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Now that Bruno and I have moved to the city, “What’s Cooking in France” has become “What’s Cooking in Bordeaux” … but our e-mail has stayed the same: whatscookinginfrance@gmail.com

Our new home is smaller than our previous country house, La Forge, but we still have room for lots of children and grandchildren to visit. Eventually, we will have a B&B guest room as well.

In the meantime, we are proposing that our “cooking” guests enjoy

• a calm, three-night stay in the countyside of Entre Deux Mers at the beautiful Chateau de Castelneau, where we have long taken our visitors to enjoy Loïc’s priceless stories of his chateau and Bordeaux wines.

OR

• a stay with lovely hosts in a renovated and rebuilt “échoppe,” one of Bordeaux’s typical two-story homes built in the 1900s. La Ferrand is a city B&B just a few streets from our new home and Yvonne, the owner, is the perfect addition to my new adventure of What’s Cooking in Bordeaux.

I will continue to help you organize your stay in Bordeaux and introduce you to some of our old favorites as well as new-found favorite places. We can propose cooking classes both in the city and in the country. We offer classes, with dinner included, in the kitchen of our renovated 14th century water mill, as well as in the Bordeaux apartment of a talented young private chef.

More details for 2020’s dates will be published soon…

Come stay at La Forge, my French country home between Bordeaux and St Emilion, meet my French gardening friends, visit their wonderful gardens, and participate in passionate conversations about the “sometimes” remarkable results of “digging in the dirt.” Gardens is
the theme of the week but the most important part of your six-day stay in our southwest region is meeting the French and getting an insider’s view of French life, both in the
country and in the lovely city of Bordeaux.
Six days of garden visits and garden talk in a small group of six guests (plus your guide/interpreter), with Bordeaux wines and delicious local food … you’ll feel like you belong here.
The all-inclusive price – from when we pick you up at the airport to when we take you back – is $2500. Ground transportation (from the Bordeaux airport or train station), lodgings, meals, wines, and all visits are included in the price … you just have to get here. The Bordeaux airport has flights from Paris or, if you’re planning to spend a few days in Paris first, you might want to take the fast train, the TGV, that gets you to nearby Libourne in 3-1/2 hours.
That first afternoon we’ll visit the arboretum « le Jardin de la Souloire » and have dinner with the owner and createur, Marie José Dégas, a remarkable gardener.
The following days we’ll have gourmet picnics, garden lunches, dinners in our 14th-century watermill and an 18th-century chateau … and perhaps a cooking or pastry
class as well.

Jardin de la Souloire
(10 minutes away): You’ll
enjoy seeing fifty years of
landscaping and planting on
a 20-acre site of a watermill
with ponds and woodlands.

Jardin des Etamines (10 minutes away):
We’ll visit with the owner and creator of
this 10-year-old garden, Jean-Pierre
Madjansk. With its many clever ideas and
a huge variety of plants, this treasure
reflects the passion of its gardener, Jean-
Pierre.
Jardin du Clozet (20 minutes away):
On the slopes of Floirac, this most original
garden harmoniously blends both Italian
and Oriental styles. First planted in 1960, it
mirrors the choices of three generations of
gardeners. Cypresses are used as
structural elements and, at the same time,
reinforce the symmetry of the garden.

Parc Botanique de Bordeaux (30 min
away): This recently planted garden shows
the diversity of the Aquitaine landscape
and flora. It was imagined by Catherine
Mosbach of the American Society of
Landscape Architects International and the
French architect Françoise-Hélène Jourda,
a pioneer in ecological architecture.

After the visit we’ll have lunch in Bordeaux and have some time to visit this beautiful city: a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Jardin du Fond de l’Or (45 minutes
away): Owner and gardener Jacques
Lubet has a background as a ceramic
artist and has devoted all of his time to
transforming a barren plot in the back of a
simple house into an exotic wonderland,
working with his wife and two sons, one a
cloud-tree pruner and the other tree
trimmer and sculptor.

Les jardins du manoir d’Eyrignac (2 hours away): This is a truly amazing boxwood garden, sculpted and passed down in the same family from the 18th century.
Les jardins de Sardy (1 hour away, on the way to Eyrignac): This private family garden was originally designed in the1930s and has been revitalized and brought back into full
bloom by the son of the garden’s creator.

Our farewell dinner and wine tasting will be at the beautiful 18th-century family home of Diane and Loïc de Roquefeuil,
the Chateau de Castelneau.

The next morning you’ll have breakfast
in our garden, enjoy relaxing with your
fellow gardener guests, and then we’ll
accompany you to the airport or train
station to be on you way home to your
own wonderful garden … or perhaps a bit
more traveling here in France.

For any more details please contact me.
I’ll be happy to tell you more about this very personalized tour that I have put together for your pleasure … and mine!

Carol de Montrichard Dalléas
whatscookinginfrance@gmail.com
telephone: 0033 0631 8565 20 skype: laforgedm
whatscookinginfrance.com
June 2017 French Garden Tour
whatscookinginfrance.com

The cottage is suitable for people with limited mobility, however, it is not suitable for large electric wheelchairs.  Please contact us to discuss your requirements and to assess the suitability for you. One thing is sure we’ve kept it as charming as it ever was and have even improved it with a new terrace for meals and outdoor cooking as well as a “hard path” leading out to the road to the “new” (back in the 14th century) water mill: route du Moulin Neuf

work in progress last spring for the hard path that has now blended into the landscape

more detailed inside photos are available upon request. The other photos on this website of the cottage interior have not changed… except we’ve eliminated the two steps at the entrance !

Reserve at whatscookinginfrance@gmail.com All the details in my last post.

Jardin d’Eyrignac in the Dordogne where we’ll have a private visit and a delicious garden lunch…tempting isn’t it !

You’ll also enjoy gardens like mine…this was taken today so it won’t quite look like this in June. It is simple, but my guests find it quite lovely….and I hope you will as well.

Come stay at our home, meet my French gardening friends, visit their wonderful properties, and hear their advice about other remarkable gardening sites in our southwest region. Gardens are the theme of the week but the most important parts of your visit will be meeting the French; getting an insider’s view of their passion for landscaping, from the largest countryside property to the tiniest plot of suburban land; and discovering the UNESCO Heritage sites of Bordeaux and St. Emilion, as well as other small villages in the area.

Five days of garden visits and garden talk, along with Bordeaux wines, delicious local food, and good company…you’ll feel like you belong here.

The first tour will be at the end of June 2016 with my American gardener friend and colleague Kay Churchill. She has been here before and can tell you how tempting it is to come back again.

The all-inclusive price, from the moment we pick you up at the airport until we take you back, is $2500 (price calculated for 5 guests). Ground transportation from the Bordeaux airport or train station, lodgings, meals, wines, and all visits are included in the price; you just have to get here.

As it’s a very small group please contact me quickly if you’re interested in the June dates or if you’re interested to be on our list for future dates.  whatscookinginfrance@gmail.com

Having a Swedish grandmother, every year I invite my friends, guests and other B&B hosts for the traditional Swedish festival of lights, the “Saint Lucie” here to La Forge with my antique dealer friend, Janine. This year we’ve moved our private sale of linens plus some wonderful extra goodies to the darling bastide of Sauveterre de Guyenne, a little further to the south east here in Entre Deux Mers.

Not only has Janine brought her linens but she’s also found wonderful table appointments: antique and vintage dishes, glasses, silverware, salts and decanters…everything to make your holiday table special. They also make perfect gifts for the your friends and family! The Comptoir de la Bastide is on my usual list for local antiquing, but I only now discovered their wonderfully restored and vaulted underground room that Janine has transformed with her holiday magic.

If you’re in the area be sure to come by on Saturday December 5th…there will be Christmas tea, coffee and cakes ! I’ll be there on all day with Janine from 10AM to 6PM

Janine will also be there every Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 9AM to 6PM and Sundays from 9AM to 1PM through the end of the year.

Le Comptoir de la Bastide, 4 place de la République, 33540 Sauveterre de Guyenne

Carol: 06 31 85 65 20   Janine: 06 41 98 01 84