French Wine, French Cheese, Yes Please.

The feeling of pulling into our drive way tonight, wrapping up fifteen cities in eleven days, was one of the most peaceful feelings I’ve had in a long time.

My initial plan for the trip was to travel during the day, sight seeing, meeting chefs, exploring each of the cities, and then writing at night, keeping up on posts as I went. Well, that lasted about six hours into the first day of the Southern Summer Road Trip.

Instead, I went the pen and paper route to jot down notes as went, doodling around the edges of the pages as we drove, stopping at gas stations to get water & coffee, jotting down thoughts and salient points, or around the edges of the meals we shared.

IT. WAS. FREAKING. AWESOME.

It’s definitely going to take time to get all of the notes that were jotted down, the business cards that were collected, the pouring over of the cookbooks that I picked up along the way to be done, the photos edited and all of it put together into coherent thoughts. Not to mention the writing of the other features that are coming out soon.

So until that all happens, I’m celebrating the end of a phenomenal road trip with this, our French picnic in the French Quarter.

French Wine & French Cheese in the French Quarter

Our second night in New Orleans, after a day of exploring, lugging around camera bags in high summer in the deep south, we found ourselves in the pool, with a picnic of sorts.

• Cold white wines from Sagat La Perriere & Georges De Boeuf
• Creamy cheeses from Il De France
• Fresh peaches from a roadside stand we found
• Carr’s water crackers.
• Kalamata olives
• Roasted red peppers
• Sea Salt from Baleine  

The best part of this picnic, aside from sharing a few quiet moments with Jeff after traveling for the prior week without him, and aside from being the cool pool water after playing tourist all day, was the way the flavors of the cheese and the wine melded together, pairing with the juiciness of the peaches, the crisp snap of the cracker, & the twinkle of the lights of the french quarter.

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The feeling of floating in the water, bellies full of amazing French wine and cheese, and aching from a night of so much laughter with good friends, starting up at the summer night sky will be etched into my memory forever.

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