Galette des Rois – King Cake

Galettes des Rois

What are Galettes des Rois? At Epiphany (early January), French boulangeries are stocked with Galettes des Rois (king cake). In its traditional form, these are two disks of puff pastry …

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Drink in Champagne for the Weekend

Top 7 Seven TIps

A city break to Reims

Do you love driving in France? I do. Of course the cities are busy, but get on the autoroute and generally you fly along, enjoying the countryside. Bliss after our clogged motorways.

Top 7 Seven TIps

Take a long weekend off and you could head for the Champagne region as we did. It was our first crossing using the Eurotunnel and we were seriously impressed. Giving ourselves plenty of time in case the infamous M25 was slow going, we arrived way before our set train time. We were waved through. Subject to availability you can travel two hours before or after your chosen time.

You might think that the carriages you drive in to are claustrophobic. Not at all. The carriages are light and airy. You can get out and stretch your legs. After 35 minutes, your through and as customs were passed through on the English side, you are straight on the motorway. We had 2 1/2 hours to drive.

Our focus was food and drink naturally so we planned ahead. Reims is a compact city. Astonishingly, after the First World War just 60 houses remained. So 400 architects were engaged to create the new city with very few constraints. Now the roads are wide and reminiscent of Paris with touches of art deco too. It’s an easy place to get around – we walked to most of our destinations.

We spent 3 days in Reims. Here are our Top 7 things to do

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Classic Pierre Koffman

Pierre Koffman with young team at Bath Priory

What would you say is a chef’s finest accolade? It could be the number of Michelin stars gained, the length of time in business or perhaps the number of our finest chefs who were trained in his kitchen. For Pierre Koffman it must be all three.

A spread from Classic Koffman. Beautiful photographs of the finished dish and of preparation
A spread from Classic Koffman. Beautiful photographs of the finished dish and of preparation

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