On tasting a full-bodied, gutsy, dark red Gigondas in Paris one summer, I developed romantic ideas of visiting the wine-making region of Gigondas in France’s Southern Rhône Valley. A few years later, I made my first trip to Gigondas, where…
The rosés of Tavel were a favourite drink amongst the likes of Honoré de Balzac and Louis XVI. American journalist A.J. Liebling who reported on the liberation of Paris in 1944 also wrote of Tavel rosés in his Paris memoir, Between Meals.…
Whenever I’m not in Bordeaux and I see those little Bordeaux cakes, called canelés (or cannelés), for sale, I buy them. All of them. Without question. Whether I’m elsewhere in France or back home in Australia, I can’t resist the…
It’s 3am. I can’t sleep. This is due to jet lag as well as a gnawing emotional pain telling me something isn’t right. It’s been less than one week since I returned from France; my mind is still very much there. Images…
Every time I return to Paris I have this feeling deep in my gut and in my throat that I never should have left the city. My chest aches as I breathe, hinting, whispering to me that I don’t have…