Category: Travel Tips

Many of our guests enjoy reading about their destination – either in advance of their trip or while traveling – as a way of adding context to their visit. Whether reading a traditional guide book, learning about the history and culture, or simply enjoying a fictional novel set in the destination, a good book can add greatly to your experience. We asked our Tour Managers and staff to recommend books and films which past guests may have enjoyed. The following does not constitute an endorsement of any authors, books or films listed, it is merely a collection of guests’ recommendations.

When you think of French cuisine, you might imagine elegantly trimmed plates with tiny portions served by white-gloved stuffy waiters. That image comes to mind quickly thanks to the haute cuisine movement (literally, “high cooking”) that has a firm grasp on luxury hotels and upscale restaurants throughout Europe. But everyday French cuisine has its roots in a farming peasant culture. For centuries, simple ingredients have been drawn from the earth and prepared together in a kind of culinary alchemy. And every region has its specialty.

Champagne

The cuisine of the Champagne region is heavily influenced by that of Lorraine and Alsace to the east. Wild game such as boar is popular here, as is all manner of ham. You’re likely to find the Breux potato on menus here, too, especially in towns that border Lorraine, as that region’s growing conditions for the root vegetable are considered among the best in the world. Smoked bacon is used in many dishes, including the famous quiche Lorraine. Alsatian influence includes German-style cuisine, including choucroute, the French version of sauerkraut, and tarte flambee, a kind of white-cheese and bacon flatbread with onion.

But Champagne is best known, of course, for its sparkling wine. One of its most famous streets is in Epernay, the Avenue de Champagne. Residents call it the most expensive street in the world for the millions of champagne bottles stored in cellars beneath the buildings that belong to the likes of Moet et Chandon and Mercier. The region’s dedication to bubbly is visible during the most casual of drives into the province; more than 60% of Champagne’s terrain is used in agriculture. From this fertile land, hundreds of millions of bottles of champagne are produced.

Brittany

The peninsula-like Brittany is surrounded by the sea – the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Bay of Biscay. So as you can imagine, seafood is an important part of its cuisine, especially mussels and oysters. Fish stew, known locally as cotriade, is quite popular, made with potatoes and often poured over a toasted baguette. By some accounts, the beurre blanc sauce, a hollandaise-like sauce made with butter and white wine, was invented here and is often served with fish as well. Farm-based dishes are also prevalent, from kig ha farz, a stewed pork or beef with buckwheat dumplings, to gallette, a crusty cake filled with savory fillings.

With its proximity to the sea, Brittany is also a large producer of salt. This may seem a small matter, but it is used to prepare much of the cuisine beloved by local Bretons. The mineral is used to make butter, which in turn is used to prepare the region’s famous pastries such as kouign amann, or butter cake, and far Breton, similar to a sweet Yorkshire pudding. And you cannot step into a shop in Brittany without being tempted by the quaint iron boxes that contain the area’s ubiquitous biscuits, prepared with – you guessed it – salted butter.

Loire

It should come as no surprise that the Loire Valley, “the Garden of France,” offers up a huge variety of fruits and vegetables. Cherries are harvested here to satisfy a local appetite for Guignolet liqueur. Belle Angevine pears grow sweet and juicy. And the region’s strawberries and melons are hard to pass by. Like in Brittany, seafood is often served in beurre blanc sauce, a mixture of butter and white wine. Wild game, beef, and poultry are raised here. And it’s common to find young vegetables such as asparagus and artichoke served on your plate, perhaps alongside champignons de Paris, the region’s beloved mushrooms.

Loire wines lean toward the fruity side, with fresh flavors. Buttery white Vouvray, crisp Sauvignon Blanc with hints of grapefruit and gooseberry, smooth and light Pinot Noir, and sparkling Cremant are just four of the most popular grapes grown here along the meandering Loire River.

Normandy

Seafood takes center stage in Normandy. Oysters, scallops, and mussels are cultivated on the coast in huge numbers and shipped to the rest of the country. Sea bass, monkfish, and sole are common, served in sauces rich with butter. Apple trees grow in abundance here, too, and the fruit is used in many dishes, from mussels cooked in apples and cream to partridge flamed with apples.

For something with a kick, locals might sip kir normand, a shot or so of crème de cassis with apple cider. But Normandy might best be known for its Calvados, the apple brandy produced only in this part of the world. As for dessert, Normandy’s version of the apple tart, the Tarte Tatin, shouldn’t be missed – though even the locals often miss the correct pronunciation, calling it “tan tan tan tan” in local dialect.

Standing outside the Roman Coliseum, you can almost hear the echoes of ancient crowds roaring through the ages. The mammoth amphitheater is one of the empire’s many architectural achievements whose remains lend an unparalleled historic depth to today’s Rome. This arena stands four stories tall and is graced by 80 entrance arches. In its day, it could accommodate a crowd of 50,000 spectators who rooted for man to slay beast, for beast to slay man, or for men to slay each other. The arena’s bowl could even be flooded with water so that Roman citizens could witness mock sea battles.

It’s hard to believe that such a place could have been imagined in the ancient world, never mind constructed. That’s the wonder of exploring the millennia-old sites of Rome. Their power and their glory transcend the city itself, rising above today’s modern bustle to whisper and shout all at once that this is where a great arc of history began.

The past is palpable here. Along the byways of the ancient Forum—called by historians the most celebrated meeting place in the world and in all of history—triumphal processions marched to proclaim Rome’s latest military victory … public speakers rattled on about the latest current events … senators debated the latest laws … and merchants traded goods with vendors from faraway lands. Of course, it’s not just the social and political buzz of history that makes this place so spectacular; the Roman Forum is a living museum of architectural splendor. 

The Temple of Saturn is, for many visitors, the most prominent of the remains. Rome’s trusted financiers walked through its eight towering columns—all that remains of the once-grand building—to gain access to the city’s treasury of gold and silver. Saturn was the logical god to look over it all because he ruled during the Golden Age and was closely associated with wealth.

Also impressive, the Arch of Septimus Severus, a hulking and incredibly preserved structure, has stood here since its completion in the year 203. It commemorated the victory of Severus over the Parthians. It is so well preserved for two reasons: First, it was incorporated into the structure of a Christian church by Pope Innocent III in 1199. When the church moved, the arch stayed. Second, in the Middle Ages, flooding deposited debris and silt into the small valley that the Forum occupies, leaving the arch half-buried.

There’s another monument to Rome’s rich past that is admittedly harder to find. (Here’s a hint: It’s next to Arch of Septimus Severus.) The Umbilicus Urbis Romae, or Navel of the City of Rome, is little more than a plaque that marks the symbolic city center. You might think such a marker insignificant, but to ancient Romans it meant everything. Rome was, after all, the center of the world. And so distances to and from every outpost of the Roman Empire started and ended at this point. All roads did indeed lead to Rome.

One road—the Via Triumphalis—led to the Navel of Rome via the magnificent Arch of Constantine. This remarkable gate, adorned with bas reliefs, commemorates Emperor Constantine’s defeat in the Battle of Milvian Bridge in the year 312. The arch was built to straddle the Via Triumphalis, the road on which emperors made their ceremonial entrance into the city after a victory. The structure was so admired that it served as the inspiration for arches built all over the world in the coming centuries.

The Pantheon predates the arch by at least 200 years, yet it is the most complete building from ancient Rome. This majestic monument to Roman engineering was originally built as a temple to all the gods of ancient Rome. Today, it serves as a church, making it one of the city’s oldest structures in continuous use. Its circular room is topped by the world’s largest unreinforced concrete dome. The oculus at the apex of the dome bathes the rotunda in rays of sunlight. The massive gray-granite columns on the rectangular porch were quarried in Egypt, transported here down the Nile River, across the Mediterranean Sea, and up the Tiber River. 

It’s easy to see why all roads lead to ancient Rome. Ingenuity seems to have been born here, and inspiration lives in the brilliance of its architecture 2,000 years later.