Hi friends, I'll be traveling to Paris this September solo. While I'm there, there are two things I'd love to do, but need some advice on where to get this experience. I would love to take a cooking class, maybe even a multi-day course with a group. It could be in Paris or out in the country side somewhere. I have also heard of people that take multi-day bike excursions through the French countryside tasting wine and staying in the small towns along the way. Has anyone else ever heard of this? Do you have any companies/tour groups you would recommend? I'm OK traveling alone, but think a little structure like this would ease my anxiety a bit. Thanks! Mary
Posted by
Virginia, USA
5850 posts
Regarding the cooking classes ... In the past 3 years, I've taken 4 classes at Cook'n with Class (www.cooknwithclass.com) and one class at Le Cordon Bleu. Both offer short classes in English. At Cook'n with Class, I took a dinner class, a market evening class, a bread class, and a baking class. While I thought all the classes were great, I particularly recommend the market evening class. The classes are for a small group (6 to 8). You will go shopping with the chef and will pick out the ingredients for your dinner and then go back to the school where you will prepare the meal. They are very generous with the food and wine. You will make 3 courses and have a cheese course. All of the classes were very fun. I did not like my Le Cordon Bleu class as much. I took a market class and demo. I really enjoyed the market portion, but did not get much from the demo. We had a French chef with an English translator. No recipes were provides so you had to madly take notes during the demo if you wanted the recipes. The chef only made one serving of each course (there were probably 25 in the class), so one did not even get to taste all three dishes. The food looked beautiful, but since I didn't get to taste it, who knows? I would take another class there, but only if it were a participation class. I also highly recommend Paris Walks (www.paris-walks.com). This could give you a little structure.
Posted by
Tel Aviv
15788 posts
Fat Tire Bikes has short (half and full day ) bike tours and also Segway tours. They also have a link to Paris du Jour - Women's groups which sounds like it might be along the lines you are looking for.