Let's start with a drink, always the best way to start IMO!
I always have lists going with places I want to check out in cities around the globe. I don't always know where I read about a place or who recommended it to me, as was the case when I suggested checking out the rooftop bar at Hotel Dame des Arts to my BFF Forest. But we thought it was odd that she wasn't familiar since she worked in the cocktail industry.
Off we went before dinner one night, and were told that the rooftop wasn't open since it was winter. We decided to stay anyway and have a drink in the cute restaurant/bar of the little hotel. As we sat there we both had the feeling that we had been here before. We started to search online for what the hotel had been before and found that it was the old Holiday Inn with incredible rooftop views of the Eiffel Tower where Forest had taken me years before!
The waiter invited us to take our cocktails up to the rooftop even though there wasn't anyone working up there, so we bundled up and enjoyed the entire terrace and views all to ourselves.
Next on my list was dinner of oysters at Huitrerie Regis. Again, I couldn't remember where I had read about it but Forest was game so we walked over to the 6th to find the address. When we came upon the TINY shop Forest laughed and told me that she had passed this place once and meant to come back to try it.
There are only about 6 tables and a small selection of the oysters they feel are the best at the time. We had a great dinner and great wine. The oysters here were served both with butter, as is pretty normal in France, and also Baume de Bouteville balsamic vinegar, made in French cognac barrels, standing in for the more typical mignonette. It was delicious!
After dinner, Forest took me to a little hotel, tucked back off the street and looking like it was from a Wes Anderson movie. Hotel de l'Abbaye had indeed been a home for nuns in the mid 17th century before being converted to a hotel in the 1990's.
We enjoyed a nightcap in the sweet little bar area, but be advised that normally this is only open to guests of the hotel. We just feigned innocence.
One afternoon we had lunch at a very traditional cafe near her place. There were no tourists at the L'Os à Moelle, and our meal started with lovely little amuse soups, served gratis, before my hearty main of duck. We finished with cheese bien sûr.
Late that afternoon, after some spa time at Hotel Crillon, Forest and I met our friend Matt at the hotel's uber ritzy Les Ambassadeurs Bar. This bar is such a stunner!
But it's not just for looks, the drinks are excellent. And spendy! The "Pear", their take on an Old Fashioned with Michter's bourbon, calvados, sauternes, and pear juice was delicious and €29!
That night we walked over to the restaurant Chez Rene in the 5th. I had first eaten here with my mom in 1999 while we were staying just blocks away. My mom liked it so much, and they treated us so well, that we went twice on our 10-day trip. Then a couple of years ago, my friend Albert posted about his dinner here! I was surprised as this isn't a trendy spot but he said it's on his semi-regular rotation. I really wanted to go back and Forest and our friend Cli said they would be up for it.
Well the girls thought it was great and that is high praise as they both live in the city and eat at MANY cafés. The restaurant was full and bustling and obviously very loved by its regulars. The food was still classic and wonderful and the service still kind. Cli's only complaint was that they brought the bill when we were done instead of asking if we wanted to order more wine. Which we did and then basically closed the place down! It was really a sweet trip down memory lane made even better by sharing it with friends.
Another afternoon I stopped into another neighborhood café, close by Forest's and a fave of another friend, A la Tour Eiffel. I enjoyed a simple lunch of duck confit and roast potatoes. What can I say? I love the classics!
Bar Nouveau had opened a few months before I was in town and was getting all the love so we went early one evening (there are only 8 seats upstairs so plan accordingly). The menu is also tiny with just 6 drinks listed. We had time for a couple of rounds and everything we had was wonderful. My favorite was their take on the Ramos Fizz made with vanilla yogurt and peated whiskey. They unapologetically use a milkshake machine to mix the cocktail for a full 3 minutes.
Dinner that evening was at Petrelle, my first time. The restaurant has been around for 20 years, and under its old chef was a favorite of celebs like Madonna and Mick Jagger. He sold it to sommelier Luca Danti and chef Lucie Boursier-Mougenot years ago and Forest and I were both excited to try it out.
They only serve a 4-course tasting menu, with an optional 5th choice, which is great for me, and the room is cozy and dim with lots of antiques and candles. When we were seated we were amongst the only one's in the room and I think we were both a little worried, but within an hour the restaurant was completely full.
We had such a fantastic meal and loved all our courses including a wonderful dish of amberjack in tigre de leche with Meyer lemon, pasta "candies" with roasted squash and bisque with saffron foam, a juicy cut of pork with candied leeks and a broth made of seaweed. A generous plate of cheese followed and then a small deconstructed apple tart. Everything was excellent. We also had a great conversation with Danti about a few of his wines and when we inquired about one he was pouring by the glass for another table he gifted us the remainder of the bottle. I really can't recommend Petrelle highly enough!
Without a doubt the highlight meal of this trip was lunch at the famed 1-Michelin star Tour d'Argent. Originally opened as an inn in 1582, during Henry III's reign, it evolved into a fine dining establishment late in the 16th century when Henry IV started using a fork to eat at the inn (forks having been used for serving only in France until then).
In the 1890s the restaurant was owned by Frédéric Delair who hosted the Wright Brothers for dinner! In 1911 the restaurant was purchased by André Terrail, and in 1947 he handed it over to his son Claude, and in 2006 after Claud's death, his son André took it over. The restaurant was closed in early 2022 for a huge renovation and had just reopened 6 months prior to our lunch. Part of the renovation included adding a lovely ground floor bar which is where we started.
Bar des Maillets d'Argent, named after Claude's polo team, welcomed us with complimentary mini cocktails and amuse bouche mini polo balls on a dish looking like polo turf. Then André came out and introduced himself to Forest and talked to her all about the bar and the concept. The bar area is also filled with cases holding all sorts of family and restaurant history. It's a great spot!
When it was time for our lunch we were led through a door disguised as a paneled wall, down a little hall, also with cases of memorabilia, and into an elevator waiting to take us to the 6th floor restaurant. The floor to ceiling windows have views of the Seine, Notre-Dame and the Ile Saint-Louis. It's fantastic!
Our table was set with a heavy glass duck paperweight, silver goblets and plate chargers. The entire restaurant seemed new and shiny! We started with perfectly poured rosé Champagne (by our possibly hungover young server) followed by some lovely amuse bouche.
At lunch they serve a wonderful 4-course menu so really the only thing we had to was pick a wine. Not so easy though with their famous cellar of nearly 300,000 bottles!!! Holy hell, the wine menu was the largest I have ever seen! We finally settled on a 2005 Saumur from Château de Villeneuve since we are both fans of Chenin Blanc from the Loire.
First course was a silky mushroom soup, poured directly into monogrammed china bowls. Second course was "Egg Mystery" a signature dish of sous vide egg, coated with breadcrumbs and then surrounded by sauce and shaved black truffles! Woah!
Third course was a perfectly cooked piece of bass with a foam sauce that was so airy! A sprinkling of various seeds lended great texture to contrast. And of course the fourth course was the dish the restaurant is most famous for, "Canard à la Presse".
The dish, created in 1890 by the owner at the time Frédéric Delair, uses a specific process for the pressed duck, and is served with sauces and garnishes based on the season. Delair also started getting the ducks from just one family farm, Maison Burgaud in Challans, on the west coast of France. And he started the tradition of numbering each duck served. Customers get a little card or certificate, mine was 1,182,459! That's a lot of ducks all still coming from the same family!
It was all fantastic; the food, the service, the people watching, the newly renovated room (google some photos of the old decor! Hello grandma!), and the million dollar views. We finished with a lovely selection of cheeses off of their cart, some more rosé Champagne, two dessert dishes (one a light sorbet and the other a chocolate & pear combo), then a small platter of chocolate mignardises.
We were almost the last ones in the dining room and when the bill finally arrived were were surprised and thrilled to see the hand written note from André letting us know it was on him! Incredibly generous! He was very excited that Forest was there and really valued her opinion.
One of the servers then took us on a tour of the rooftop, which has little tables and chairs, and looks like the perfect spot for a sunset cocktail. And on our way down in the elevator they also told us that there is an apartment for rent. So basically you don't ever have to leave the Tower! We chose to extend our stay with a few cognacs back in the bar (which they also comped).
Early the next morning I was in an Uber to CDG in A LOT of traffic (1 full hour on the road) but once at the airport I was checked into my biz class flight on Air France and thru security in 15 minutes total. The lounge in T2 is really basic, especially in the morning with not even Champagne on offer, so I did a bit of duty free shopping and then had a short flight to Heathrow. Even on this short hop, AF biz breakfast was a poached egg in tomato sauce, a wedge of Cantel, fromage blanc, croissants, and jam!
One thing about using points to fly is that a lot of time there isn't a direct flight available. And since I really try to only fly business when going international that makes picking slimmer. I would be having a 6-hour layover in LHR. Some might cringe but Heathrow is such a madhouse that as my friend Albert said, "I hope that gives you enough time to transfer!" ha!
I spent most of my time in the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse Lounge, which is easily in my top 5 fave lounges in the world. I sat in the restaurant and enjoyed a full service lunch of a cute sausage roll and champagne.
After lunch I went to the bar area and relaxed with more champagne for a bit before also hitting the duty free shops on my way to my boarding gate. I flew Delta One back to Seattle on their A330-900. The Suite was very nice and had lots of room and lots of privacy with the door completely closed.
The service, food, and wine was all very good but they don't give you pajamas or put mattresses on the layflats like many other airlines do! So it was very good for me but not excellent. Bonus points for serving high tea before landing though!
When I saw that the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris was putting on a retrospective of Mark Rothko I really wanted to go- I had never been to that venue and Rothko is one of my favorite American artists. The exhibit only went from the end of 2023 until April 2024 and I already had multiple trips booked during that time and the budget was drained. But then Air France had a sale on flights booked with mileage and then Chase had a 25% transfer bonus to Air France! I found a flight from Seattle to Paris in Business class for just 41,250 miles. So I transfered 33,000 points from Chase & was awarded 8,250 more and paid $202 in taxes and fees and viola! Booked to go see Rothko and the BFF!
The day of my trip I had a text saying my flight would be delayed 6 hours!! Luckily I use TripIt for all my travels and it alerted me that I should be qualified for compensation on any delays on a European carrier of more than 3 hours. While I hung out in the Amex Centurion Lounge and then the Delta Lounge at SeaTac I filed my claims online and included my Lyft cost since originally a friend was going to drive me to the airport. $717 ($67 for Lyft and $650 for the delay) was deposited in my bank account about 2 weeks after I got home.
As I had taken advantage of the same sale for my return and found a 30% transfer bonus with Amex, I booked Delta One (thru Air France) for 75,000 but only had to transfer 58,000 & pay $288 for taxes and fees. So with the flight delay compensation I actually made $160! Gotta love that!
Also if you are at SeaTac and have to choose between the Amex Centurion Lounge or the Delta Lounge I will tell you that Amex has much better drinks and bartenders while Delta has better food quality. IMO.
My Air France flight was on an older Boeing 787-9 but biz class still had a semi-private "pod", especially as I had a window seat which is a solo seat. Pro tip, when choosing a window seat pay attention to if the seat is angled the aisle or the window, facing the window gives you the max privacy, in this case it was the odd numbered rows.
Compared to other business class, this was pretty basic. No mattress, pj's or even slippers!! There was a small amenity kit handed out after we took off and of course it was a lie-flat seat. The best part of Air France is that the Champagne flows freely (real Champagne) and the food is always great! My meal consisted of scallop ceviche, lobster salad, prime rib with demi-glace and roasted mushrooms, and a lovely Opera cake for dessert. Oh and ABK6 VSOP Single Estate Cognac. Of course!
In Paris, Forest and I had timed tickets for the Mark Rothko exhibit and arrived out in the Bois du Boulogne just a bit before our entry. From what I understand, the show was completely sold out. It was the first dedicated exhibit in France since 1999. There were 115 works from the National Gallery of Art and the Phillips Collection, both in WA DC, the Tate in London, and from private collections, including Rothko's private family collection.
First off this building, instantly recognizable as a design by Frank Gehry, is stunning!
The exhibit was spread throughout the LV building and was organized in chronological order, starting with paintings from the 1930's including a self-portrait and other portraits. I had never seen any of his very early art so it was surprising!
In the early 40's he decided to move to abstraction and surrealism because he thought he wasn't good at figures.
By the mid to late 40's he was fully into the multi-forms of color he is known for.
Over the course of the 11 galleries you could really see his progression through shapes and colors. I was excited to see the entire Tate Gallery collection from its dedicated "Rothko room". I've seen these in London multiple times and the deep reds are just so striking!
But I hadn't seen the Phillips Collection's pieces so to see that collection was awesome, especially as you could really compare the works with different years, etc.
One of the last rooms had a selection of his very dark paintings paired with sculpturist Giacometti’s tall figures. Such a fantastic combination!
I find his work very powerful; the color always feels like it is saturating my eyes & filling my head. Rothko felt that color could communicate emotions like fear, joy, and depression and I'd add wonder to that list. That is what I felt the first time I saw one of his pieces and it's what I still generally feel. I was very happy to have made it to this.
We also had a wonderful visit to the YSL museum one morning. From 1974 to 2002 this mansion was the fashion house of Yves Saint Laurent. In 2017 the haute couture HQ was reopened as a museum to give the public an opportunity to explore the designer's history and creations.
Entering the mansion, we were invited up the beautiful staircase and into the designer's reception room where once clients were met; now filled with lots of his small sketches, photos, and paintings. From here we followed the progression into the special exhibit called Sheer: The diaphanous creations of Yves Saint Laurent which was a multi-space collection of his work exploring different ideas and examples of the theme.
The first gallery held the obvious; creations with lace, tuile, organza, and other sheer fabrics. Stunning and intricate work, also daring and revealing silhouettes including the first "see-through" blouse he created in 1968.
We continued upstairs to another gallery filled with beautiful dresses made of soft flowy fabrics. And into the dressmaking rooms where patterns were traced and transparency is showcased by the detailed stitching of these works of art.
Pieces by other artists, such as Anne Bourse, Man Ray, and Picabia were also on exhibit throughout the mansion echoing the "sheer" theme. The final examples were some incredible wedding dresses.
The museum, with it's collection of 5,000 garments and 15,000 accessories, most chosen personally by YSL for the museum, is meant to be mostly a rotating stage for special themed exhibits, which is great as you will always have something new to explore. There are some rooms in the mansion that seem to be permanent like the reception, a small room with a film about his life, and his studio, which was just amazing to walk through.
The whole experience was highly enjoyable!
After all of that art, we needed culture of a different kind one afternoon. You might think that spending a day at the Hôtel de Crillon spa can't be compared to going to a museum, but this 18th-century palace, right across from the Place de la Concorde, has so much history that I beg to differ.
While swimming in the beautiful indoor lap pool with its gold-tiled bottom you can think about how King Louis XV commissioned the building in 1758. And while relaxing is a cozy robe while sipping champagne you can image the finished palace being purchased by the Crillon family 1788.
And while enjoying a decadent massage you can think about when the home was confiscated in 1791 during the French Revolution and was lived in by King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette!
By the way if you are looking to treat yourself I highly recommend the spa at the Crillon, a stunning Rosewood property.
Having been to Paris over 20 times, it's nice to take a little side trip and explore other areas. And with so many destinations and so many fast trains, it is very easy to get away for a night and even see a tiny country!
Neither Forest or I had been to Luxembourg so decided to do exactly that last February. The morning after I arrived in Paris we boarded our train at Gare de l'Est, made our own mimosas in our seats, and had a relaxing 3 hour ride to Luxembourg City, Luxembourg (country #58 for me).
Luxembourg City is the capital and main city in the country of just under 700,000 people (~137,000 in the capital). Generally if people say Luxembourg they are referring to the city. The official language is Luxembourgish but most everyone spoke French and German also. It is the only Grand Duchy country in the world, meaning its ruler is a monarch bearing the title of Grand Duke or Grand Duchess. In the past there were up to 14 Grand Duchies including Tuscany, Finland, Frankfort, Baden and Transylvania.
Luxembourg offers free public transportation around the city so from the train station we jumped on a tram and headed to Le Bouquet Garni for our lunch reservations. This was a very historic restaurant in the center (it has since closed sadly) in a wonderful old building with exposed wooden beams, fireplace, and view of the Grand Duke's palace next door.
We ordered the set 3-course menu along with a lovely Pinot Blanc from the Luxembourg region of Moselle. I'm pretty sure I had never had that grape before, and it was for sure my first Luxembourg wine!
After lunch we walked to Le Royal Hotel and checked into our double room. The brutalist designed hotel was very much geared towards business clientele, but it was a good price and very close to the town center.
We dropped our bags and headed back out to explore; the town is super small so it didn't take us long! Passing an art gallery with some interesting work in the window, we went inside and ended up meeting and chatting with local artist Pablo Schwickert who was taking a break from live painting.
It was dusk as we walked thru the old town, called Ville Haute, and I found the buildings, big squares, and cobblestoned streets to be very charming. And clean!
Ville Haute was once just a small fort built in the 10th century on a natural rocky hill. Over time the fortress was expanded and reinforced and the settlement continued to grow around it. Today the entire area is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
We walked through quiet and narrow streets to Dipso Wine Bar, which specializes in wines from Luxembourg but carries a selection from all over. Inside the old building the ceilings were low and the room dim, the service was super friendly and educational, and we had a great time trying some more local wine and asking for other recommendations.
One of the recommendations was Bellamy Bar, just a few doors down. We stopped in for a glass of the Cremant Luxembourg, while having a conversation about all of the European regions who make cremant, before making our way to Shinzo Bar.
We were ready for some cocktails and the ones at Shinzo were quite good, and quite good looking. We also had some bar snacks which were fine. The bar itself is very pretty, with gorgeous custom wallpaper and plush bar stools and seemed to be a popular spot.
Back at our hotel we stopped in the bar for a nightcap but had to take them to our room as the bar smelled so strongly of cigar smoke I was about ready to gag! Our room had been turned down and chocolate coins with an image of the Luxembourg coat of arms were on our pillows. Cute!
Our train back to Paris wasn't until 6:30pm so we had a full day to continue exploring. After checking out and leaving our bags at the front desk we grabbed a (free) bus and got off where we could walk and take in views of the Red Bridge and the city below.
From these viewpoints you can really see how deep the canyon at the bottom of the plateau is and how much the locals probably appreciate being able to drive or walk across!
From here we walked towards the city's famous Bock Casements; a series of underground tunnels and weapons' platforms that also were part of the original footprint of the fortress built in 1745.
The tunnels are really interesting but for me the views all around the valley really stole the show. You can see the Adolphe Bridge from here too.
Walking back into the Old Town from this area gives you a very different perspective of the upper and lower towns.
We walked past the Palais Grand-Ducal and stopped into a few souvenir shops to take a look at all things plastered with the royal family's face before stopping for lunch.
I really love trying traditional dishes whenever I travel so in Luxembourg I chose the restaurant Um Dierfgen. We had a glass of the local white wine while waiting for our table; the restaurant was very busy with a lot of regulars so it was good we had made a ressie.
It's a cute place with a menu full of comfort foods, lots of creamy sauces, potatoes, ham, stews, etc. I ordered the kniddelen mat speck or dumplings with lardon/bacon in a creamy white sauce. It was quite good, it was also quite heavy!
I had planned to do some shopping after lunch but as it was Sunday a lot of places were closed. We wandered around a bit and decided to check out Urban which was another cafe that had been recommended to us and is open daily. It was very busy with locals and we could only get seated in the back bar area so we just had a glass of wine and left.
Being close to our hotel we grabbed our bags and then met a friend of Forest's at a very cute cocktail stop called Paname. Quick side note, I did not know that Paname is French slang for Paris! Anyway the cocktails here were great and it was nice talking to a local about their home.
And that was it! We walked a short way to the train station, which looks a bit like a church and was all lit up. Inside we grabbed some wine and sandwiches to eat on the train. I loved this little getaway to Europe's 6th smallest country. Luxembourg has got a ton of history, is very pretty, and wasn't crowded. Those all score an A with me.
In just over 2 hours we were back in Paris and mixing up martinis in Forest's apartment.
I hadn't been to the Cayuse annual release weekend party since before Covid so I was really looking forward to it! I invited a couple of friends from our wine group to join me for the weekend, driving over on Friday afternoon, and we were all surprised to have snow while going over Snoqualmie Pass! In April!
First stop, Yakima for Mexican lunch! We chose Taqueria Rolly's for tacos inside their fun retrofitted school bus. Good stuff!
We rolled into the Marriott in Walla Walla with not a lot of time to get cleaned up for dinner and get back on the road. Our dinner reservations were at 5:30 at Bar Bacetto in Waitsburg which is about a 30 min drive away. 5:30 is not my preferred dinner time but reservations are hard to get here!
Waitsburg is so cute and very, very, quiet!
We had great seats right up at the counter and had to restrain ourselves from just ordering everything as it all sounded, and smelled, so good. In the end we had 4 dishes between 3 of us plus some dessert. I highly recommend Bar Bacatto, even after a long drive over the mountains!
Back in town, I parked the car at the hotel and we walked over to Passatempo for a couple of cocktails. I've drank here multiple times but still haven't had dinner. Will have to rectify that!
By the time I rsvp'd for my Cayuse party tickets there weren't a lot of time slots left so we ended up going at 10am. And it ended up being a great choice! It gave us time to taste everything and graze through all the small bites provided by one of my favorite Seattle restaurants Lark. And it wasn't crazy busy, or crazy tipsy yet!
When we were in line to enter we actually ran into Chef Sundstrom and he invited us downstairs to check out the catering prep and say hi to everyone. Downstairs was actually in Cayuse's barrel cellar, which was very cool!
We were at the party for a little over an hour and then hit the road for some new-to-me winery tastings. First up was Devona. It took us a while to find the entrance but we were so glad we did! These wines were just lovely! Winemaker and owner John Abbott makes wines from both Oregon and Washington. We tasted their pinot noir and chardonnays (merlot and cab are poured during the fall release) and I absolutely loved both the pinots. Highly recommend a stop here and you do need to contact them to reserve.
Next up was Devium, not too far down the road (both of these are in the airport district), and also requires an appointment. Devium had been recommended to us by a few friends so we were excited to try. But as soon as we walked in we were all a bit put off.
As it was Cayuse weekend there were a lot of people in town ready to party, but it seemed that almost everyone at Devium was more that a bit tipsy. And loud! Now that isn't necessarily the winery's fault, except that as we started tasted we realized there were no dump buckets anywhere. And we when asked for one they seemed quite put out. So maybe it was...
But besides the party atmosphere, I honestly just did not like the wines. And winemaker/ owner Keith Johnson would not be surprised by that as he is purposefully making very different styles. Unfiltered and funky; if those words are part of your wine love language than you might be a fan.
Back in town we grabbed delicious burgers from The Ice-Burg and then walked to the downtown area. We had a great time at new-to-me Time & Direction, the tasting room and the folks working are super fun and the wines were all interesting in a good way!
We all bought a couple of bottles and asked if we could pick them up in the morning, as we were on our way to an early dinner in town and didn't want to be walking around with our wine all night. Turns out they offer delivery depending on where you are staying! Awesome!
It was a short walk over to Brassiere 4 for a lovely bistro dinner capped off with nightcaps before walking back to the hotel.
In the morning we stopped by Bacon & Eggs for breakfast before hitting the road. It's always been delicious in the past but this time all of our dishes were either over salted, luke warm, or both. Not sure if that was a one-off or not.
The required stop at Los Hernandez in Union Gap was made to grab tamales for our freezers. They had nopale which I hadn't tried (theirs) before and they were delicious!
And then we were back in Seattle with a trunk full of wine and tamales :)
