Press room: Baltimore Sun

This spring we were contacted by the Baltimore Sun to take part in a special “Great Escapes” section. We sent along a photo from KHulett Photography and were excited to see our name in print. Which you can, if you squint hard and look at the bottom of the page.

First look: Sharon & Fred’s wedding

After over a year of planning, three action-packed days of set-up and clean-up, and one day of rest, we’re super excited to share a few first look photos of Sharon & Fred’s wedding from this past weekend.

There will definitely be more to come and we can’t wait to show you the amazing decoration and lighting that turned the reception space from “wow” into “WOW!”

Photos courtesy of Olivier Lalin

An Easter Tea Dance in the French Countryside

We attended an English Tea Dance at a very pretty chateau in the French countryside last weekend. What are the characterstics of an English Tea Dance you ask? 1) Flowery porcelain tea cups 2) strawberry and cream pastry puffs 3) more than one person in attendance named Nigel 4) a strong Pimm’s punch that loosened up the crowd for mid-afternoon dancing.

Vacation catch-up

Fête in France enjoyed a bit of vacation and is now busybusybusy working on 2010 weddings.  Anne toured around Portugal in the unceasing rain and when she returned, Nancy set off for the Basque Country and enjoyed lovely sunny springtime weather.  Both indulged in the fine foods and wines of the Iberian penninsula.

We won’t bore you with all of our vacation photos – but this one was too cheesy-yet-cute not to share!

Château dinner

We were recently invited to dinner by a chateau-owner, or châtelain, who has a château about 35 minutes from Paris.  Madame Châtelaine, who spends most of her time in the US, singlehandedly oversaw the entire renovation of the château, from the carefully aged tiles in the bathrooms to the antique furniture that graces each uniquely decorated room.

So it wasn’t surprising that Madame Châtelaine would be able to host a gourmet dinner for 10!  And it wasn’t just the food that was remarkable – Fête in France’s dinner companions were:  two blonde Eastern-Europeans/former professional tennis players; an endearing English businessman and his wife, who had the most wonderful continental European accent; a very elegant older couple who traveled the world and who were great patrons of opera and ballet; a charming French businessman from Versailles.

Despite the evident gap in age, means, and social status (alas, we do not count Lenny Kravitz or Sharon Stone among our “besties”) we had such a great time!  Actually, this is one of the occasions where the word “marvelous” would do it more justice: we had such a marvelous time!

So we’re crossing our fingers that we’ll have the chance to get back to the château, whether it’s for another dinner or even better, for a wedding we’ve booked!

Super Bowl XLIV – Google’s Parisian Love ad

It is an unlikely place to find a charming, sweet, endearing ad.  But the agency chosen by Google hit the perfect note!

Parisian Love

Château or bust

Visiting a new chateau can be a lot of fun – we get to escape from Paris for a while, enjoy the countryside and hopefully find a great new venue to propose to our clients.

We were put in contact with a chateau owner who is keen to do more weddings at his chateau in France.  We, being keen to develop relationships directly with chateaus, decided to take a trip down to check out the situation.  The chateau was located in the Ardèche, a department nestled between Burgundy and Provence, part of the Rhône-Alps region.  The caretakers were a nice English couple who had been long-time residents of Zimbabwe – with weather a far cry from the grey-misty-coldness of French winters.

The chateau was built in the mid 1800’s and is named after the mountain that overshadows the chateau grounds.  An intriguing historical anecdote is that it apparently was into this mountain that a plane carrying JFK’s sister and her lover crashed in 1948.  The chateau can sleep quite a few people and has a large outdoor terrace that could accommodate an elegant outdoor reception.

Wanting to capitalize on our time away from the office, we enjoyed some well-earned glasses of Saint-Emilion and researched other possible venues we could visit on our drive back up to Paris.  Thankfully there was no shortage of candidates and we decided to contact a chateau our wine merchant friend Charles had recommended to us.  The chateau owner had recently inherited the estate and was happy to have us come visit.

This chateau, located between Beaune and Dole, had the symmetric elegant lines of the 17-18th century style.  Despite the snowy weather and general dishevelment inside because of the renovation work, we could tell that it would be a great venue.  The work is scheduled to be done for the chateau’s re-opening in May, are dates are still available for Summer/Fall 2010!

Reinauguration of a classic Parisian wedding venue

Last evening Fête in France attended the reinauguration of one of the classic wedding venues in Paris – in fact Anne’s parents-in-law had their wedding there over 50 years ago! This venue doubles as the alumni club of one of France’s prestigious grande écoles.

We were treated to champagne and canapés and chef’s stations that couldn’t manage to churn out the nibbles fast enough (our favorite: crab & caviar served on a potato chip!) We were also treated to some classic quadrille dancing by current students, smartly dressed in uniforms and long red dresses.

The rooms on the main floor have been beautifully restored and the hand-applied gilt details sparkled in the chandelier light. The blue room also caught our eye – very Marie Antoinette!

Gourmet nights: there’s a chef in the kitchen!

A friend of Fête in France’s recently hosted a dinner party at his apartment – a pretty standard occurrence in Paris – except for the fact that a professional chef prepared all the food and wine pairings.

Whatever you call them – “hidden kitchens” or “secret supper clubs” or “gourmet nights” – they are a great way to spend an evening with friends in a nice, homey setting.

Our menu included two different amuse gueules, a delicious velvety asparagus & leek soup, wonderfully seasoned lamb chops, a selection of the *best* cheese I’ve had in a long time, and a decadent chocolate semi-freddo for dessert.  Throughout the dinner we were bien arrosé with champagne and wine and finished off the evening with digestifs of Calvados and Croatian liqueur.

A gourmand way to start the year – balanced out by healthy eating the rest of the week!

Tip: If your group is vacationing in Paris and your vacation rental has the kitchen space, hiring a chef for a private meal can be a memorable part of your trip!

Ringing in 2010 with New Year’s Eve at a Château in Burgundy

Bonne Année 2010!

Happy New Year to all you blog readers out there. Fête in France rang in the 2010 with a gourmet dinner and dancing at a château in Burgundy located in the heart of the wine country, between Beaune and Dijon.

Set among the Grand Cru vineyards, we dined on the chef’s carefully crafted 6 course tasting menu and greatly appreciated the wine pairings of excellent Burgundy 1er crus or Grand Crus…or was that 1er Grand Cru? You’ll have to excuse us because it’s all a little fuzzy by the time you make it to the cheese course. Good thing there was a live band to help us work off some of those desserts!

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