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!
1 comment:
it says that you flickr photos are private. how do i view them? these pics are so beautiful!
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