Ten days after the U.S. elections and one week before Thanksgiving, it’s time to celebrate a French holiday for a change: the arrival of the first wine of the season, le Beaujolais Nouveau. As always, it happens on the third Thursday of November, so unless you were up until 2 a.m. celebrating at Bistrot du Coin today’s […] ...
Liquid Diet
Drink all the French Bubbles at DC’s First Champagne Week
If you missed Champagne Day on October 21, don't worry! Champagne shouldn't be celebrated in a day anyway, it clearly deserves its own week! At least that's what my friends Jess and Alison thought. These two wine pros are throwing DC's first ever Champagne Week, from Sunday November 6 to Thursday November 12. The idea for DC Champagne Week started off small. Jess runs Young Winos of DC, a group that connects people in the District with wine tastings and events. She reached out to Alison, who runs her own wine consulting business Bon Vivant DC, to partner up on a champagne focused event. Jess jokes that Alison took a small idea and blew it up, but Alison retorts that Jess never would've ...
Drink Your Way Through Election Season at Bastille & ENO Wine Bar
It's a time honoured tradition in Washington, DC. We like to drink. We like politics... so every election cycle, whether it's the primaries or the general, local bars come up with politically-themed cocktails. If you're like me and less than thrilled with your options this year (not that I can vote anyway), I'm sure you can use a stiff drink, or five, with a cheesy name poking fun at the candidates. I love it, especially when an awesome French restaurant gets involved. Bastille is one of my favourite French restaurant in the city... well, technically it's not in the city but right outside in Alexandria, VA. It's definitely worth a metro ride to Braddock Road though, and that's saying a lot ...
Saying Adeus to the Olympics with Caipirinhas
While I haven't really followed the Olympics over the last two weeks, I've loved seeing the spotlight back on Rio de Janeiro and it's brought back some great memories of my trip there two summers ago. My husband and I headed to Brazil for the World Cup in 2014 and even got to cheer for France at Maracanã Stadium. Well, I cheered more than he did, of course ;-) In addition to Rio de Janeiro, we also traveled to Belo Horizonte where we cheered on England even though it was already eliminated from the tournament, the Minas Gerais where we witnessed what it's like to be in a really small town when Brazil wins a game and Foz do Iguaçu on the Argentine border where we saw that it was like to ...
Weekend Highlights: Flower Crowns, Mucha and Football
Happy Monday! Did you have a good weekend? After keeping a low profile last weekend and throughout most of the week (I've had the worst cold!) I made up for lost time and had quite a wonderful 3-day weekend. It all started with rosé and flowers on Friday. One of the best part about having friends from different parts of the world is learning about their culture and traditions (oh, and the amazing food too!) On Friday, my friend Bianca showed us how the Finns celebrate summer solstice. Midsommar is one of the most important national holiday in Finland (and it's a big deal in many other Nordic countries too.) While her rooftop does have a fire pit, we didn't light any kokko (bonfires) to ...
Yes way {Languedoc} Rosé
It's *finally* rosé weather in Washington, DC this week and I'm excited to start digging into the stack of pink bottles I've accumulated while we experienced a record number of rainy days. I'm extremely biased towards French wines in general, but especially when it comes to rosés, and I always gravitate towards Provençal rosés. Occasionally, I'll venture outside of Provence and pick up a bottle of new world rosé (I'm a big fan of Early Mountain's rosé right now.) But most of the time, venturing out means looking a little South West along the Mediterranée to the Languedoc-Roussillon. Sandwiched between Provence and Spain, the Languedoc is actually France’s biggest wine region, with a bit over ...
Weekend Highlights: Street Art, Rain, Rosé and my Cat in a Hat
It was another rainy weekend :( I'm sure you're just as tired of this dreary weather as I am. We did get a bit of a break on Friday so I jumped at the opportunity to rosé (that's a verb right? lol) with a few girlfriends on my roof. With #LanguedocDay coming up on May 27th, I thought it would be fun to focus try different pink wines from that part of France. I already had a bottle of Chateau Lascaux AOC Languedoc rosé 2015 and a La Tour Boisee 2015 Minervois rosé that had been sent to me by a publicist and I picked up a bottle of Domaine Sainte Eugenie 2015 Corbieres rosé at my local wine shop Eye Street Cellars to round up the tasting. I love rosé and I'm especially biased towards those ...
5 Things I Ate While I Was in Chicago
Another week, another express work-cation, this time to Chicago in the mid-west. I'd been to Chicago a few times before, including for a hot 16 hours last July 4 and back in 1994 during one of my very first trip to the United States. Despite having a lot of meetings, I tried to squeeze in as much sight-seeing as I could in 36 hours, including catching the Van Gogh's Bedrooms exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago. And eating of course... Here are some of my favourites from my express “work-cation” in Chicago: LIQUID ENERGY AT INTELLIGENTSIA COFFEE First things first after a 6AM flight from Reagan to O'Hare, I needed caffeine! But not just any coffee would do. I wanted some Intelligentsia ...
Postcard from NYC: 5 Things I Ate Last Week
Other than a week in Portugal for Thanksgiving, I don't have a lot of trips planned this year. At least not fun trips... So I'm determined to make the most out every single work trip I have, starting with the one I just took last week to New York City. And that, of course, includes enjoying some good eats around town. There's no shortage of restaurants in Manhattan. If anything the options are limitless and a bit overwhelming when you don't have a lot of free time. Since I stayed at the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown many of the spots I ended up at are concentrated in that part of town. Here are some of my favourite eats from my last "work-cation" in New York City: ALL THE PINK PASTRIES AT ...
For Your Consideration – the Brooklyn Cocktail
It's Oscar time! Have you seen Brooklyn? The coming-of-age period drama about a young Irish immigrant blossoming in 1950s New York City was one of my favourite films last year. As an expat, I loved and related to the delicate way the film covered the immigrant experience and in a sea of rather bleak movies I appreciated the optimism of its characters. Also, Montreal plays the title role of Brooklyn! The boarding house where Saoirse Ronan’s character, Eilis, lives in Brooklyn is actually the Memorial Chapter House of Montreal’s Alpha Delta Phi fraternity, on McGill University's campus! The perfect drink to celebrate this best picture nominees is the classic cocktail that shares its name: ...
