I Love French Wine and Food - An Alsace Pinot Gris

If you are looking for fine French wine and food, consider the Alsace region of northeastern France. You may find a bargain, and I hope that you’ll have fun on this fact-filled wine education tour in which we review a local white Pinot Gris wine

Among France’s eleven wine-growing regions Alsace ranks number ten in total acreage devoted to vineyards, perhaps because it is the smallest region of metropolitan France. In any case Alsace is one of France’s best-known wine regions. The wine growing area is about 60 miles (100 kilometers) long, but at most 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) wide. Their wine bottles are distinctively tall and thin. Chaptalization (adding sugar to the fermenting grape mixture) is allowed for many wine categories. And unlike the standard practice elsewhere in France, the labels feature the grape variety.

I Love Touring Paris - The Second Arrondissement

The 2nd arrondissement is located on the right bank of the Seine River. It is Paris's smallest arrondissement, less than 0.4 square miles (slightly under a square kilometer). While its population falls short of twenty thousand, this district provides over sixty thousand jobs, the highest job density in the city. It is home to all of Paris’s remaining glazed commercial arcades; pedestrian passages open at both ends with a glass and iron roof. This Parisian invention, actually an adaptation of Oriental bazaars and souks, forms a miniature city free from the noise of horse-drawn carriages, speeding taxis, and inclement weather. Remember when these arcades were built mostly in the 1820s and 1830s sidewalks were a rare commodity. In these arcades window-shopping developed into yet another Parisian art form. They evolved (degenerated) into the suburban shopping center. Make sure to visit at least one arcade to get a taste of Paris in the good old days.

The Passage des Panoramas running off Boulevard Montmartre is of the earliest arcades, dating back to 1799. It was the first public area in Paris to enjoy gas lighting. On the other side of Boulevard Montmartre you’ll find the more upscale Passage Jouffroy, restored about twenty years ago, a lovely mall that includes two very special stores for young children.

I Love French Wine and Food - A Red Beaujolais

If you are looking for fine French wine and food, consider the Beaujolais region of southeastern France. You may find a bargain, and I hope that you’ll have fun on this fact-filled wine education tour in which we review a local red Beaujolais Cru (high quality) wine.

Among France’s eleven wine-growing regions Beaujolais surprisingly ranks number eight in total acreage devoted to vineyards. However, it is one of the best-known wine regions in large part because of the enormously successful Beaujolais Nouveau marketing campaign. I review Beaujolais Nouveau wine in a companion article in this series.

Beaujolais wine is usually, but not always, red. Almost all red Beaujolais wine comes from the Gamay grape which, while grown in many parts of the world, does its best in Beaujolais, in particular in the northern part of the region with its granite soil.

I Love Touring Paris The First Arrondissement

The first arrondissement lies in the heart of Paris on the Seine River's right bank. It includes the western part of Ile de La Cité, one of the two Parisian islands. This district was once the heart of the Roman city of Lutetia. It occupies less than a square mile (less than two square kilometers) with a declining population of under seventeen thousand. But it employs more than sixty thousand people and attracts lots and lots of tourists. Here are some of the reasons why.

Les Halles was the city's central market, covered in 1183. Read Zola's 1873 novel Le Ventre de Paris (The Belly of Paris) for a timeless picture of this unique setting demolished in 1971 and replaced by a huge underground modern shopping center, the Forum des Halles. The world's largest underground transportation station Châtelet-Les-Halles serves a half million train passengers and a quarter million subway passengers daily. Make sure to see the historic Gothic Church of Saint-Eustache where young Louis XIV received communion. This church is home to several Rubens paintings and holds organ concerts in the summer.

I Love French Wine and Food - A White Beaujolais

If you are looking for fine French wine and food, consider the Beaujolais region of southeastern France. You may find a bargain, and I hope that you’ll have fun on this fact-filled wine education tour in which we review a local white Beaujolais wine.

Among France’s eleven wine-growing regions Beaujolais perhaps surprisingly ranks number eight in total acreage devoted to the grape. However, it is one of the best-known wine regions to a large degree because of the enormously successful Beaujolais Nouveau marketing campaign. I review Beaujolais Nouveau wine in a companion article in this series.

I Love French Wine And Food - A Bordeaux Merlot

I Love French Wine and Food - A Midi Viognier

I Love French Wine and Food - A Provence Bandol

If you are looking for fine French wine and food, consider the world famous Provence region in southeastern France. You may even find a bargain wine in this sun-drenched ideal tourist location, marred only by the number of tourists. I hope that you'll have fun on this fact-filled wine education tour of this French candidate for paradise in which we review a local red wine based on the red Mourvedre grape.

Among France's eleven wine-growing regions Provence ranks ninth in acreage if you include the island of Corsica, which most people do in spite of their considerable differences. Provence is synonymous with rose wine, and although its percentage is declining, happily according to many wine lovers. Over 50% of Provence wine is rose, or as some might say, pink. Many of its wines are pink and flabby, but others are not. The region is home to dozens of grape varieties, often not found elsewhere. With an average of three thousand hours of sun a year, a lot of Provence wines taste baked.

I Love French Wine and Food - A Touraine (Loire Valley) White

If you are looking for fine French wine and food, consider the Loire Valley region of central France. You may find a bargain, and I hope that you'll have fun on this fact-filled wine education tour in which we review a white Sauvignon Blanc-Chardonnay from Touraine in the eastern part of the region.

Among France's eleven wine-growing regions the Loire Valley ranks third in total acreage devoted to vineyards. Given that France's longest river the Loire runs for 620 miles (one thousand kilometers) across the country, in many ways it could be thought of as a series of regions. Here they are running from west to east: Nantais whose primary grape is the white Muscadet, Anjou-Saumur whose primary grapes are the white Chenin Blanc and the red Cabernet Franc, Touraine whose primary white grapes are Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc and whose primary red grape is Cabernet Franc, and Central Vineyards whose primary white grape is Sauvignon Blanc and whose primary red grape is Pinot Noir. We will try to review at least one wine from each of these four areas.

I Love Italian Wine and Food - Northern Veneto

If you are looking for a European tourist destination, consider the Veneto region of northern Italy on the Gulf of Venice. Venice is of course its best-known city and one of the most popular tourist destinations on earth. But the Veneto region has a lot more to offer. You'll find many, many excellent tourist attractions and you won't have to fight huge crowds. With a little luck you'll avoid tourist traps and come back home feeling that you have truly visited Italy. This article examines tourist attractions in northern Veneto. Be sure to read our companion articles on southern Veneto, on that Shakespearean city of Verona, and on the university city of Padua.

We start our tour of northern Veneto in Marostica, northeast of Vicenza and northwest of Venice. Then we head basically east, first to Bassano del Grappa, on to Asolo, and finally southeast to Treviso.