France Luxury Vacation Review: Paris, Loire Valley, Nice, Blois, Local Cuisine, Wine Tasting, E-Biking, Museums, Dinner Cruise

• Cooking Class:

The chef was nice and knowledgeable and we enjoyed the meal we cooked. We liked that it showcased regional cuisine and was simple enough to remake at home
Negative: The kitchen didn’t have air conditioning so it was extremely hot and seemed like a make shift kitchen as the kitchen were using portable induction stovetops and didn’t have air vents / exhaust hoods . They also provided plastic aprons. It just didn’t seem very professional compared to other cooking lessons we’ve attended. I would not recommend it for others.

• Boat Ride in Nice:

The boat they took us out on was a speed boat. (It was not the boat in the picture within the pdf)
The boat ride was very rough and bumpy. I was expecting a casual ride to see the coast and not one that we had to hold onto our seats
The sights were nice but I do not recommend this as it was hard to enjoy the sights.
On the way back, the skipper allowed us to sit in front of the boat which was nice but he hit a big wave and we got all wet. I ended up getting my phone wet and it ruined it and we had to buy a new one.

• Maeght Foundation:

We didn’t really enjoy this unfortunately

• Grignan Castle:

This one was not very interesting especially compared to other châteaus in Loire Valley that we would be visiting later in the trip.

• Cycling in Luberon:

The e-bikes chosen were not very comfortable and the biking itself was extremely hilly with no shade so it was difficult even with e-bikes.
We ended the biking half-way through (only until right after lunch) and had to stop. When we got to Rousillon, ice walked around while the tour guide biked the rest and picked up the van to pick us up with the bikes.

• Cellar Oratoire des Papes:

The host spent 2 hrs giving us a tour of the cellar and explaining the technical process of making wine - it was not very exciting. Then when it came to the tasting, we ended up only tasting 3 wines. After this event, our driver took us to another winery where we tasted 6 wines in 15 min and we ended up buying 3 bottles. My recommendation is to find out whether your client wants a wine tasting tour or wants a tour of a winery. This was more of a tour of the winery. We wanted more wine tasting.

• Montmartre - We probably could have done this on our own. The view is nice but not sure it was worth the entire afternoon.

I also would not have brought as much luggage as we did.  Taking all those trains and moving from hotel to hotel is not easy with 4 pieces of luggage.  

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