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Greetings from Dave and Kathy! Here you can follow Dave's travels to London, Paris, and Bordeaux from October 8 to 27, 2017. The name of this trip is "Dégustation*." Dave will be joined by his brother, Robert Ferre, famous labyrinth maker who is Dave's tour guide in Paris and Bordeaux. But just before joining Robert, Dave will be in London for a week to attend concerts and see friends. While Dave is away, Kathy will be in California visiting her brother, Craig, with plans to stay in, and enjoy, La Jolla, CA. |
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Sun |
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The
first day was all travel with a direct flight Tucson > Denver, on
United Airlines (Economy Comfort or you pay for your carry-on bags)
and then direct to Heathrow Airport via Denver > London on British
Airways, arriving the next day. This pix is from a previous visit to
a travel lounge. Because I had 7 hours to wait in Denver, I went to
the United
Airlines Sky Lounge. If you like carrot sticks, this is the place
for you. Entry is $59.
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Mon |
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Everything
went well with the air travel and I arrived at my airbnb
right on time at 2 pm. My hostess was terrific and passed along food,
wine, chocolate, fresh-cut flowers, and keys to the place. After a rest,
then out to explore the neighborhood, finding a great coffee shop, Caffè
Nero, and a Pret
A Manger (Ready to Eat) bakery and sandwich shop. Dinner was at
Byron
Hamburger, then home for a long sleep
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Tues |
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First,
a croissant breakfast and coffee at Pret
A Manger, then some exploring and food shopping and later, lunch
with my friend Eve (pix) at Punjab.
I also went to Eve's flat in Hackney Central and we spent a long time
talking and looking at her archive of Andre
Tchaikowsky items. This continued right up to darkness, after which
I took Bus 55 back to Central London and home via the Tube. I also managed
to break the toilet set in my flat. Umm.
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Wed |
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Once
again Pret
A Manger in the morning, then off on the great toilet seat hunt.
Success! A store in Hammersmith had just what I needed for $30. Then
a late lunch with Anastasia Belina (a biographer of Andre Tchaikowsky)
at the Polish
Club, going with her to Heathrow Airport for her flight to Japan.
After a rest, out for a late supper with Liz Smith of Entertaining:TV,
dining at the Ivy
Brasserie in Kensington. Ben Ben, call Daddy (pix).
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Thurs |
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First,
a visit to Josef
Weinberger music publisher to meet with Sean Gray and Lewis Mitchell.
Next, lunch at Wigmore
Hall with Judy and Michael Arnold, then the Terry Harrison Memorial
Concert featuring pianists András
Schiff and Radu
Lupu (pix). Many famous musicians at the concert including Steven
Kovacavich, Steven
Isserlis, Norma
Fisher and many more. Dinner was with Gerald Kingsley, a student
of Edwin
Fischer, at Spaghetti
House.
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Fri |
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Took
a train to Ipswich,
Suffolk to see my longtime friend Michael Riddall (pix). Mike knew
Andre Tchaikowsky in the early days (1960s) and had plenty of stories.
Mike is also featured in the Andre documentary, Rebel
of the Keys. Now retired, he and his lovely wife, Liz, live in an
attractive retirement center. We also had a great hour together, reading
Mike's poetry. Our lunch at the Mariner's
Restaurant was superb.
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Sat |
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Laundry
today. This airbnb machine does wash and dry, all in one machine, but
it takes time. I opted for the 5-hour cycle; 2 hours wash, 3 hours dry.
Then off to Camden
Passage Saturday market (pix) to find Kathy a vintage 1930s silver
bracelet. Success! Lunch at the Ivy
Brasserie. Home again to pack and in the evening, off to the Southbank
Poetry International Festival to hear a poetry reading by Caroline
Bergvall.
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Sun |
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Off
to Paris today by the Eurostar
train from London. It's just a 2-hour trip and you go under the English
Channel. Robert was there at Gare du Nord, waiting for me. After checking
in to my airbnb,
it was off to Place
d'Italie (pix) for a snack. Next, an organ concert at Église
Saint-Eustache given by organist Baptiste-Florian
Marle-Ouvrard. With perfect weather (sunny, 76 degrees), we found
our dinner place,
La Bocca. Love Paris!
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Mon |
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Our
Sudoku contest started at the Bibliothèque
Sainte-Geneviève (pix). Since non-students can only visit
from 9 am to 10 am, we had to finish the first and second puzzles elsewhere.
Score... doesn't matter. Lunch was at L'As
du Fallafel and coffee at Place
des Vosges. More strolling Paris (sunny, 76 degrees), then home
for a rest. Dinner was at Auberge
Pyrenees Cevennes with my friend,
Paris musicologist Frédéric
Gaussin.
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Tues |
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The
day started with Robert taking me to a special Paris breakfast place,
which was called NoGlu(ten),
but it was actually pretty good. Then to the train station for a 2-hour
TGV
train (200 mph) to Bordeaux in Southern France. Our airbnb
was spectacular and after checking in, we went exploring and bought
tram/bus/boat
passes (pix), which cost $13 a week for seniors. Dinner was at
Comptoir Cuisine,
a small menu but great wines.
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Wed |
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(Kathy's
pix: Queen
Califia's Magical Circle in Escondido, CA, a work of artist, Niki
de Saint Phalle.) A bit of rain today, breakfast was at the Opera
Cafe (next door), then an escorted tour of the city by electric
Tuk Tuk. Next, a tour of our
own, taking Tram B to the end and, Lo, Le
Bistrot de l'Alouette for lunch. Coming back, Bus
4. After a rest, we continued to explore Bordeaux on foot into the
night ending with dinner at
Chai deZ' Amis.
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Thurs |
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Bordeaux
is all about wine so it's fitting that they should have a special showcase
building and here it is, The
City of Wine (pix). We arrived by boat
to the 'la cité du vin" and did our own walking tour of
the various levels, including a very fine restaurant at the 7th level
and a panoramic viewing of Bordeaux city at the 8th level.
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One
stop was the top floor wine tasting room (pix) that had a ceiling of
5,000 wine bottles hung in perfectly curved rows. We didn't do any tasting
here because this was actually the last stop of one of the more expensive
wine tours, and there was no food available as well. The tours were
not recommended so we skipped them.
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Another
stop was the wine store (pix)
that had over 1,800 bottles to choose from. This was a round room, with
floor to ceiling wine choices and an inner circle of more wines. It
wasn't only French wines, but, selected quality wines from other countries
as well, including the USA. Prices ranged from doable to, "are
you kidding?"
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We
took luncheon at Latitude20,
a brasserie-wine bar, which was adjacent to the wine store. Robert ate
lightly but I had the satisfying meat plate (pix), and also indulged
in a wine from appellation Saint-Julien,
a 2009 Chateau
Lagrange prize winning red wine at $21 a glass. Later, Robert had
the Scandinavian plate at
Koeben.
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Fri |
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Robert and I took off in different directions today. My day was chasing
down used CD shops for Andre Tchaikowsky CDs (no luck), visiting the
massive Mollat bookshop,
trying to find a cafe for a baba
au rhum (no luck), visiting the Grand
Hommes complex, and then home for a rest. Along the way I noted
these cooks (pix) preparing a Bordeaux specialty, Canelés.
Dinner at Au
Bouchon des Chartrons. Excellent!
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Sat |
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Another
big wine day, this time via our rental car. The first stop was the ancient
village of Saint-Émilion
(pix), which goes back to prehistoric times with picturesque steep and
narrow streets. There is a wine
route around the village that has no less than 26 wineries you can
visit. No tasting was being offered, however, because it's too late
in the tourist season, and more than a few châteaux gates were
closed.
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For
lunch , we headed out of town to Chateau
la Dominique and it's restaurant La
Terrasse Rouge. The restaurant is on the 2nd floor, providing stunning
views of the surrounding vineyards (pix). The meal was spectacular and
the wine pairings were perfect. We also bought a 2010 Pomerol from nearby
Château Fayat. This area of wineries is called the Right Bank
because they are to the right of the Gironde River.
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Staying
in the Right
Bank, we turned north towards the wine area, Côtes
de Bourg and its many
châteaux. We found that the wonderful Château
de la Rivière (pix) was open but, again, no tasting. But
we did buy a bottle of 2014 Fronsac to take back home. Driving further
towards Bourg, we came to Château
La Croix de Pawlowski where we bought their prize-winning Château
la Croix-Violet, an organic wine from 2015. A great day!
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Sun |
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Off
to the Left
Bank wineries today, passing through an historic wine area like
Château
Palmer, which is close to a golf course but no relation to the golfer.
Lunch at Château
Cordeillan-Bages (pix), taking the fixed-price menu ($75) with wine
pairings; a Château
Turcan Blanc white wine (2015) and a Chateau
Lynch-Bages "Inspiration" red wine (2011). Then back home
to turn in the car and enjoy a baba
au rhum at Comptoir
Cuisine.
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Mon |
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Off
to The Museum
of Contemporary Art... closed on Monday. OK, my favorite cafe...
closed on Monday. OK, to an amusement park (pix) for a crepe. This amusement
park is setup on the Place
Des Quinconces and the fountain honors the Girondins,
a group that was massacred during the French Revolution (1790s). Dinner
was a bit disappointing at Le
Bistrot d'Edouard because service was too fast, but the snails were
good.
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Tues |
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Just
a quick train to Paris and then lunch at Ma
grand-mère m'a dit (My grandmother told me), a vegetarian
restaurant. Then we checked into our hotel, the St.
Charles, in the Paris Butte-aux-Cailles
area. After a rest, we were off again to the Irish
Cultural Center chapel (pix) for a concert of alternative folk,
with two Irish groups, Inni-K
& Cry Monster
Cry. Time didn't allow a late dinner at Chez
Gladines. Crepes instead!
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Wed |
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Breakfast
in Paris then off to London by train. After checking in to my hotel,
Premier
Inn Bankside, it was time for a real meal at Pizza
Express Bankside. Next, was a stroll through the neighborhood, including
the Borough
Market, then a short rest before heading to St.
Paul's Cathedral for Evensong.
Then on to the Royal Festival Hall for a concert by the London
Philharmonic, Andrés Orozco-Estrada conducting. Just wonderful.
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Thurs |
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Breakfast
in London at Gails
Bankside, featuring Halloween "Fingers" (pix). Ummm! Then
some repacking for my flight to Denver on British Airways. With a bit
of time left before heading to the airport, I went for a walking tour
of the Tate
Modern museum area. Then the 9-hour flight went well, arriving in
Denver at about 6 pm local time. Rather than push on to Tucson, I spent
the night at Hampton
Inn by the airport.
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Fri |
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Due
to a non-functioning WiFi system at the Hampton
Inn, it was necessary to use their Business Center, which actually
worked pretty well, but I missed the window of opportunity to get an
early boarding pass for my Southwest flight, direct Denver to Tucson,
and ended up in a center seat. This Hampton should be avoided because
it's just an Airport Hotel. Kathy sent me today's pix, so I know what's
waiting for me!
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* Dégustation
is the careful, appreciative tasting of various foods and wines, focusing
on |
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