The Blairwitch Project

Well ... not THE Blairwitch Project, but we've had a somewhere between fun and chaos experience in the forest while enjoying the Loire valley when we visited Chamboureneauxsomething castle. We wanted to rent a bicycle to roam the castle domain, but we needed two, but we actually only wanted one ... so we ended up with this:

yeah ... the cow poop was on the house

Anyway, as we started travelling at hypersonic speeds through the woods we realised at some point that the map we had was not really that accurate, so we got lost a couple of times. We finally ended up somewhere in the middle of the forest with little idea with regard to where we should go...

And then we found a house with some scary stuff inside ... Ok, ok, maybe I am not really telling you exactly what happened because it wouldn't sound so interesting, but the journey was quite  perillous especially since I haven't ridden a bike in about 20 years. We finally realised that we needed to return the vechicle so we pedalled in a hurry back...

at hypersonic speeds, of course ...

We finally got back and visited the castle and had some more mediocre food. But more on that later ...

Food and Whine in Blois

... or should I say ... in bleah ... because that's what the first contact with the ultra-delicious Loire valley tasted like. So, without any further delay, behold the cown jewel of the Loire valley gastronomic wonders:

 No, I don't know what I was thinking when I ordered that... I was actually expecting to get something else ... something tasty, at least. But it wasn't tasty at all. It was like a horror movie went wrong and then landed on my plate with a desire to scare my belly into oblivion ... Only later I discovered that a bottle of wine was enough to cure the trauma I though would follow me for a long time.

things looked much better after a bottle of wine ...

and so did I ... no?

It was only a bit later that we discovered what I think might just be the best restaurant in the world ... but that's coming up later on ...

Pitstop in Paris

Not so long ago, we took a trip to the wine & food heaven Loire valley... or at least that's what we were expecting it to be. But before we got there it was pretty clear that we can't just pass close to Paris and ignore it ... yup ... it was pitstop time. Because you know what's better than sushi?

Sushi ... in Paris ... and ...

of course, Starbucks in Paris ...

And so on ... you get the idea. It was another really good trip to my favorite place in the world, but I must admit it's barely still hanging on to the top spot. But anyway, we had our share of fun, went to the humongous IMAX and then started on our way.

 I swear this time it was about to roll off.

My belly was ready to be happy.

The Loire Experience

So, what has been cooking? I haven't been able to keep up with current events since I'm ... well ... working ... But enough about that and back to cooking. We've recently and finally been on vacation on the Loire Valley. We had some good food (and some bad food), we drank a lot of wine and visited some castles. It was quite nice and so here comes my new mini-series:

* Pitstop in Paris
* Food and Whine in Blois
* The Blairwitch Project
* Castles, lots of Castles
* Cullinary Jackpot
* Salt&Peppa
* It's a kind of Magic
* Leo's Crib
* Chartres and back

 I'll try to keep up ...