Gastronomic City Breaks - Lyons & Barcelona
This year we are pleased to offer two long weekends in two contrasting
but unmissable cities: in July, Lyon; in December Barcelona. As always
we have planned a programme of cultural visits with an unforgettable
gastronomic event every day.
LYON
Many people regard Lyon as the world capital of gastronomy. It is also
a fine historic city with many wonderful museums, a magnificent Old
Quarter and an electric atmosphere: in a word, the ideal place for a
long weekend.
DAY 1: We foregather for breakfast at the Champagne bar at St Pancras
station and take the Eurostar to Paris connecting with the TGV to Lyon.
The total journey time is a little under six hours. Our hotel is a charming
family-run hotel in the centre of the old city. Our first dinner will
be in a classic brasserie which has been serving Lyonnais cuisine for
a century.
DAYS, 2,3 & 4: The highlight of our weekend in Lyon will be lunch
in possibly the most famous and influential restaurant in the world.
Paul Bocuse, who still presides over his legendary restaurant, more
or less invented modern cuisine. He retains his three Michelin stars
year after year with an irresistible combination of classic and innovative
cooking.
Our visits in the city include the marvellous 12th-century cathedral,
the Beaux Arts Museum and the unique textile museum. We spend a morning
in the Medieval city and another on the Presqu’Ile. Our restaurant
visits include the atmosphere Au Vieux Lyon and Gerard Vignat’s
Michelin-starred Auberge de Fond Rose
DAY 5: We take our return TGV and Eurostar
THIS
TOUR DEPARTS: 1st July 2010
OUR HOTEL: the charming Hotel des
Célestins
NUMBER IN PARTY: 12-.16
THE PRICE OF THIS TOUR: £1290
(single supplement £120)
BARCELONA
This year for our December City Break we should like to invite you to
join us in Barcelona. Our programme includes many of the unmissable
museums and sights whilst our gastronomic plans include a visit to Celler
de Can Roca in Gerona (number seven in World’s Top 50), dinner
in the elegant surroundings of Via Veneto, the cutting-edge Catalán
cuisine of Alquimia and Sunday lunch in a rural Masía.
DAYS 1 & 2: Flying into Barcelona we shall have time for a walk
around the medieval quarter and a visit to the city’s most beautiful
church before dinner in Alquimia. We begin Day 2 in Barcelona’s
single most famous building: Gaudi’s majestic Sagrada Familia
and have time to explore Gaudi’s other masterpieces on the Paseo
de Gracia before we travel up to Gerona and Joan Roca’s wonderful
restaurant for lunch. There is the possibility of a concert or opera
at the Liceu in the evening.
DAYS 3, 4 & 5: Our programme for Saturday includes two of the city’s
excellent museums: the Miró Foundation and the
National Museum of Catalán Art. In the evening it is the turn
of Via Veneto, a truly wonderful restaurant where tradition and innovation
are perfectly dove-tailed.
On Day 4, after an hour or so in the Maritime Museum we travel out to
the Sierra de Montseny for a lunch of delicious rural cuisine. There
will be some time on Monday morning before we have to take our return
flight.
THIS TOUR WILL DEPART: 2nd December
2010
NUMBER IN PARTY: 12-16
OUR HOTEL: The excellent and centrally
located Colón
THE PRICE OF THIS TOUR: