The Pommery was served before take off and was a great way to toast to our culinary journey ahead.

Had the Fomrauge with my dinner onboard and was a very enjoyable wine with my beef dish. I would love to have a bottle another time with my feet planted.

Wonderful start!

* Dinner: Chez Andre bistro off the Champs Elysses. Fantastic spot where we enjoyed delicious escargot to kick off with the Les Hauts de Smith.

* Tour of Louvre in the morning

* Lunch: oysters from Normandy and a cheeseburger at Aux Crus de Bourgogne with a glass of white (recall Chardonnay) and a Cote du Rhone red

* Show: Crazy Horse show was fantastic. Great cabaret which we enjoyed with some nice bubbles from Laurent Perrier!

* Dinner: Marius et Janette on George V. (great seafood focused restaurant). The Albert Pic Chablis went really well with the Normandy oysters (believe I had the Marennes no 2) and fried whiting fish, which was delicious. But loved the oysters, so creamy and rich.

* Lunch: wonderfully large charcuterie plates at the hotel Le Cep upon arrival. We enjoyed this with a delicious bottle of Puligny. Nice "lite" start to the Burgundy part of our trip (lite because of the amount of cheese we consumed)!

* Dinner: Le Benaton (Beaune) - one star Michelin restaurant. Started with the Cremant and then opened the Roumier. We sat in the garden on a gorgeously dry and cool evening with clear skies.

* Lunch: after walking through Beaune we stopped for lunch at Caves Madeleine and enjoyed a wonderful pre-fixe menu. My dark meat duck confit with a large sheet of green pasta on top in a bouillon was delicious!

We sat in the outside garden in the back of the restaurant. This was exactly the type of local, small restaurant we greatly appreciate. I enjoyed a glass of the Rully with my meal.

* Tasting: Had a tasting back at our hotel of the Hospices de Beaune and Comtes Lafon Volnay. Nice relaxing time. We left at least half of each bottle to be enjoyed later (2 days later).

* Dinner: Le Soufflot in Meursault. Wonderful restaurant and clearly a local favorite, as many were around. We started with the Mersault from Vincent Girardin and then moved onto the Bourgone rouge from Coche-Dury

This was our busiest day by far! We packed a lot into one day and it was wonderful!

* Tasting 1: We began our day with a drive from Beaune to Nuits St. George arriving at Domaine Gille. Shortly, Matthieu Gille came out to greet us. What a wonderful person, he has great charisma and energy. We were grateful for him to spend the time to show us his production processes, then afforded us a wonderful opportunity to taste a number of the 2022's from the barrel. What an amazing experience! It was great to try the latest vintage, but incredibly fascinating to see how he himself tried his wines and the thoughts he had regarding each one and what he may or not do as the production process continues to bottling. We finished with a more traditional guided tasting upstairs overlooking the vineyards behind Matthieu's Domaine. He was a great host and the whole experience was a perfect way to start what ended up being a fantastic day! [ wines / enjoyed ]

* Visit to Chateau du Clos de Vougeot

* Lunch: Our lunch at the the La Cuverie De Vosne, owned by Comte Louis-Michel Liger-Belair, was a "simple" affair of charcuterie. The different items presented to us were each delicious and the new restaurant / wine bar was a great stop. La Cuverie sits in Vosne Romanee and overlooks some of the Eastern village level vineayrds. We enjoyed our "snacks" with a delicious bottle of Domaine d'Eugenie Vougeot.

* Tasting 2: We next went to Domaine Philippe Leclerc in Gevrey Chambertin. The Domaine's approach was more commercial, with tastings being conducted by the team, who are very friendly and knowledgeable, but did not have the same feel as meeting the wine marker him/her-self and learning how they think about their wines. The store/building was darker and had a large number of oddities collected by Philippe from around the world (taxidermy pieces, tusks, dragons...), which certainly impacted the way we perceived the wines and the experience.

Still an incredibly worthwhile journey and experience. We did get to feel and taste the differences in vintages (e.g. Les Cazetiers 2017 first vs. 2015 second) and terrior (e.g. en Champs village level vs. Combeaux / Champeaux). We preferred the 2015 Cazetiers and the premier cru Champeaux clearly stood apart from the en Champs.

* Drive through the Cote De Nuits vineyards. On our way back to Beaune we drove through the vineyards, passing by many infamous vineyards and stopped to stand on the much hallowed ground in front of the stones marking the Romanee Conti vineyard.

* Dinner: after "resting" for about 30 minutes, we headed off to 21 Boulevard in Beaune. A beautiful restaurant within a former cellar. The food was exceptional! We enjoyed the Antonin Guyon Corton-Charlemagne with this meal. This delicious white wine was a perfect way to cap off our long day with a most refreshing but fulfilling wine. It was a favorite all around.

* Lunch: croque monsieur at bistro in one of the Beaune town square with a glass of bourgogne.

* Dinner: at La Ligne, a very quaint seafood restaurant. The Pernand paired excellently with the food (ceviche, razor clams, arrabiata calamari...)

* Lunch: at Cafe Du Palais, right off from the cathedral. Met the grand or great-grandson of the founders. Had one of the best foie gras' ever, they mentioned it was a family recipe. Enjoyed it with the Alfred Gratien, which was delicious and the champagne of the month there.

* Tasting: at Veuve Clicquot. Had two wines afterwards, the brut rose and their 250th year anniversary brut blend.

* Dinner: at the restaurant of hotel La Caserne Chanzy called La Grande Georgette with a bottle of Eric Rodez.

* Lunch: at Sodad, a Corsican restaurant in Reims. Fantastic meal. I had the mushroom, asparagus and rustic ham risotto with black truffles. With the peach notes of the Condrieu, this was fun!

* Tasting: at Maison Ruinart. What a tasting and education that was, Ruinart really knows how to make you feel the magic of Champagne. Our guide was exceptional; we spent about 3 hours at the Maison.

* Dinner: Assiette Champenoise (Reims) - three star Michelin. Incredible experience! With Cedric Bouchard to start and Liger-Belair

* Lunch: Dinand Par Ferdi, had a cheeseburger and fries. One of our few meals without wine :) Amazing cheeseburger!

* Aperitif of Dosnon while waiting for another dinner restaurant to open, we left as there wasn't enough air (stifling to say the least)

* Dinner: Marius et Janette on George V. Sadly the Condrieu was fantastic at the start of the meal, but as it opened up it turn off and lost the fruit in an unpleasant way.

* Tour: at the Dior museum. Really amazing to see the history and beauty that has been created.

* Lunch: at Au Bourguignon du Marais with glass of Haute Cotes de Beaune from Domaine Joannet (unknown vintage). Now they know how to make steak tartare! Delicious!

* Dinner: Chinese food at the exceptional Imperial Treasure with champs and glass of Chassagne, zero dosage

* Lunch: Le Petite Lutetia. This was the least exciting meal we had. My beef carpaccio was tough and less exciting.

* Tasted the Freynelle before dinner

* Dinner: Geosmine. Enjoyable tasting menu with some nice creativity. The somm was very strong in parings with the Trimbach and Macon Pinot Noir; I suspect if we went for a couple more wines to try they would not have disappointed.