Travelling with Wine

Earlier this year we were contacted by Lazenne. They wanted to alert us to their existence and their products, which they felt would be a good fit for us and our clients. They supply packaging and specialist luggage for transporting wine if you are a private traveller. Amazingly products like this didn't really exist in France before. Recently we met the young couple who spotted the gap in the market and set up the business. Paul was born in Poland but grew up in Canada. He came to Lyon to study, met Bénédicte and never went home. Now they live in the Champagne-Ardenne and are working hard on expanding their business. We liked them and their products a lot. Although we don't think all our clients will use them we were certainly glad to know about them and we were immediately able to refer some clients to them. Bénédicte sent us the client's order, plus a polystyrene box for ourselves, and we can tell you that the client was very happy and Lazenne's service impeccable.

 An example of Lazenne's range of practical and smart wine luggage.

Many of our clients are worried about getting through customs with wine on their return home. Lazenne have written a handy instruction leaflet on how to do it. They point out it is perfectly possible to bring home several boxes of wine for personal consumption, and often worth it if you want some great value souvenirs of your trip. If you would like us to take delivery of some wine luggage or packaging prior to your Touraine Loire Valley tour email us and let us know. 

Day Tours for Groups

We specialise in customised private tours of the Touraine Loire Valley for small groups. Our typical clients for a day tour are couples, but we can take more. Our cars are licenced to take 4 passengers each and we can take a maximum group size of 7 people if we use two classic cars in convoy. The cars have plenty of head and leg room, but with 3 people in the back seat we acknowledge that at least one of them has to be reasonably slender. Two adults and a teenager are normally fine, for example, but 3 mature and amply proportioned adults are going to find that hips and shoulders touch.

 Sharon and Tom from Minnesota, with their daughters and sons-in-law, 

enjoying a day with us at the Chateau of Chenonceau.

If you are coming to the Touraine Loire Valley with a group of friends or family and would like to tour with us, email us and we will give you all the details you will need to decide if you will be comfortable for a day's touring in our iconic classic cars.

Being Vegetarian in France

France has a reputation of not being vegetarian diet friendly. We have several French vegetarian friends and they would agree that restaurants are not very creative with vegetarian food and often not interested in catering for vegetarians. Our friends say that Vietnamese or Italian is the best choice if they are dining out and don't want to eat omelette. We think it's a real shame that vegetarians don't get to experience great local cuisine when they visit France. Luckily for our clients we also know terrific chefs who are only too happy to serve something delicious, seasonal and based on traditional French cuisine for our vegetarian clients.

 This plant-based risotto style dish made with spelt is based on an old local recipe.

If you are vegetarian (or have other dietary requirements, such as gluten free) let us know. We will talk to our restaurant partners to make sure you are served a tasty lunch made from local ingredients when you book a tour with us. Email us if you would like to experience French vegetarian cuisine. Warm goats cheese salad -- yum!