Bringing art to éire

We, at the French Tour co have sourced some fabulous original oil on canvas paintings which we will be taking to Ireland to sell in the lead up to Christmas.

The paintings are sold on canvas and are very well priced.
50cm x 60cm are all 55euros
60cm x 90cms are all 75euros

Contact us now if you would like to see the range of paintings we have in stock. A perfect original Christmas present. Limited stock available...
We will also be selling them at the FAB PO Christmas fair on 29th November at the Salle Polyvalente in St Jean Pla de Corts

Bringing wine to éire

We are so excited to be bringing some of our favourite wines and winemakers to Ireland! On the 10 December, in O'Donovans Hotel in Clonakilty , Domaine Trelaor will be hosting a wine tasting dinner : a 4 course meal matched to their award winning wines.

Book now for Thursday 10 December :

Kick off is a 19h30 with pre-dinner aperitifs
Entree : Ricotta and Spinach Tartlet with seasonal leaves. Matched with One Block Muscat.
First course : Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper Soup served with Garlic Crutons served with One Block Grenache.
Main Course : Irish Pork Steak with an Apricot and Sage Stuffing served with an Apple and Calvados Jus. Vegetables..... Mangetous, Red Cabbage, Garlic Potatoes and Roasted Baby Potatoes. Served with Three Peaks.
Dessert... Lemon Tart served with an Orange Coulis.... served with Fresh Cream or a Homemade Mixed Berry Ice Cream. Served with Muscat de Rivesaltes.

Freshly Brewed Coffee or Tea to finish.

The price of the meal, including all wines and tutored wine tastings from Jonathan, is €50 per head.

You can also reserve a nights B&B in the hotel for €45 per person

Domaine Treloar wines are available to purchase and we are now taking pre orders for same.
Please let us know asap if you would like to attend the wine tasting dinner and / or if you would like to purchase some wines before Christmas : a perfect Christmas gift for a wine lover!

FAB PO Christmas Market

The FAB-PO Marché de Noël is back!!!

FAB-PO an international non-profit making business network based in the Pyrénées-Orientales, is pleased to announce the return of its phenomenally successful Christmas Market. This year’s market will take place on Sunday 29th November from 11am until 5pm at the Salle Polyvalente in Saint Jean Pla de Corts – make sure you put the date in your diary now!

It promises to be a fun day out for all the family with Father Christmas making an appearance, pottery and facepainting for the kids, wine tasting and French language workshops, carol singing, a tombola with fantastic prizes, stalls selling local produce, cards and Christmassy delights and much much more. Cyberia Café will be serving delicious sandwiches, soft drinks and snacks, and there will be a bar run by local winemakers, so come along and make a day of it.

It’s all for a good cause too as 25% of the profits from the day will be going to Cancer Support France (www.cancersupportfrance.info) , which provides English speaking support to cancer sufferers in France.

See you there!

V off !

The French Tour Co attend the much more relaxed sister exhibition to Visa pour l'Image, the appropriately named "V Off"
There was a great exhibition of USAP photos in the Rive Gauche gallery in Perpignan centre, celebrating their fantastic years success.
Perpignan is still celebrating USAP's success and, after hammering Montauban this weekend in the Top 14, is looking forward to a another great season.
Allez USAP!

I love Paris in the Springtime,

I love Paris in the fall,
I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles
But being with the lassies on our college reunion is the best of all!

Wow, what a weekend avec les filles! There is nothing like heading off for a weekend , leaving your cares and troubles behind , a whole three nights sans enfants and hanging out with your mates from college in the most beautiful city in the world, wee hawww!

Paris, and France in general has so much to offer and as the sun shone down on us, we discovered fab restaurants ( La Table d'Anvers , the highlight of the trip), funky cool bars, excellent live music and did what the locals do .. had cafés in bars and people watched...

I was surprised to find a vineyard tucked away behind the Sacre Coeur as we meandered through the cobblestoned streets, soaking up the sights and sounds of our eclectic neighbourhood. According to the blurb pinned to the locked gates, the harvest finishes every year with a huge "fete de vendange", harvest festival with people dancing and singing in the streets.
The small vintage ( they produce about 2000 bottles a year) is auctioned off publicly and the proceeds go to the town hall coffers.
Whether the wine is drinkable or not, is debatable, but the bottles become collectors items because of their scarcity and also the labels - a different artist designs the label every year.

Don't forget our Wine Harvest tour running this October in Perpignan - a great deal for three nights B&B in a luxurious spa hotel, evening meal, one full days wine tour with gourmet lunch, one day at the wine festival and another full day in Collioure, transfers and all local transport included for 379euros
Click here to book online

Well done to the Munster girls team

Bravo to the Munster womens team who travelled this weekend to the South of France, to play the french champions , Montpellier.
Arriving on Friday for a whistle stop tour , they played local team Villelongue de la Salanque on Friday and Montpellier on Saturday before catching the early flight out of Carcassonne on Sunday. Phew!
There was great support for the victorious Munster team at the match on Saturday with a loud , proud irish crowd cheering them on.
We caught up with the girls that evening where they were wined and dined with gusto in Villelongue's town hall. A huge paella was followed by yummy dessert ( bras de venus) and a delicious cheese platter. The girls were blown away by the generosity of their hosts and the huge welcome they received from the local catalans.
After the speeches, the pourrou was brought out - this is a special bottle with a long thin spout from which you pour the muscat ( sweet wine) directly into your mouth from a height. Good clean fun!
After the pourrou had done its rounds and the vocal chords were truly doused, the singing commenced and the French contingent were regaled to the sounds of Christy Moore, Puc ar Buile, The fields of Athenry etc etc.
We left them at it in the wee hours to party on ..
Bravo Les Filles!

Fine Wines in Ireland

I'm just back from Ireland (at least a stone heavier ) where we caught up with all our friends and relatives and enjoyed a gastronomical tour of the countryside.
The quality of food , particularly in West Cork, where we were based really is high with so many cottage industries producing food locally. So, if you are based in Clonakilty for example you can enjoy a meal from ingredients sourced within a 10 mile radius for the most part.
Succulent fresh meat, locally caught fish and shellfish, a huge variety of cheeses and breads and organic produce are widely available. The restaurants, too , seem to have pulled up their socks , offering good quality meals at reasonable prices.
A group of us dined at The Terrace in O'Donovans Hotel , main street Clonakilty and all 8 of us were very happy with our meal with dishes like hot mussels cooked with chorizo, roast duck on a bed of lentil cassoulet and millefeuille of vegetable with pistachio topping, it was hard not to be.
However, good quality, reasonably priced french wine was hard to come by ... is it possible to get a nice bottle of french wine in Ireland in the 10 - 12euro bracket?
I'm still looking .... perhaps we will be able to bring some of our favourite Roussillon wines to Ireland in the near future?
Watch this space ..