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Showing posts from 2014

An extraordinary sojourn to the Champagne Vineyards in Reims, France.

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During our stay in Paris, we took a fascinating day trip to the quaint town of Reims in France, that houses the quintessential Moet Chandon champagne fields n champagne factories. Moët Chandon is a French winery and co-owner of the luxury goods company Moët-Hennessy - Louis Vuitton , it is one of the world's largest champagne producers and a prominent champagne house. The company holds a Royal Warrant to supply champagne to Queen Elizabeth II :)  Beauty of Europe isn't unknown, but to experience this beauty is a stupefying experience. We felt euphoric, soaked in the beauty, the air, the smell around, smiled, sipped one of the best champagnes of the world and let our hearts be intoxicated with all of those!  Our journey started at 8am in the morning from Gare del Est station in Paris. It took us about 45 mins to reach Reims train station. We had a 3hr tour booked thru Chris Event. We had some nice chocolate macarons and a delicious long baguette baked with

Tea time and the Queen of hills!

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My love for Darjeeling tea is intense. Tea for me has always been synonymous to it. During my visit to Darjeeling, after 13 years, in 2012, I bought tea leaves enough to last for over a year, because I could never find those premium quality Darjeeling tea in Chennai. So just wanted to talk a little bit about this love of mine, its a interesting read for those who share the same fervor! Back into the pages of history, ‘Tea’ in Darjeeling was first grown in the year 1841 and then almost 9 years later in the year 1852, it started to be raised commercially in many districts of Darjeeling and its adjoining regions. Today Darjeeling valley region produces roughly 11 million kilos per year. It is an exclusive beverage that fetches high revenue too. Darjeeling-the queen of hills There are about 64 tea estates in the Darjeeling valley region. Though few more states in India grow tea however; fine tasting tea is synonymous to Darjeeling tea. Two leaves and bud ar

The City of lights and the joy of being there.

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Our trip to France and Switzerland in the year 2013 had been nothing short of a dream come true for me! 'Paris', whatever I say about her, would be nothing that hasn't been described or expressed before. I however feel that everyone who visits this city goes thru one common emotion, and that is an overwhelming love for this bewitching beauty of a city. Here, I write about our experiences and the joy we had in the City of love! Having done an extensive research on the airport terminals and metros, we found ' Charles De Gaulle ' to be quite familiar. It was an easy way to the ticket counter, for a 'five-day Paris Visite pass'. The mistake we made here was to take a train to our hotel ( Tim hotel ) in Boulogne Billancourt. This travel required a change of trains three times, and considering we had two big suitcases and one laptop bag, it was a bad idea; and we realized that later, on our way back to the airport via taxi, which cost us just about 3