May 10-17, 2008: Chateau D'Oigny

His brown eyes glimmered with excitement, and a giddy smile reflected his extraordinary proposition. We sat motionless, soaking it all in. The last time we saw Vijay like this, Jack and I found ourselves flying out to Chicago for a day to partake in a devastatingly spectacular, 4 1/2 hour, 24-course meal that utterly redefined all of our conceptual understandings of food construction, molecular gastronomy and palate imagination.
(See Alinea meal Prologue, Part 1, Part 2)

Vijay is one of Jack's buddies from the law school days. Aside from both being moot court champions back in the day, they became fast friends once they realized their common love of food and wine. Vijay is the kind of person who can make those "once in a lifetime" experiences not only possible, but down-right easy. Things that we've only ever entertained in theory become actuality. The guy definitely knows how to enjoy life. Plus, he wears the SOFTEST sweaters. So what was it this time, another amazing meal? A chance to indulge in some new luxury? A dream vacation? Well, yes, yes and yes.

The Story...

About a year ago, Vijay found himself at a Red Cross Auction with some friends and family, and together as a group, they decided to bid on the big prize- a week-long stay at Chateau d'Oigny, a 16th century castle in the valley of the Retz Forest, about an hour outside of Paris and near the heart of the Champagne region. Upon winning the bid, each winning partner was responsible for finding 4 more people to join the group not only to split the cost, but also to enjoy a week of extraordinary food, wine, and amazing company in a fairy-tale setting.

When Jack and I were home for the holidays last year, we decided to drop by Vijay's family's big holiday party, just to say hi. Upon walking through the front door, we were immediately greeted warmly by his entire extended family and we each had a glass of champagne in our hand within the first minute of standing in the foyer. We felt like invited guests; not party-crashers! Several hours later, we were chatting with Vijay on the patio when he invited us to join him in France. Although we had already booked our big trip for the year to Chile, it only took a few moments for us to make up our minds and hop on board.

Well, life happens, or more specifically, work happens, and since we returned from Chile a mere 2 weeks before we were supposed to leave for France, Jack found himself unable to detangle himself from a mountain-load of work that had landed on his shoulders, and had to cancel his trip. Fortunately, my sister, the fabulous Connie Sheu Chun, was able to join me at what we would later refer to as "our chateau."

And so it was, that's how Connie and I found ourselves living it up in a castle for a week with Vijay's family and friends. On Sunday, May 11, Connie and I met up at the Charles de Gaul airport in Paris, and headed out by train to Villers-Cotteret, a charming village with the nearest train station to the chateau. Connie broke her 40 day meat fast on the train with a salami sandwich!


The following posts show pictures and details of our 6 days at Chateau d'Oigny, beginning with the most recent day. To see all of my pictures from this trip, click here to go to Flickr. Enjoy!

Chateau d'Oigny: Day 6

Today's itinerary started us off at the Place de la Madeleine, La Madeleine being a church designed to look like a greek temple. Beautiful on the outside, but pretty dark and creepy on the inside, with austere stone statues lurking in every corner.

The plaza surrounding La Madeleine brimmed over with specialty food shops, flower stands, and farmer's markets. Here were some of the lovely sights:

Vibrant roses stacked horizantally at a flower stand.

Check out the delicate zebra patterns on these rainbow trout! The fishmonger tried to charge me 1 euro for taking a picture, but I just flashed a cute smile and walked away.

Yup, it's what you think it is... a basket of large black truffles at the Maison du Truffe. Each one of these guys is worth it's weight in gold. It smelled so heavenly in this store.

A fancy grocer sold all sorts of tropical and exotic foods, like these mangosteens from Thailand, which made Connie and I start salivating almost instantaneously.

For lunch, we headed to the Rue Montorgueil, and ended up a cool bistro. We knew we had picked a good place when we walked in and saw this great painting on the wall...

My order of steak frites, in honor of Jack.

We stumbled upon a bakery that boasted that it's eclairs are the third best in all of Paris! Well, third best! I had to try one. Awfully skinny, but crisp, pillowy and decadent.

We strolled through the Jardin des Tuilleries on our way to the Museum de l'Orangerie

Monet's "Waterlilies" hang from the curved walls of L'Orangerie, the museum to which he donated the paintings to in the 1920's.

We also came across this Renoir. A copy of this painting hangs in my parents' house in San Jose.

Rodin's "Kiss" graces the terrace outside of the l'Orangerie.

Following the Rose Line (of The Da Vinci Code fame) at the L'Eglise de St. Sulpice.

Connie and I picked up this cake for the gang from the Grand Epicerie de Paris. Apricot custard with almond and pistachio filling and crust. Delicious!
It was our farewell ode to a fabulous week in France.

Chateau d'Oigny: Day 5

For Connie and I, today was devoted to rest and relaxation. Our full day in Paris required some serious recovery, so we slept in, and spent the day reading, napping and taking a walk. Since everyone else had left in the morning on day trips, we pretty much had the run of the castle.

A dewy iris on the castle grounds.

A shuttered window on a neighboring cottage.

A fluffy purple plant in the fields behind Oigny.

The Retz Forest.

Connie meanders along a cobblestone path.

Our tranquil walk through the small villages neighboring the chateau allowed us to savor the beauty of the French countryside slowly... why is countryside in France so much prettier than countrysides in other places?

For dinner, we enjoyed some revamped leftovers and a tasty mac and cheese casserole made by Serena and Nalini. Frederic brought her cute family over to join us in this meal, and we were honored to meet her husband Cristophe, her 12 year old son Josef, and 6 year old Lila, whom I enjoyed creating plate people with after dinner.

Chateau d'Oigny: Day 4

Following a Lucky magazine guide to Parisian boutiques, Connie and I trekked all over the city looking for specific shops, only to discover that many of them no longer existed! Oh well, it's a good way to see the city.

Our first cafe creme, on Rue de Cler.

Our first crepes- jambon et beurre... yum!

A fancy face at the Jardin de Luxembourg

A classic favorite- Berthillon ice cream on the Isle de St. Louis. The salted caramel and honey nougat was absolutely luxurious!

Fountains at Hotel de Ville.

Nalini's scrumptious Coq au Vin with egg noodles.

Vishnu blows out his birthday candles... what a legendary way to celebrate an 18th birthday!

Vijay and his sweet family.

The gang was feeling festive this evening, partly in celebration of Vishnu's birthday, partly due to all of the champagne we consumed before dinner... to keep the party going, we headed down to the DUNGEON. Right? What better place to party it up? The music from Vishnu's ipod reverberated against the stone walls, the wine continued to flow, and Tim even got up to show us a little boogie. We said thank you to the spirits of the dungeon, and headed back upstairs a little bit after midnight. On the patio, Vijay pulled out some cigars he had bought a few days ago. Cuban, he said. Oh really? Although I'm not normally a cigar smoker, Connie and I decided to split one, just to try it and to say that I smoked a Cuban in France. You know, it was actually pretty good! Very smooth with a nice finish. Just like my day.

Chateau d'Oigny: Day 3

A beautiful day begins with a beautiful frittata... when I saw Serena's fabulous pie come out of the oven, I knew it was going to be a good morning.

Some savory herbs from the chateau's herb garden.


Today, we drove into Reims (pronounced "rance", rhymes with France), to begin our tour of the Champagne region. We kicked off the day with a visit to the Reims Cathedral, a beautiful piece of gothic architecture and the site of coronation for 26 French kings and queens.


One of the stained glass windows was designed by Marc Chagall...


Connie and Vijay admire the cathedral.

Vijay and I hit the town.

Deepa and Maureen enjoy some champagne in Champagne.

Although most of the major champagne houses were closed this week because everyone was at a champagne competition in London, we were able to take a tour of the legendary Moet & Chandon, where Dom Perignon reputedly discovered how to make this bubbly elixir by accident. Maureen says that story is just a marketing gimmick.


Moet & Chandon's ancient wine caves, dug out by the Romans!


Moet's beautiful vineyards.

Baby grapes.

We made it back to the chateau in time to enjoy a delicious dinner of cured duck salad, and veal with a roux gravy, made by Frederic, our cheerful chateau caretaker.

Chateau d'Oigny: Day 1

Upon arriving at the train station in Villers-Cotteret, we are promptly picked up by Vijay and Maureen and whisked off to the chateau, where we spend the rest of the evening relaxing and getting to know our castle-mates for the next week. This was our first view of the castle...

And some of the chateau residents...

Bronsky the happy dog

Pierre the Peacock

To select rooms at the castle, we drew from a lottery. Connie and I picked the last number, which was fine, there really wasn't a loser room in the entire place... although noone wanted to sleep alone up in the turret. We ended up choosing a room in what is billed as the children's house, across the courtyard from the main chateau. Children's House

What did we have for dinner on our first night in such glorious spendor? Chinese food! It was the only restaurant open on the Pentecost holiday.

Day 2

Today was another day spent enjoying the chateau, and getting to know each other. Total, there were 13 people in our group. We took a quick jaunt into town to buy some basic supplies (yes, the caseloads of wine were considered an essential!) and discovered Villers-Cotteret to be a quaint, quiet village with everything you could need-boulangeries, fromageries, charcuteries, epiceries, patisseries, and cafes on every corner surrounding the main square. It felt very "Beauty and the Beast"- ish... Disney version.

A statue of Alexander Dumas, who was born in the village.

The pork we picked up for dinner.

In the afternoon, Connie and I went for a bike ride in the country side, and reveled in the fresh air, beautiful fields and France! We somehow broke one of the bikes, but made it back to the chateau in one piece.

Connie and Kirin relaxing on the patio

Hanging out by the grill

Tim, slicing up the delicious grilled pork.

Vijay and Serena preparing dinner

Dinner this evening consisted of pork two ways- grilled and roasted, roasted potatoes, and a salad of butter lettuce and frisee with beet, celery root and carrot crudite.

A toast to our second night at Chateau d'Oigny.

We were lucky enough to have Maureen of Chai Consulting on our trip with us, and she gave us a great lesson this evening on how to identify and understand our wines. This lesson certainly came in handy for the rest of the trip, considering how much wine was consumed during our week long stay.

Our evening ended with Nutella and jam bruschettas, and chatting around the campfire in the courtyard.