| 11/16/09 |
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Guest Comment Entered By Homeowner:
A week at the lovely house in Semur was the perfect way to rediscover ourselves and focus on each other and our shared interests: food, wine, cooking, walking, daytrips, and taking in the stunning countryside. We hadn’t planned to spend so much time at the house, but ended up cooking there every night. We loved the kitchen fireplace, the incredible Boucherie Notre Dame, the boulangerie (shop early as they typically run out of baguettes and chaussons aux pommes by noon!), and the Sunday market (shop early there, too). We can’t comment on the restaurants other than Cafe Mont Drejet where we enjoyed, daily, glasses of good and surprisingly inexpensive Chablis and the most amazing tarte de fromage.
Time seemed to stop when we arrived which was a relief given our pace in Paris the week prior. We arrived Saturday night and settled in with wine, sausages, and chocolate – a welcome gift from the owners as we arrived too late to shop for dinner. We lit a fire, relaxed, ate, drank, and smiled. We awoke to the pleasant quacking of ducks and calls of other birds -- a daily wake-up that we miss.
Every day we took a short but steep walk up to town center, to shop, look around, and visit Cafe Mont Drejet. At the boucherie, we found and cooked over the course of the week: incredibly fresh and tender rabbit loin, whole duck (quite different from American duck – cooked in an hour!), and a variety of sausages which we grilled. We even bravely tried the house andouliette (tripe sausage) which we poached first then grilled. At the Sunday market, we bought delicious pork loin, a bag full of fresh wild mushrooms, pears, and more. We planned our day trips to Beaune, Chablis, Dijon, and Vezelay, played Scrabble by the fireplace, and enjoyed Epoisses from the Casino Market (imagine buying perfectly ripened cheese from your Seven-11!) with those farmer’s market pears. Just right.
One of our favorite discoveries: Several days in a row we walked by an Epicerie just outside the town center and it was always closed. On Thursday, it was open! Outside, a small fresh fish display offered too many temptations. We chose langoustines, which we can’t find in Boston, and giant crevettes (like shrimp) for dinner. The langoustines were unbelievably sweet, like tiny lobsters, but more tender. We cooked the tails for not more than a minute in a little butter and wine reduction. The crevettes were just right as an appetizer with lemon juice, salt, and olive oil.
We miss the routine that we settled into after only a day, the ducks, the fireplace, the boucherie, boulangerie, tarte de fromage, the river, the views from all over the village, the view from the kitchen window and from the bedroom terrace, and even the funny scratching sound coming from the roof or shed most early mornings. We felt at home immediately. And it feels good writing this...
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Jim and Joni M
Boston, MA, USA
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| 05/29/08 |
Positive
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| what a wonderful location for relaxing, wine tasting, touring. the house is very comfortable, large, welcoming, and well-equipped. our week was perfect with barbecues by the stream, reading on the balcony, cozy breakfast by the wood stove in the kitchen. |
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Patricia Toback, New York, NY
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