Best of France Culinary Tour to Gascony and Paris

Order of activities subject to change. 

• Upon your arrival at the Toulouse airport, private group transfer to your home in Gascony.
• Settle in to your rooms, acquaint yourself with the village, and meet your hosts David and French chef Bernard.
• This evening, enjoy an aperitifs and hors-d’oeuvres while the chefs give you an overview of the week.
• Enjoy your four-course welcome dinner. Following dinner, relax on one of the three terraces, where you can admire the beautiful sunset.

• Start the day with a traditional breakfast of croissants, fresh bread, cold meats, cheeses, home-made jams and local honey.
• Your intensive culinary experience will start with a tour of the kitchen and a refresher in basic knife skills.
• Next, learn to prepare a simple French dressing, sauce suzette, and an ornate puff pastry dessert, gâteau pithiviers.
• You will use your knife skills while making David’s famous pizza gersois: a homemade pizza with onions, sun-dried tomatoes, peppers, olives, and duck breast. Your class continues with pâtisserie –a sweet pastry like pâte sucrée–that will be used as a base for a dessert you will make tomorrow.
• After a typical long French lunch — based on your culinary efforts — head across the street to an auberge to learn the art of foie gras, including mi-cuit, traditional, cru, and pain d’épices. You will also learn the regional specialty cassoulet, Chef Bernard’s most popular dish.
• Next, it’s time to make crepes and use the sauce suzette you prepared earlier as the finishing ingredient. You’ll also make other traditional pastries, perhaps a pâte sablée.
• Tour the wine museum with wine in hand at Bernard’s restaurant.
• Dinner to follow.

• Breakfast at 9:00 a.m.
• Today you will attend the local market to choose ingredients for this afternoon’s class and to learn about the region’s seasonal produce.
• Lunch in a traditional local café in the Roman town of Lectoure before returning to the school to begin your afternoon classes.
• In this session you will learn to fillet a fish, prepare a velouté sauce, and practice your knife and pastry skills to create a delectable tarte aux pommes.
• Prior to starting dinner, there will also be a quick lesson, led by David, on plating and presentation skills. Each dish you prepared today will be part of your dinner.

• Assemble for your next cooking class at 8:30am. David will show you how to debone a chicken in order to make ballotine de poulet and a rich, mushroom sauce to accompany it.
• After this main course, prepare a tarte au citron as well as an entree of soupe aux deux poivrons (two-pepper soup). Lunch to follow based on your efforts.
• In the afternoon, visit Gramont’s 17th-century chateau, which is a well-preserved Renaissance castle.
• Next head back into the kitchen to practice your presentation skills and to serve and sample the dishes that you prepared earlier.

• Today is the culimination of what you have learned! Head to the kitchen to prepare six dishes over the course of three hour.. This cooking class will focus on French desserts, and you’ll make such delectable treats as une crème patisserie, une crème caramel, and une crème brulee. Then you’ll switch from the sweet to the savory and make the iconic French sauce, béchamel. Lastly, you’ll work on sugar spinning and make a reduction sauce, jus de vin rouge.
• In the afternoon your hosts will take you on a tour of the Chateau de Cassaigne, an Armagnac distillery in Condom where you can study the history of Armagnac and perhaps enjoy a dégustation of the locally produced spirit.
• Time permitting, a visit to the ancient, fortified village of Larrissingle, a beautiful Roman relic, will follow.
• Dinner this evening will take place at Barnard’s restaurant and will include the dishes you worked on during class: the cassoulet you prepared earlier in the week, and the desserts you made today.

• After a final hearty breakfast, transfer to the Agen train station for your direct train to Paris (about 3 hr 30 mins, tickets included).
• Upon arrival in Paris, private transfer to your your hotel, with time to check in and freshen up.
• This afternoon, around 4:00 pm, meet your guide in the hotel lobby and have an orientation tour of Paris via the Paris Metro. Your guide will lead you to your next activity – a wine and cheese pairing on the Left Bank.
• After, time for dinner on your own.
• Make your own way back to the hotel using your new skills!
• Overnight.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Private transfer to your foodie walking tour this morning. You will experience the best of Parisian chocolate and pastries in the Saint Germaine de Pres neighborhood.
• After the tour, time to explore Paris on your own. We recommend you cross over to the Ile de la Cité to see the newly restored cathedral of Notre Dame, the Conciergerie, where Marie Antoinette was held before her execution, or the Sainte Chapelle with its fabulous stained glass. We can organize a guide if you are interested, or help with entrance tickets. (Entry to Notre Dame is free, although there is a cost to access the crypt or tower. A combo Saint Chapelle/Conciergerie tickets start at €20 per person.)
• This afternoon head to your first baking class in Paris. Learn to make delicious Macarons and their fillings! Transfer back to the hotel after.
• Dinner at leisure, overnight.

• Breakfast at the hotel. 
• Paris your way – free day to explore Paris on your own.
• Dinner on your own this evening. We can make suggestions.
• Around 8:15 pm, meet your driver at the hotel for your transfer to Paris’s oldest cabaret, the Paradis Latin, for your 9 pm cabaret show. (Drinks paid on the spot).
• After the show, around 11:15 pm, transfer back to the hotel.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Private transfer this morning to a morning croissant and baguette class 10:00-12:50. Under the expert guidance of your friendly host, a professional Parisian baker, learn how baguettes and croissants are made the traditional way. Roll up your sleeves and prepare your own tasty treats, and enjoy them in the company of your fellow bakers.
• After the class you will have free time the rest of the day to explore.
• This evening, time to dress up! Transfer to the  Seine River bank where you will board your  8:30 pm dinner cruise. Enjoy a three course gourmet meal as you enjoy the sites of Paris. The cruise will end at 11:00 pm.
• Transfer back to the hotel after the cruise.

• Breakfast at the hotel. 
• Private transfer to the CDG airport for your flight. (Additional nights can be arranged on request.)