Wine Challenge - Round 4

Last Saturday was the fourth round of our 100 Wine Challenge and was another brilliant evening.

Hubby & I have just spent a lovely 12 days in France (look out for my blog update later this week). We had the enviable task of sourcing the wines and cheeses - so with notebook in hand we browsed our favourite retailers:

Calais Wine Superstore

Majestic Calais

Pidou

Franglais

Auchan

On our last full day we revisited with shopping list in hand - all wines purchased and safely stored in the car (just enough room as we had a few for us too). We did buy a few special bottles for our final tasting at Christmas too.

On our final morning we made a quick dash to Auchan to buy the 20 cheeses - cool box ready we stored them away and plugged the box into the car to keep them cool on the journey home. A slightly smelly car but masked slightly by our smoked garlic.

And so with our precious load we left France .....

Ready to board

20 French wines and 20 French cheeses - I was really looking forward to this round, I did add a few little extras too. And so to tasting:

  

Blanquette de Limoux - £3.33 Auchan - made using the champagne method this wine must contain 90% mauzac, it has it name from the white bloom that appears on the vine leaves.

La Roche Brut sparling wine - £2.29 Calais Wine - a lovely bottle of bubbles, we also tasted it with cassis which is how the French would drink it as an aperitif.

J P Chenet Colombard-Chardonnay - £2.44 Pidou - this wine producer has been a favourite of ours for 20+ years, the bottles used tSao have quite a wonky neck, we have a set of their glasses with wonky stems. Colombard - Chardonnay was a new grape to our tastings.

Reserve des Vignerons Saumur Blanc - £3.30 Franglais Vins - a lovely chenin blanc from the Loire Valley

Touraine Sauvignon Blanc - £3.12 Auchan - this is one of my favourite French wines, a lovely sauvignon blanc from the Loire Valley, it was one of the favourites at the tasting too.

Ardeche Sauvignon - £2.05 Simply - another example of a good wine, very slightly sweeter as this area of France is further south.

Les Roches Saintes Picpoul de Pinet - £3.70 Auchan - a crisp refreshing white from the Languedoc area in the south of France, as this wine is perfect with seafood we had nibbles of prawns and mini belinis with salmon mousse.

Muscadet Sevre et Maine sur lie - £2.85 Auchan - another Loire Valley wine, again perfect with seafood.

Cheverney Cuvée Royale - £3.75 Auchan - this was the star of the white wines, a firm favourite with everyone. It is from the eastern side of the Loire Valley and has to have 60-80% sauvignon blanc and the remainder chardonnay. This Cheverney has a 70% 30% split and was perfect with the goats cheese we tried too.  

  

The end of the whites meant cheese time - as well as biscuits we had French bread too (Asda). Most of the cheese was soft and thankfully I had cut it up at home beforehand as it softened/oozed even more. Here's our cheese list:

Saint-Félicien

Auchan Camenbert

Mimolette slices

Petit Munster Gerome

Saint Agur

St Paulin

Roquefort

Neufchátel Coeur de Bray

Le Bleu

Gouda slices

Comté

Président Rondelé Noix de Dordogne

Tomme Noire Pyrenees

La Pavé Doux

l'Ortolon l'original

Fromage anctueux

Buche de chévre

Brie

Belcube mini cheese



French cheeses

The blue cheese was quite popular although strong and quite smelly. The only problem with French bread is that it is so moreish so it was a good job we had plenty.

Our rosé wine was a smaller selection this tasting, just two bottles, one from the Loire and the other from the South.



Les Roseraries Rose D'Anjou - £2.99 Calais Wine - this Loire valley wine was the sweeter of the two rosé wines and the favourite.

La Treille Provencale Cotes de Provence - £2.50 Auchan - from the south of France this wine had quite a crisp finish.

After the rosé wines we paused for our raffle - a bottle of J P Chenet Grenache- Syrah, a mini bottle of Friexenet and a pair of large size wine glasses.

And so to our red and final surprise bottle ...

Reserve des Vignerons Saumur Rouge - £3.30 Franglais Vins - the red wine matching the white from Saumur tasted earlier, a good cabernet franc red from the Loire.

Kiwi Cuvée Bin 518 - £3.49 Calais Wine - a pinot noir wine made by a New Zealander in France, hence the name.

Comte de Rivaliere Blaye Cotes de Bordeaux - £2.15 Auchan - a smooth example of a Bordeaux but without loosing its depth, a favourite of the reds.

Pied Tanque Rouge - £3.11 Majestic - a blend of wine made under the name originally given to the game of boules.

Fitou - £3.00 Auchan - a deep red from the Languedoc, some tannin but not over bearing.

Paul Mas Estate Malbec - £5.61 Majestic - another favourite, Paul Mas wines are from the south and this Malbec was full of deep richness.

Leon Perdigal Cotes du Rhone - £5.61 Majestic - a smooth rich wine full of fruit with a hint of spice. This was second choice of the reds. 

Cellier des Dauphins Cotes du Rhone - £2.50 Auchan - the favourite red, and is Nick's favourite hence including it, full of rich fruit, slight spice, little tannin. We tried a little French salami with the two Cotes du Rhone with mixed opinions.

20 French wines

Our final wine was a bit of a treat - Muscat Rivesaltes - £3.88 Auchan - a delicious sweet dessert wine. This was the first real dessert wine we have tried at the tastings and as it states we had it with pudding, French gallettes and homemade profiteroles. It's smooth honey taste was perfect with both with 'oh' and 'ah's as the delicious sweet wine was sampled.

The two stars of the French tasting were the white Cheverney and red Celliers des Dauphins Cotes du Rhone - both our favourites too.  

Cheverney

Cotes du Rhone

Galettes

Profiteroles

Although the prices seem lower than other tastings the wine was much better quality. Mainly due to the exchange rate but also because Nick and I have spent many enjoyable years researching French wines and therefore knew which to bring home.

The tasting have been very enjoyable to do and hopefully have been enjoyed by others - I must add a HUGE thank you to all our donators with this challenge so far. Our finale is on 29th November and will be Sparkles and Specials. As I mentioned I have a few wines ready but donations, especially raffle items, are always appreciated. 



Saints Bar & London

Saints Bar is open :) our son Michael has been working hard with his colleagues to refurbish the bar and get Saints Bar open - and now it is :) We were invited to a VIP friends and family night to sample the new wood fired pizzas, food and drinks range. The pizza oven is unbelievable - you can smell the wood, so comforting. The new food menu is amazing, freshly prepared and cooked to order - the courgette linguine was delicious.

As it was my birthday Michael made me a special cocktail - Jack Daniel's and Amaretto - oh so lovely.


Birthday cocktail

I'm sure Saints will be a great success - you can like them on facebook Saints Bar or follow them on Twitter @SaintsBarNun
 
On Friday Hubby and I set off for London - the start of our 13 days holiday. We were supposed to meet a friend to collect the key for our French week but the London traffic (and Sally Sat Nav's instructions) drove us crazy so we headed straight for our hotel - Ibis Earl's Court.  

The hotel was bigger than we had expected but a good underground carpark and the rooms were quite spacious. We did not book breakfast as it was a little on the expensive side but on Saturday we did enjoy the 3 course buffet in the restaurant.

Friday night we walked to a pub I had found via Twitter - The Lazy Fox. The beer was very good (Hubby had a couple of pints just to make sure) and the food was amazing, especially the chips. I had a mini mac and cheese with a portion of chips - just lovely  :)



Mac & cheese with chips

On Saturday we took the tube to our friend's shop Room Remedies, and collected the key for our holiday in France. Afterwards we travelled across town to Tower Bridge and The Tower of London to see the poppies. It's an amazing site and quite moving when you think each poppy represents someone who was killed in WW1. My stepfather's granddad is one of those poppies. You can buy one for when the exhibition is finished, we've already ordered ours.

Tower of London

Tower Bridge

Poppies around the Tower

A sea of red

Each poppy represents a life given

Saturday afternoon was the main event for our London stop over before travelling to France for our holiday. The London part of Tesco's Wine Fair was at Earls Court which fitted perfectly with our travel plans. We have visited their wine fairs for the last 7 or 8 years, various venues - Manchester, Birmingham, London, Bristol. It's the first time they have been at Earl's Court and it was much better than other venues - so much more room to move between the stands and chat to the wine exhibitors.

We had tickets for the afternoon session and although I had pre-printed the wine list for which wines were at which stand we soon gave up with the guide and just wandered around at will - it does get tricky trying to balance a wine glass, a pen and wine guide book never mind write details down. The guide book this year was portrait too which was a little awkward to hold and had little space to write - however,  memory is a good tool and has hopefully served us well :)

Ready to go !!

We tried a number of old favourites and some new wines too. We did a workshop with Richard Bampfield learning about Bordeaux wines - mainly the geographical difference, but the Sauternes we tasted was superb.

It was a little disappointing to miss a wine walk as we really wanted to do the one with Helen McGinn but we were told we could have tickets for a workshop or a walk so we chose the workshop. The only other disappointment of the day was the blind tasting stand - our workshop was 5pm (halfway through the afternoon session)  we were hoping to do the blind tasting afterwards - unfortunately it had been cleared away by 5.20 :(

Two small things on an otherwise great afternoon - we had a great time sampling the McGuigan range - we already enjoy their Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon - their The Shortlist CS 2010 is just lovely.

It was also good to chat to Yellow Tails - although we missed their Bubbles. They do a Riesling that I actually enjoy as it does not have a petrol nose :) great wines all round.

It was lovely to see a Tesco Community area with photos of fellow members and their wine reviews. I was intrigued with the Chocoholic Pinotage on the Tesco stand. The wine grower himself was there and explained the name was nothing to do with chocolate and not really designed for the UK market. His wine was unusual in that he cuts the stalk and leaves the grapes to dry, so they are still on the vine but not getting any more nutrients.

Another wine growing practice which was new to me was DGS where we discovered DGS Shiraz 2010 and DGS The Second Pass Shiraz 2010. These wines are made from dried grapes but unlike the Chocoholic Pinotage they are picked first and then dried. The Second Pass is as it says - passed over the dried grape skins a second time. Both wines were lovely and smooth but I preferred the Shiraz 2010.

We also had a good chat with Mud House - a new brand of Sauvignon Blanc wine we've discovered just a few weeks ago at Majestic Wines. It's nice to find a New World wine that isn't just full of a gooseberry nose but has depth of taste with melon and kiwis.

There were quite a few bubblies to try - Lanson, Jacquart, Nicolas Feuillatte, Freixenet, Moet Chandon, Codorniu, Piper Heidsieck - as well as our favourites: Cono Sur, Concha Y Toro, Tim Adams & Jacktone Ranch.

Overall a good afternoon learning more and discovering more about our hobby ... and now we're in France enjoying even more !! 



An evening at Majestic

We have recently discovered there is a Majestic wine shop in Leicester - and it's close to the station :-) We always visit Majestic in Calais when we're in France but have not here at home as we didn't know of a shop nearby, now we do ....

... although nearby is a 30 minute train ride. Hubby and I caught the Cross Country to Leicester (using our Two Together Railcard made a huge difference to the price). We usually have a little something on a train ride but this time it was a pastie to line our tums, yum yum.

Perfect timing arriving at Majestic at 2 minutes to the 6 o'clock start. Abraham (assistant manager) greeted us a glass of Mud House Sauvignon Blanc and we had chance for a quick browse around until everyone arrived.

There were just 8 of us tasting and all six wines had been poured ready so the table was just a mass of white & red wine glasses. 

Abraham was very good at explaining all aspects of tasting, growing, bottling and food matching. So much still to learn - wine tasting is a great hobby.

We first tried a France Touraine from the Loire (I was a happy bunny straight away) followed by a French Chablis. Although this was a £20+ bottle, Chablis is not a wine I enjoy, I'm not a Chardonnay girl and if I do drink it I prefer a well chilled Italian or a New World oaked Chardonnay, which was our third white. I didn't take note of the exact labels and now I can't remember them - oops. 

Next up 'bubbly' Monopole Heidsieck 2007 Gold Top. A beautiful vintage, golden in colour with a biscuity nose and smooth taste with small bubbles. Nicolas Feuillatte is still our favourite but the Monopole was lovely. 

Three reds next starting with a rioja which dried my mouth completely, I nearly asked for a glass of water but luckily had some white left ! The next red was a French Bordeaux, another good wine which evoked memories of our holidays in France. 

The third red was Yalumba Cabernet Sauvignon - a good wine, best of the three reds but we both said we prefer their Shiraz. 

Finally Abraham brought out a range of nibbles - cherry tomatoes, mature cheddar cheese, chorizo, smoked salmon, spicy crisps and chocolate brownies. We had great fun tasting food matches  and non-matches  with a few top ups too. 

There was no hard sell or even mention of if you'd like to order ...etc ... it was a great night. We'll certainly be keeping a watch on Leicester's events page. 

We did buy three wines:

Mud House Sauvignon Blanc

Mud House Sauvignon Blanc - New Zealand, lovely and crisp, full of fruity notes, better when chilled (when poured) than room temperature (after in glass for an hour)

Argento Malbec

Argento Malbec 2013 Mendoza - full of dark fruit, hint of spice and vanilla, quite smooth - I only had a little taster of this but it was lovely.

Cotes du Rhône

Cotes du Rhone 2013 Leon Perdigal - we've had this before, a great example of a CdR, neither too light or too heavy so suits us both, full of dark fruits. 

All three were on offer at £6.66 when you buy two or more bottles - free delivery too which is good as a little heavy to take home by train.

Majestic Leicester have a great events calendar on their web page - their next wine course is 24th September.

We had just under an hour for our train home which was perfect time for a bite to eat at The Parcelyard, a Steaming Billy pub next to the station. We had their Thursday special, burger and a drink. We both had the special burger with pepperoni and cheese - their thick cut chips are amazing. Hubby had a glass of Shiraz and I had Malbec which we both thought the best match but the Shiraz was nice too. 

Our food came almost straight away (we had said about catching the train) which gave perfect time to enjoy our meal and be on the platform in time for our train home. 

Thank you Cross Country Trains, Majestic Wines, The Parcelyard and my lovely Hubby Nick for a great night out. 

Chateau Hearnden - a new

I used to make wine before the children were born and when they were young. It became too time consuming with a young family and so my hobby lapsed but now I have decided to have another go.

Being as today is a Bank Holiday we invited our Mums and their other halves over for a buffet and a very special wine tasting - Chateau Hearnden trio.

I best just explain for my facebook friends as I often have different names for what may seem the same location - so .........

Chateau Hearnden is my winery - located at ......

Masion Hearnden which is home

Gite Hearnden is our holiday caravan in Wales

Chateau Hearnden trio

Dandelion wine - a very dry wine with a dandelion floral fragrance and a sharp finish. It does need a few more weeks to fully clear.

Rhubarb wine - a full nose of rhubarb and a lovely rosé hue. A sweeter wine but not a dessert wine. A slight fizz and lots of flavour - the favourite.

Elderflower wine - a dessert wine with a floral nose, quite syrupy and excellent with Eton Mess.

Before we enjoyed the buffet and wine tasting we visited St Laurence's Church at Ansley as it is their Flower Festival. This year I took part and did an arrangement. The festival is on the theme of Gold s it's its 50th anniversary; my piece however was just a corner fill for the old chairs and piano. I quite enjoyed it.

The light wasn't very good today with the weather being so awful but I managed to get a few photos.

My arrangement

I have been quite quiet in blogland lately but September and October are going to be busy, busy, busy so this is a heads up for 'over blogging'. We have a wine tasting in London, holiday in France, visit to Lille, Round 4 wine tasting at scouts and a holiday in Turkey !

On a sad note we lost our lovely Ruby a few weeks ago. She was a rescue dog who has had five full and lively years with us and we miss her so much.

Me and Ruby Rose

She loved being on the beach with Nick

Thank you for calling by Aimetu's - if you like stitching there's news on Aimetu's Stitching

Wine Challenge - Round 3

It seems ages ago since I started planning our 100 wine and cheese challenge http://aimetus.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/a-huge-challenge-for-2014.html We've visited North and South America, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa so this round was dedicated to Europe (but not France as that comes next)

And so to Europe -

I had sourced 20 wines from Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Germany but due to this round being in holiday season we were only a group of 10 so I saved the five best wines for our final tasting in November. This will be a celebration tasting with bubbly and wines costing a little more than the £4.50 budget per bottle for each of the other rounds.

The original line up of 20 wines

We started the evening with two bubblies - a Cava and a German sparkling rosé. I was quite surprised to find the Cava a new tasting for most people and they were surprised to discover it is made exactly the same way as champagne, tastes fantastic but costs 'slightly less'.

These are the whites (and sparkling rosé) we tasted first:

Montcadi Cava - Spain - this was from Morrison's £4.99, a lovely light cava.

Prince de Sabatier - Germany - a blended sparkling rosé which I discovered on the shelf in our local Co-op £4.00

Liebfraumilch - Germany - a well loved favourite with the ladies, and a great buy at £3.29 from Lidl

Hock - Germany - a jolt from the past for most who had not had this wine for many years. Everyone was surprised how easy drinking it was and at £3.99 from Morrison's will be on a few people's 'patio' drinking list.

Dino Chardonnay - Italy - a good example of chardonnay from Tesco £3.74

Canti Chardonnay - Italy - this bottle was donated by out local Tesco store and was the preferred chardonnay of the two.

Las Primas Sauvignon Blanc - Spain - over the tastings people have come to prefer sauvignon blanc to chardonnay and this was another favourite of the night, £3.37 Tesco

Soave - Italy - a first for many but far too light for most, a good buy at £3.99 from Morrison's

After all these whites it was cheese time - and what a lot of cheese there was as we had catered for 20. The challenge is to also try 100 cheeses and it was getting harder to find 20 new cheeses to try but we did.

20 cheeses with their flag labels

Our 20 cheeses were:

• Igor gorgonzola
• Morrison's NUME 50% reduced fat chive & onion soft cheese
• Morrison's NUME 50% reduced fat garlic & herb soft cheese
• Morrison's Mexicana sweet chilli cheddar
• Dairylea triangles
• Morrison's Somerset brie
• Morrison's Scottish mature coloured cheddar
• Go Dutch edam
• Morrison's mature cheddar and spring onion
• Castello Danish blue
• Morrison's Mexicana cheese
• Morrison's mini camembert
• Morrison's gouda
• Morrison's double Gloucester with onion & chives
• Morrison's Welsh mature cheddar slices
• Primula original cheese
• Babybel mini original
• Morrison's mild white cheddar
• Morrison's Austrian smoked cheese
• Almette light soft cheese

The gorgonzola was very popular as was Morrison's gouda, although their Mexicana was a little hot for some. We did have a chuckle at Dairylea triangles and Primula cheese in a tube, back to our younger days.

It was rosé wine next and I couldn't do a European tasting without one of the most famous rosé - if only for the bottle shape.



Marqués de Caranó garancha, shiraz - Spain - quite a deep rosé that wasn't too sweet, £3.67 Tesco

Mateus rosé - Portugal - loved by all, another flash back to the past £3.74 Tesco

Only two rosé wines this time but another pause for a little more cheese and to draw the raffle. We've been so lucky with our prizes, I have had many items donated and have found a few wine related gifts in my 'pressie' cupboard at home. The Paddock wine was from Calais Wine Superstore (if you've been following our challenge you'll remember they sent a box a six) and the mini Friexenet was from Tesco - thanks to both companies.

Raffle prizes

Just 5 reds to finish, as I mentioned I 'saved' some for our November finale. It is always the whites and rosé that the ladies prefer and the men the reds, so by now the chaps are ready for their favourites.

Valencia - Spain - this wine was donated by my Mum as she had won it in a raffle and doesn't like red wine. It was an easy drinking blend.

Revero Tinto - Spain - the label on this blend was very striking £3.00 Tesco

Las Primas Temparillo - Spain - a lighter red from Tesco £3.37

Canti Sangiovese Melot - Italy - this was donated by our local Tesco store. It was a deeper red with a touch of spice.

Campo Viejo Rioja - Spain - this was a special bottle as it was donated by two of our group members to raise a toast to their first grandchild, Mollie.

Rioja is a deep red wine and I wanted to bring out the rich flavour so I had some chorizo for everyone to try. First a sip without, then the spicy sausage, then more wine - everyone was amazed at the difference. Some had not tried either spicy sausage or rioja before feeling both were too strong. It's been great to see everyone learn more about wine and food as we've done this challenge - discovering not all grapes taste the same, wine is different from different places and how wine matches to some foods. The rioja and chorizo was a hit, especially with Mollie's proud grandparents.

Special thanks for this round to:

Calais Wine Superstore

Tesco

Jan and Keith Cornford

Beveley and Alan Mycock

The donations of wine and raffle prizes is a HUGE help with this challenge as it is difficult with a £4.50 budget for wine. Our next tasting is France and we're hoping to bring some home from our holidays to include in the selection, the cheese too.

Cheers !!

London & Paris

It has just been our 25th Anniversary and to celebrate Hubby and I did a two city holiday - London & Paris. The weather in both cities was absolutely glorious and we had an amazing time. Those of you who follow me on facebook will have seen our highlights already - I will however be adding a few details in as I blog away.

Friday dawned and Ruby packed her bone ready to see her friends at Witherley Kennels - she loves the ladies there so we have no worries whilst away. By the time Hubby was home (early finish Fridays) our bags were packed and we were soon on the way to the station for our train to London.

We always travel in style and this was no exception - gin and tonics on board the London Midland to Euston was a perfect way to start our travels.

G & T on the train

We were staying at the new Novotel at Wembley - it felt a bit odd passing it on the way down to get an underground train back the way we came. This is a new hotel in the Accor chain and it was lovely - breakfast and service was perfect.

There is a huge outlet centre next to Wembley stadium and after a drink at TGI Fridays (cocktail for me of course) we went to Handmade Burger for dinner. We have not been to this chain before and will definitely be visiting again - the choice was amazing. Hubby ordered at the bar and when he came back commentated on the staff being really friendly - so friendly they brought us a complimentary bottle of Prosecco to celebrate our anniversary and later free puds too - such kindness, thank you.

Cheers at Handmade Burger

We had a great time on Saturday in London - first stop was BBC Broadcasting House at Portland Place. I do enjoy the BBC news and weather and it was great to see the building. We enjoyed a Caffé Nero coffee sitting in the plaza that is right outside the ONE Show studio, it's where they do their outside broadcasts. I managed to get a photo of us in the reflection of their window.

Reflection in The ONE Show window

We both love London and enjoyed strolling along the busy streets, stopping at Pandora where Hubby bought me a beautiful bracelet. We paused at All Bar One in Regent Street for some lunch before heading down to Trafalgar Square to listen to West End Live.

Hubby surprised me with six beautiful cupcakes complete with silver candles but we didn't light them for fear of evacuating the hotel !

Cupcakes with silver candles from my gorgeous Hubby

Saturday night we went to a small greek restaurant 4 Lanterns and had their Meze meal which was a selection of mall dishes. It was the biggest meal I've eaten in ages - all little dishes with small tapas style food but in all nearly 20 dishes - grazing for nearly two hours.

We had a great time in London - lots of photos (cheesy selfies galore) - you can see more in my London Flickr album but this is my favourite photo from our time in our capital city.

Happy in the City

 And so to Paris - up bright and early Sunday morning leaving plenty of time to enjoy a peaceful coffee upstairs at St Pancras station before boarding our Eurostar train to Paris. It's a lovely way to travel, reserved seats so no standing, comfy ride, so fast with great scenery along the way. It was all finished off perfectly with gin and tonics to toast the start of our French trip.

We have been to Paris before but this was the first time arriving at Gare du Nord - it's a huge building. Our hotel was just 15 minutes walk away and very easy to find. We were Le Marais area of Paris with its many bars and cafes and when we arrived full of the sounds of live football - the World Cup really means 'world'. Over our few days we ate at a couple of local restaurants; salads, burgers, pizza, fries - typical foreign food hee hee. We did have some lovely French meals too, they are very good at sauces and café gourmands :)

Monday was our busiest and most tiring day - we started at The Louvre. The courtyard is breath-taking with the huge glass pyramid, never mind the beautiful works of art inside. We did see the Mona Lisa and many other famous pieces, as well as visiting the stunning. Napoleon III state rooms.

In the courtyard

Napoleon III state room

Napoleon III dining room

The Louvre glass pyramid

One of my 'must do' things has been to walk the Champs Elysees and look from The Louvre to the Arc de Triomphe and vica versa. It was a beautiful day weather wise and we a slow stroll, a mere 3.9 km, pausing at for ice cream at the octagonal fountain.  This was the view, it did make me cry as I had wanted to see this for so many years.

Octagonal fountain - Place de la Concorde -
Champs Elysees- Arc de Triomphe 

You can go to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, the view of Paris would be amazing but it was not open the day we visited, although we did stand underneath it. It was such a sunny day we decided to walk back tour hotel, just one road on the map, a road that was over 4km. We paused for a beer on the way, so exhausted we happily paid 8 euros each - ouch. It was a fabulous start to our holiday but we must have walked nearly 10km.

Tuesday was our anniversary, we'd taken family cards to open and I finally wore my new bracelet. I surprised Hubby with a new watch but it was a little large so he couldn't wear his gift.

Metro time, we did enough walking the day before, to La Tour Eiffel where we took a river cruise along the Seine. We passed all the famous sites; Grande Palais, Notre Dame, Louvre, La Chapelle. As it was a special day we took the champagne option and enjoyed a glass of bubbly as we cruised along.

Cheers - Happy Anniverary

La Tour Eiffel

Grande Palais

Another reflection shot of us on the River Cruise

It was so lovely cruising along in the Parisian sun, afterwards we 'metro'd' to the latin quarter for lunch before strolling around the Ile de la Cité where Notre Dame & la Chapelle are. We didn't visit as the queues were long and we have visited ND before. Tuesday night we took a small picnic, with a bottle of our favourite champagne Nicolas Feuillatte, to St Bernard's Quay and sat by the Seine enjoying the Midsummer Evening. According to the travel brochures Paris has fireworks on June 24th and there were many other groups of people picnicking so we waited in anticipation. By 11.15 no fireworks so obviously Paris did not want to celebrate with us - unsure of the Metro times and not wanting to be out late in the city we returned to the hotel - I still don't know if the fireworks happened or not but we had a lovely evening watching the cruise boats go by.

Picnic by The Seine

Wednesday was another cruise day, this time two and a half hours on the Canal Saint Martin. We took the boat at Bastille and it travels through the Bastille vaults which is 2km long and travels right under the Place de la Bastille and it's towering July Column. The cruise continues up four sets of double locks (a total height of 24 metres), swing bridges, one bridge that just rises up horizontally and into the huge Bassin de la Villette. It was another great day, the boat did sell our favourite bubbles but a little too much at 50 euros so we settled for a bottle of one of our favourite wines, Cheverney, you don't see it on sale often so we were very pleased to find it on our special holiday.

All aboard - just about to go through the vault -
we travelled right under the July Column

The locks filled up quite quickly

Bassin de la Villette

We had come up the canal on the left

 All too soon it was Thursday and time for home, but not before we quickly visited Sacré Coeur. As we have been here before we just enjoyed a coffee at a café right opposite tis imposing church. Of course having taken so many selfies this holiday we couldn't leave with one last photo!

Who said romance was dead

Eurostar brought us safely back to London and Virgin Trains home after an amazing 6 days visiting both capital cities. There are more Paris photos in my Paris Flickr Album.

We had an amazing holiday, a definite celebration with thanks to all the companies involved. I just want to say a HUGE thank you to my darling Hubby, not only for this amazing trip but for everything over the last 25 years - I love you x x

24th June 1989

Thank you for visiting and reading my blog - please leave a comment as this will add tour memories of this special time.

We are also using the occasion to raise money for Pancreatic Cancer as we sadly lost Nick's Dad to this just 8 months after our wedding https://www.justgiving.com/NickClareHearnden25th/ thank you