bouillabaisse for lunch in Cassis

outdoor café in Cassis, France (c) 2019 by David Ourisman, all rights reserved

One of the coolest things about a cruise is that you can go to sleep in Italy and wake up in France. Our first stop, after leaving Rome aboard the Seabourn Ovation, was in the port of Bastia (on the north coast of Corsica). The next morning, we awoke in Toulon, a small town in Provence on the Cote d'Azur.

Did you know that we can arrange private shore excursions? You're not limited to the group tours that cruise lines offer. Our visit was designed by Virtuoso onsite We Travel France. It included a wine tasting experience at the E. Bodin winery in Cassis, followed by a visit to the Port de Cassis. My highlight of the day was the utterly fabulous lunch I enjoyed at Chez César. Right on the water, their bouillabaisse was utterly authentic (and unlike what passes for bouillabaisse in the US).

Cassis is a cute town with at least a dozen open-air restaurants overlooking its small harbor. I captured the image above in our free time following lunch. I recommend a visit!

copyright (c) 2019 by Ourisman Travel LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell, a Virtuoso® Member. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

VirtuosoWeek top ten | Canada on sale

Shangri-La Vancouver

Ourisman Travel is back from Virtuoso Travel Week. Here's is the first of our "top ten" takeaways from this years #VirtuosoWeek: Canada is on sale! One USD (greenback) is currently worth 1.28 CAD (loonie). This is a 40% discount from where things stood one year ago.

Great news for U.S. citizens wanting to travel north of the 49th parallel ... and it also makes Canada the perfect destination for U.K. or European citizens in shock over the current value of the pound sterling and the Euro. Here are our top ideas for visiting Canada this summer, fall, or winter:

Fogo Island Inn. This resort was one of my top ten takeaways from the 2014 Travel Week, and it's a stunning, all-inclusive resort on a small island in Newfoundland. Virtuoso guests receive a $100 USD hotel credit in addition to everything that's already included.

Vancouver is one of my favorite cities in the world, with great Virtuoso hotels (including the Shangri-La pictured above), fine dining, and a climate suited for year-round active travel. You can bike or hike to your heart's content. Walk across the Capilano Suspension Bridge, visit the Archeological Museum at UBC, shop at Granville Market, or take a seaplane to Vancouver Island and visit the Buchart Gardens.

Quebec City's Christmas Markets. You don't have to travel to Germany to experience Old World Christmas Markets. Less than a two hours from New York, less than three hours from Chicago... it's a wonderful weekend getaway with two Virtuoso hotels ready to offer their five-star hospitality.

Montreal's shopping and dining. On parle français ici. The largest city in the provence of Quebec, Canada's francophone province, Montreal offers visitor great shopping and dining opportunities, including three Michelin-starred restaurants.

Wine Tasting at Niagra Falls. There are 50 wineries dotting the shores of Lake Ontario, and we can arrange wine tours of this not-yet-discovered wine region.

copyright (c) 2016 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell Travel. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

wine tasting in the Barossa Valley

wine tasting in Barossa Valley (c) 2016 by David Ourisman, all rights reserved

The Barossa Valley is like Napa without the crowds — featuring Shiraz instead of Chardonnay. The region abounds in small boutique wineries, and visitors can enjoy distinctive experiences well beyond the normal wine tasting ritual. My previous post described our visit to Two Hands Wines. On Wednesday, our hosts at The Louise, the boutique Relais & Chateaux property in the Barossa Valley, arranged the following opportunities for our group.

Wine & Food Match at Kalleske Wines. We showed up at 10 a.m. for a wine and food pairing session — five different wines (one white, one rose, two red, and one red dessert wine). Kalleske Wines produces certified organic wines. Wine tasting at 10 a.m.? This was something totally new for me.

Taste Your Birth Year at Seppeltsfield. Established 150 years ago, this vineyard produces Tawny (Port) wines, and we each had the opportunity to taste a port from the year of our birth. Strong stuff, my 65 year old sample proved to be! This was followed by lunch at the winery's Fino restaurant and a chance to do some retail therapy at the Jam Factory artists' studios.

Hentley Farm Wines has been named the top winery in Australia by James Halliday. We had a chance to sample wines direct from the barrel although, frankly, there's only so much wine I can drink in a day, so it was taste and spit for me!

I had no idea that the oak barrel can affect a wine so profoundly, and our final experience at Murray Street Vineyards was a chance to taste the exact same wine, stored in different barrels made with different varieties of oak from French, American, and other coopers. More taste and spit, but the differences were astounding.

grape vines (c) 2016 by David Ourisman, all rights reserved

copyright  (c)  2016 by David Ourisman LLC.  All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell Travel. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.