GRAMP used to say he'd done everything in life twice. But even he wasn't a cordon bleu. He didn't come right out and say it, but if you cornered him and asked, he'd have to admit it....

The romantic land of Armagnac, Roquefort, and the nimble-footed mountain goat is bountifully truffled with good country hotels.

In the early 1900'S, when unlimited sums were spent on expansive living in England and on the Continent, the chefs who served in the kitchens of great estates were French, or at least French-trained.

The kitchen of the old Ritz had more than one hundred chafing dishes. The shining copper pans always seemed to say: “Here is savoir faire.”

Is the timbale ready for His Highness, chef? The fish course has been served.

The Aristocratic Province of the Plantagenet Kings offers distractions in country hotels, soft wines and subtle fish from the Loire, bathed in beaten butter.

There is so much to see in the province of the capital of France—cathedrals, châteaux, forests, and old towns.