Travel Log: Europe 2024 Loire Valley and Bordeaux

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Loire Valley

Exploring more of France, now venturing out to Loire Valley. We visited Chateaus, went wine tasting, and even had a spa day.

Sitting in Café Corbon, enjoying an amazing meal, we told our waiter Antoine how special everything felt here. He shrugged with a grin, saying, 'This? This is everyday! It should not be only for special times..'

Love it! Thank you for the reminder Antoine!

We loved our stay at Auberge du bon Laboreur and enjoyed a lovely dinner there. Worth a visit!

Bordeaux

One of my 2024 goals was to learn all about wine. Not sure if I’ve gotten very far with this goal lol, but hoping my visit to Bordeaux somewhat makes up for months of slacking.

With how extensive the Cite du Vin is, we did learn so much!

My favorite were the smelling tubes (if these have a different name please let me know!) There was one with literal animal scents and this poor unsuspecting lady went up to it, smelled it and went “Bleck!” very loudly. She and I had a good laugh about it but my morbid curiosity went right up in that after her. Gotta love that animal or wet dog aromas which you might find with certain reds or aged wines. (I’m not quite sure I love it just yet lol)

Field Notes: Chatsworth House, UK

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The English countryside! I’m in love. Even the characteristically gray skies were embraced with enthusiasm.

While recently reading The Revolutionary Genius of Plants by Stefano Mancuso, I came to the chapter about Joseph Paxton and learned about the beautiful Chatsworth Garden.

Paxton was the head gardener of this estate and was a genius in his own right; merging architecture and botany (see the Crystal Palace, featured in Mancuso’s book)

I was so intrigued by Paxton and Chatsworth that I decided to make a trip out there. And so I went! I’m proud I made this trip happen instead of making it a “someday” as I had to cross the pond for this one.

It was a lovely time and I’m so grateful that the Duke of Devonshire keeps this estate open for the public to enjoy.

Some pics from our visit to Chatworth below.

We had a lovely dinner at The Gallery at the Cavendish Hotel, where we stayed. The dishes are prepared with produce grown from Paxton’s very own kitchen garden!

Travel Log: Europe 2024 Paris and London

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Paris, France

My love for this city runs fierce. I’ve been fortunate to spend a lot of time here and I continue to visit every year. Despite my abhorent french (working on that) and some tough times that I’ve faced in this city (more on that someday, perhaps), I always make a point to keep returning.

There is lots of great food in France but wanted to highlight this amazing meal at Restaurant Kozo!

London, UK

I am less familiar with London, but love visiting nonetheless. It is an amazing city and in a way reminds me of visiting a city like New York for the first time. How everything is already so familiar because you recognize it all from films and books. (My favorite is Paddington Bear lol)

However I’m slowly carving out my own stories and adventures in London. I’m actually starting to find myself daydreaming of living here someday!

What I've Been Up To! Summer in NYC 2024

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Summer in NYC is my favorite!

I made the difficult choice to pause ceramics, which I’ll miss, but i hope to use this time to focus on some other things.

This summer, I had a ballet intensive and tried to do a deeper dive into dance, including contemporary, which I’ve been really enjoying. Dancing is something I’ll never be “good” at, but I’m having too much fun :)

Fun trips Outside the City

We went to a Renaissance fair, Lake George and finally…The Hamptons. As Californians we’ve always heard of the fabled Hamptons, we’ve always wanted to know what was up with it. I’ll say it was much more down to earth and pleasant than I pictured.

Around NYC

The city was sweltering. Everyone seems to relax a bit. I enjoyed going out a lot, but my favorite times were at night when it cooled down a bit.

Summer Produce

We’ve also been frequenting the green markets. I love making bento box lunches. While they are not as kawaii as the ones my mom would make, I definitely love seeing the bright summer colors thrown together in a little box. #eattherainbow lol.

I try making everything from scratch from tortillas, salsa to muffins but having a full time job thing sure gets in the way of my kitchen ambitions :P

Field Notes: Hotel Schloss Leopoldskron

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The Sound of Music brought me to Hotel Schloss Leopoldskron. If you are planning a Salzburg trip anytime soon, I would recommend staying here. I’ll just let the photos do the talking!

Staying in the Meierhof buidling is actually quite reasonable though there is the option to stay in a suite in the palace. I am a huge fan of the former, the room was modern, clean and just a 30 second walk to the palace. You must not miss the breakfasts!

And of course we hit all the Sound of Music filming spots!