Sancerre

My dear mother arrived in Paris a few days ago, and so far we have been busy busy bees!  shopping, museums, cafes, dinners, cheese, and...  wine!
yesterday we decided to go visit Sancerre.
from wiki:
Sancerre is a medieval hilltop town (ville), commune and canton in the Cher department of central France overlooking the Loire River.  It is noted for its wine.

I went to sancerre a few years ago with a friend.  she knows one of the winemakers very well, so we visit the vineyards and had a merry old time tasting wine.  of course i brought some bottles back to paris, but unfortunately there was no wine left after my first night home.  =(  so with me mother and aunt, we decided to take another trip to restock my cellar.  and it was awesome.  first we visited:

Chateau de Tracy

It's a beautiful chateau that has been in the family since before 1200.  The same family still lives there and they have been making wine since before 1396.  Here you can read about the history of the family and the vineyards.  The guardian was very pleasant, as they are closed on Sundays.  He was very nice and let us taste some wines, and we came away with two cases.  =)  Next on our trip was the:

Domaine Vincent Delaporte

(me, the father of the vineyard, my mum, my auntie)

We had an appointment so we were received very well.  We spent 3 or 4 hours with the vigneron.  He explained to us all different facets of the wine business and culture.  He took us on a tour of the cellar and it was fascinating.

the "pipette" to extract wine for the barrels.  its a barrel of white wine so you need to look closely to see the wine in the tube.

filling the glasses with the pipette.  red wine this time so u can see it better!

looking in the barrel of red wine. 

bottles and bottles of wine waiting to be packaged and shipped off. 

all in all, after our little trip we had 16 cases of wine.  hopefully theyll stay in our cellar a little longer than last time i brought back wine from sancerre...

our trunk jam packed with cartons of wine. 

in the garage....

my uncle putting his bottles away in his "bomb shelter" wine cellar.  (yes he did break one in the process, but shhhhh!)

Deauville - Trouville

so yesterday we went to Deauville and Trouville, to beach towns in Normandy that are very chic.  think of them as the french newport.  newport, RI, not newport beach in CA.  From wikipedia, here's some history:

Deauville is a town and a commune in the Calvados department in the Basse-Normandie region of France.  With its racecourse, harbour, international film festival, marinas, conference centre, villas, Grand Casino and sumptuous hotels, Deauville is regarded as the "queen of the Norman beaches" and one of the most prestigious balneary station of all France. Since the 19th-century, the town of Deauville has been a fashionable holiday resort for the international upper class.

I took a walk on the boardwalk and came across some fun posters...  my favorite poster is the last one.  =)

 

who would have thought that there would be such a classy poster on the boardwalk of this chic beach town?  but i guess it does get the point across =)

i also saw some of the gorgeous houses along the beach...  one of the typical architectural aspects are the "half timbers" and also double gables.   lucky for you, i also took pictures of those!!

so there you have it.  some of the gorgeous beach houses that ornament the normandy beachfront.  i noticed some details while browsing that really surprised me:

 

 

here below is a picture of one of the most expensive and luxurious hotels ind deauville:

The Normandy Barriere Hotel

in the summer, rates go for 500-1000 euros a night.  there are Barriere hotels all throughout france and they are all very luxurious and quite exclusive.  two years ago, pan brought me to the Hotel du Golf Barriere Hotel for our one year anniversary, which is owned by the same group: Lucien Barriere Hotels & Casinos.  it's Barriere's golf resort.

 

the hotel is on the hills above deauville.  you can see in the background deauville and the beach.   which brings me to the next series of pictures...  the beach!!  last but not least, here are some pics of the beach.  when we arrived, it was very sunny, but it became quite cloudy and gray as the day wore on, not making for the best photos, i do apologize!