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Published November 6, 2011 by Anne Collins Howard

The Unlikely Local Honeymoon

So as some of you know, we have a big honeymoon trip coming up (full details soon) but to tide us over and recoup from the frenzy of wedding planning, a mini-moon was in order. Dreaming of a quick jaunt to Malibu, the Keys, or somewhere sunny, I was bit bummed when a family obligation left us with the ever-familar Pennsylvania as our best option. Visions of the Poconos’ 1970s champagne coup bathtubs and vibrating heart-shape beds were haunting me so I googled “Relais & Châteaux, PA” in hopes that this global boutique hotel network would freakishly have a location in the Keystone state. Lucky us, I found out they have two properties in the region and Milford’s Hotel Fauchère happens to be one of them.
The recently renovated 16-room hotel was founded in 1852 by the master chef of New York City’s first and most famous restaurant, Delmonico’s, and takes its legendary reputation of fine food and hospitality very seriously. The service was beyond impeccable–it was unbelievably thoughtful and wrought with the most charming details.

The wow-service began before we even arrived. We called to let them know we wouldn’t get in until 10pm and asked if they could recommend any places open for a bite. They called around, came up with nothing, but said they would stay open because they wanted the newlyweds to have a gourmet meal upon arrival. We had the entire restaurant to ourselves, enjoying a Delmonico steak and truffle fries, only to be greeted by the owners with a personal welcome and congrats. Wow is right.

After dinner, we went up to our minimalist but luxe room to find milk, cookies, and a bedtime story waiting for us on our nightstand. Beside it was a card with the next day’s weather a hand-drawn with the sun, clouds, and temperature. The cute-factor was off the charts! And the bathroom with radiant floors and claw-foot tub, bedroom with Frette sheets, and Belgian linens weren’t bad either.

The next day we woke up and had breakfast delivered to our bedside. Continental breakfast usually means Cherrios and a fruit cup…oh no, not at the Hotel Fauchère. Homemade vanilla bean yogurt, fresh granola, warm croissants, and grapefruit with sugar blow-torched on top are the complimentary option.

Freakishly, March 18th was a 73-degree day so we asked them about taking a hike to the nearby Raymondskill Falls. They handed us a Picnic at Ascot backpack complete with Christofle hotel silver, plates, and champagne glasses and sent us to Fretta’s Italian food specialty shop (also adorable!) where we picked up olives and prosciutto to go with our bubbly.

Our last night wrapped up with total decadence: a five-course meal with the most delicious dishes like garden potatoes with roasted figs and local sour cherries , duck with herbs and nasturtiums and the perfect wines to match. To explain how attentive the wait staff was, when we asked our South African server a few questions about Cape Town, she gave us her email in case we ever needed any recommendations on a future trip.

Now if you are looking for a honeymoon spot, I wouldn’t try to sell you on Pennsylvania as the most romantic pick on the planet, but for a weekend getaway with full-service charm and pampering, you have to try Hotel Fauchére.

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Published November 11, 2010 by Anne Collins Howard

Adventures in Burgundy: Part 2

France is just ridiculously charming. The vine-covered houses, stone walls, chipping paint, corner bakeries, family chateaus, all of this unabashed cuteness can leave you in a blur–but with a good guide, all the delicious details start to come into focus.

Throughout the five-day William Ethan Experiential Art tour, Ethan took us to his favorite little villages and vistas–the places that resonated the most for him over his three years living in Burgundy.

Here are a few spots that will be hard to forget.

France travel guide William Ethan Dupree — Outside the Abbaye du Fontaine (here and above), Ethan takes us to the beginnings of Burgundy wine making: a Cistercian abbey. This hardworking sect of monks tamed the fields around 1100 AD and the wine has been delicious ever since.

travel-ideas-abby-la-bousserie — For an entirely different abbey experience we went to L'Abbaye de la Bussière, which has been converted to one of the amazing Relais & Châteaux hotels. This little sitting area was where we relaxed after a lunch of escargot and other French delicacies.

travel-ideas-Beaune — When it came to shopping, the small city of Beaune completely delighted me with its Saturday market. Snacking on pastries, we shopped for antiques and ingredients for that night's meal.

travel to burgundy's chateau-commarin — Don't let the foreboding gates fool you, anyone can walk around the grounds of the Commarin family's chateau. Pay 2 euros at the self-serve turn style of this private/public property and you can peer into their moat and take pictures with their statues. What a clever way for owners of historic homes to pay the landscaping bills.

travel to a Burgundy chateau — To add to the magical nature of Château Commarin, there were these tight little mushroom colonies all over the yard. This is one photo of many in Mike's fungi series.

travel-ideas-flavigny — Old-world charm is a severe understatement for the town of Flavigny--from the Les Anis de Flavigny candy shop which has been using the same recipe since 1591 to La Grange restaurant, a farmer collective that only serves food grown on their neighboring properties.

French antique door — Whether Flavigny or near any little town in Burgundy, the antique doors with original hardware had me swooning!

French stone homes covered in leaves — And wobbly-looking stone houses covered in fall foliage...need I say more?

travel-anne-chat-neuf — Sitting along the town walls of Chateauneuf, I take in the view of wine country and ponder my return to Burgundy.

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Published November 1, 2010 by Anne Collins Howard

Adventures in Burgundy

Mike and I aren’t usually for organized travel tours but, with our friend and winemaker Ethan at the helm, we decided to give it a shot. Ethan had been studying wine in Burgundy, France for the past few years and became so passionate, so knowledgeable about oenology and the region that he decided to start William Ethan Experiential Art: An educational and culinary adventure through the vineyards, cuviers, cellars, and towns of the Côte d’Or and beyond. When we heard about this tour, we signed up on the spot.

Home Base
Together with our good friends Matt and Hillary, we based our five-day adventure in the cliffside town of Bouilland and specifically in this unbelievable 15th-century farmhouse.

The house had every bit of romanticized French-country charm and did not disappoint with antiques, winemaking relics, and a nice touch of contemporary details.

The Cuisine Food is an integral part of the wine experience, so Ethan spared no expense and got a personal chef. Jean-Luc was an unbelievably talented cook and a total pleasure to be around. We’d hang out with him in this to-die-for kitchen having aperitifs as he prepared dinner (anything from beef bourguignon to moules marinieres).
For lunch, we’d usually have a picnic overlooking something breathtaking. Here we are above the Haute Côte, gazing out to a sea of vineyards, while eating jambon blanc and camembert sandwiches and sipping Beaujolais.

The Vineyards Burgundy is gorgeous year-round but during the fall, it’s abuzz with beauty. We arrived in the final moments of harvest and saw everything from the labor in the fields to the closing celebration in the streets.

The workers still pick grapes by hand but also typically have these wacky-looking tractors in tow. The height and width of the space between the tires is made to perfectly maneuver over and between vines without knocking a leaf! They help tend to the soil while their bins give workers a place to store the fruit.
Adorable little houses called cabouttes appear in the depths of every vineyard. Historically, they were used as a place for workers to take lunch or find warmth. We rode our bikes to this spot for the dreamiest picnic.

Cuveries While biking from vineyard to vineyard, Ethan ran into a friend outside Domain de Montille. His buddy was running around like a mad scientist trying to get all the grape fermentation underway, but still found time for an impromptu cuvier tour. Massive oak barrels filled the room, all with chalk-written notes keeping track of the temperature, sugar and alcohol levels. Here, I got to take a peak into the pit of pinot noir grapes.

Caves Rows of wine barrels await bottling at the Domaine Boyer Martenot, where I bought the said-to-be amazing 2007 Mersault-Charmes Premier Cru. Now I just need to wait ten years before it matures to perfection…We’ll see if I can hold out.

Newfound Wine Knowledge
The better the land, the better the wine.
Grapes
Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are basically the only two types of grapes grown in Burgundy (Gamay and Aligoté are grown where the soil isn’t so rich in limestone).

Land
More than any winemaking region in the world, wine in Burgundy is all about the land. A wine’s caliber is defined by the quality of the exact patch of soil the grapes came from. A vineyard is sometimes limited to a few rows of grapes because that mix of soil, pitch of land, and sun it receives may be so perfect that adding more rows could taint the wine.

Wine Labels
The reason why Burgundian wine labels are so complex is that you need the name of the region, estate, plot, bottling location, and winemaker to identify the wine (cute names like Red Truck or Seven Deadly Zins don’t cut it). Those who truly understand the wines of this region, know the location of the grapes and the skill of the winemaker on an intimate level.

And wine was just the beginning…Stay tuned for our tour through some of the most charming towns in French wine country.

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Published October 13, 2010 by Anne Collins Howard

Swiss Architecture at a Glance

Mike and I just had the privilege of visiting Switzerland (on our way to an amazing five-day wine tour through Burgundy, France–to be explained next blog; stay tuned) and were just completely charmed by the architecture. As an American, old European structures always seem impressive but set their old-world charm against some of the world’s biggest mountains and they elevate to breathtaking.