of Charlotte's (another Houston friend of ours through John and Natalye) new house in Saintes. To be accurate, it wasn't a "new" house per se, rather the renovation of four adjoining houses into a single one. It was beautiful and we celebrated with cognac from 1964. We also had some Richard Hennessy cognac, Hennessy's ultra premium brand, which was soft, smooth, and spicy. It was a wonderful way to wrap up our last night in/around Cognac.

Pictures are in my facebook album.

Pauillac

It took us a little longer than anticipated to make our way into Bordeaux this morning, but that was OK since Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou (in St. Julien), where we had our first appointment, had decided to cancel all of its tastings this week. This left us with plenty of time to meander around Pauillac and have a leisurely lunch on the banks of the river Gironde before our afternoon appointment at Chateau Lynch-Bages.

The Lynch-Bages tour was very nice; it was just for us and the guide was very knowledgeable. The estate has saved its original winemaking equipment in a sort of museum, which made comparisons with its modern equipment very easy. Lynch-Bages produces 500k bottles each year--I had no idea they were that large--and we tasted the 2004 vintage of its first (rated 89 by the Wine Spectator) and second (unrated) labels.

Dinner was lovely. John and Natalye had us over to their house, also in St. Sauvent, and cooked us some fresh, local fare. They bought an old farmhouse 20 years ago and restored it to habitability. As with the hotel, I really love the juxtaposition of antiquity and modernity. I'll have to keep these ideas in mind for when I have my castle some day! Good food, good wine, and good company in the French countryside--this was exactly the kind of vacation I needed!

Pictures are in my facebook album.

Arrival in Cognac

Today was mostly spent traveling. We had an EARLY train (4:30 AM) to the Geneva airport, a flight to Bordeaux, a bus to the Bordeaux train station, a train to Saintes, and a taxi to St. Sauvent, just outside of Cognac. Saintes was really charming and sleepy, so sleepy that the taxi stand at the train station didn't have any taxis, just a list of the cell phone numbers of the five taxi drivers in town.

We didn't really know what to expect at our hotel as we had never seen it before, but we were very pleased upon arrival. The hotel is called the Design Hotel Francs-Garcons and is a very cool juxtaposition of modernity and history. A local architect and his restauranteur wife restored a crumbling, decrepit building and transformed it into a luxurious boutique hotel. They enlisted the numerous ex-pat architects who have houses in the area to help. Each architect took ownership of a room (There are only seven.) and lent it his/her particular style. Our friends from Rice, John Casbarian (Class of '69 and Associate Dean of Architecture) and Natalye Appel (Class of '80), former masters of Lovett College, recommended the hotel to us and were two of the architects who participated. Natalye designed the bar and John did one of the rooms--the very room where we stayed. Suffice to say that the hotel was beautiful and I would enthusiastically recommend it to anyone looking for a few days of getaway in the French countryside.

We asked Florence, the proprieter, for a lunch recommendation. Given how many restaurants were closed for Bastille Day, we were told we would have to head back into Saintes if we wanted any "chic" cuisine. However, there was a restaurant down the road with "simple" food, which sounded A-OK to us. We wandered down the farm roads in the beautiful weather and popped into the restaurant, where the cuisine was anything but simple! It was fresh, delicious, and innovative--I can't wait to see what constitutes "chic" cuisine!

After our late lunch, our travel companions, Ron and Kathleen Moore, arrived. I know Ron through the Wine Committee of the Petroleum Club of Houston and we were excited to share this trip with them. We walked around the 12th-century church just outside our hotel window, wandered around farms and vineyards, and finally returned to the hotel for dinner. Florence offered to prepare dinner for us as well as for John, Natalye, Claudia (elder daughter), Dana (elder daughter's friend), and Julia (younger daughter) since everything was closed for Bastille Day. That turned out to be fortunate for us because Florence's cooking was incredible. Muscles, oysters, fresh tomatoes, fish, pizzas, beef, homemade ice cream, great local wines . . . not a bad opening dinner!

The best part was catching up with the John and Natalye family. Claudia, who was 10 when she moved into Lovett (my senior year), is now headed to Rice herself. Julia, who was only 2, is now a young lady. Time flies!

At Rice the master of each college announces the names of graduating seniors at Commencement. At Lovett we traditionally announce the college president's name first and then the rest of the seniors in alphabetical order. As I had been the previous year's president at Lovett, my name was to be announced first in 2001. As John had never been a college master before, these were to be the first graduating names he had ever announced. Hence, I was to be the first name he ever announced at Commencement. He took this task seriously and consulted with me about the exact pronunciation of my name, rehearsing for a full week before the ceremony. When the time finally came, "Bryan. Guido. Hassin. President of Lovett College," came off his tongue as if he had known me for years. He showed all of the other graduates the same courtesy. As I had most of my family in town, I really appreciated that. When I finished my master's degree, the woman announcing graduates butchered my name horribly--just not quite the same!

So it was wonderful catching up with Ron and Kathleen and the John/Natalye clan. As we're so close to Cognac, we finished the evening with some fine XO while the Bastille Day fireworks were going off. Now that it is finally dark (which only happened about 11 PM), we are turning in to rest up before a big day of wine tasting!

Pictures are in my facebook album.