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Package 1 - Simple Stay: Simply
Visit Us and Enjoy the Tranquility, Your Large Suite, Breakfast each
Morning and Quiet Afternoons
Our suites, Cinnamon and Willow, are spacious. Each has a sitting
room with either a fireplace (Cinnamon) or a wood-burning stove
(Willow), a bedroom with warm, luxurious duvet comforters and a large
bathroom with a walk-in shower. Our suites are both
handicap-accessible. Each room is furnished for your comfort in real
French Country. The western-most suite, Willow, has a charming kitchen
facing the pond (and the willow tree, by the way).
Breakfast at Le Cormier is abundantly simple, in the French way. It comprises various juices, seasonal fruits, jams and confitures, various breads, home-made muffins, croissants and coffee or tea. We also offer special breakfasts that are low-fat, heart-healthy, or prepared with a low glycemic index or with low-sugar in support of the various diets and your own medical advice. Just let us know in advance of your visit if you use any of these special diets.
Breakfast can be served privately in your suite, on your terrace (wonderful in fine weather) or in our large, warm and welcoming kitchen.
Picnic Salad of Avocado, Mango and Salmon
During
your afternoons, we offer simple tea as a courtesy to our guests or you
may order a full English High Tea service, if preferred. Please let us
know in advance if you would like High Tea.
Fresh fruit and freshly baked cookies or crackers are available daily. Picnic baskets can also be arranged, filled with good things french, plus delicious items made in our kitchens and, of course, cheese and dessert. You may take your own wine with you or purchase something along the way. There are always new discoveries in wine to be made in our region of France.
Bicycles are available for your biking pleasure in and around Le Cormier. In our area, the roads are simple, quiet, and one lane - ideal for bicycling. We have mapped out several tours of varying lengths that will take you to nearby villages and sights of interest. The land is slightly variable. You will bicycle on the flat and up and down gentle grades. The lowest points around Le Cormier occur in the river valleys where the change is around 40 yards over a mile or so, sometimes a bit steeper depending on the route chosen. Enjoy a day of bicycling and take a picnic lunch with you.
Typical back road
These same roads may be walked, as well. We have maps that show simple
walks of a half hour to walks of several hours that take you to rural
villages, passing quaint farm houses and nearby forests. Fields of
sunflowers, wine grapes, corn, wheat and colza (the source for canola
oil with very bright yellow flowers in the Spring) accented with
forests, streams, lakes and ponds make a walk through the countryside
very inviting. This 'typical road' is one lane wide and - notice the
traffic? This is our road's busy period.
You may also take tours in your car. We have prepared several itineraries for your enjoyment. Or make up your own tour. We are happy to help.
In the evening, choose from the several very good restaurants in our area. Restaurants usually start serving dinner around 8PM. You will have your table for the whole evening, so you can simply sit back, relax and enjoy the cuisine.
Package 2: Upgrade and Enjoy Two Days in Paris plus Day Trips and Guided Tours in the Loire Valley
When you arrive at the Aeroport de Charles DeGaulle you
will be met by your driver who will take you to the heart of Paris on
the left bank - to a small quiet boutique hotel in the Saint-Germain
district. You will be close to all the sights - the Louvre, Notre Dame,
the River Seine, art galleries, shops, museums and gardens. Your
hostesses all speak English and can help with directions, restaurants
and things to do. Your chic hotel room will have its own private marble
bath. Continental breakfast is available every morning in the elegant
and charming downstairs dining room.
Getting to us from Paris is up to you, but we are happy to help. If you are adventurous, you may want to take the train to Le Cormier. You can take the Metro to the train station or take a taxi or hire a limosine service. We can meet you at the train station in Blois or you can rent a car there and continue on to Le Cormier. Or you can rent a car in Paris and drive down to see us.
Once at Le Cormier, we offer day trips and guided tours (planned in advance) intended to offer our guests a wider experience during their stay with us. For example, let us take you to Tours, the once capital of France. Tours boasts several museums, lovely cathedrals open to the public, a large open-air shopping arcade and a grand plaza. Another day trip might concentrate on the local wineries or the castles. If you would like to see something in the area and want us to make a day trip out of it, let us know. We can take you to local wineries to taste the outstanding and fruity, dry Gamay, Cabernet and Souvignon Blanc. We can go to Vouvray, Cheverny and Oisly or visit the caves at Larcay. You can speak directly with the winemakers, themselves. We can also go directly to the local farms that produce fois gras, acacia honey, preserved game (deer, wild boar, rabbit), plus much more. We can see small and large villages with wondrous eleventh-to-nineteenth century churches, walk narrow cobble-stoned streets, see troglodyte houses - houses literally built into the limestone cliffs, visit the local patisseries and learn about the history of the region (if you're interested). And, of course, no visit to the Loire Valley is complete without a tour of a few of the most outstanding castles and gardens in the world, like Chenonceau, built over the Cher river, Chambord with its over 400 rooms, Cheverny and the gardens of Chaumont.
Package 3: Learn This Region's French Farmhouse Cooking
We offer the opportunity to learn first hand the cuisine of our
area. Our cuisine (of the Sologne and the Touraine) is
very well known - it is mostly based on fish and game. It is simple,
wholesome and tastes unbelievably good. It can also be complex and
rich! You will learn the tricks
in preparing this cuisine as practiced here. We offer one-day courses
that are complete in themselves. Take a one day course and enjoy the
results for dinner that night, or take several days to learn more. It's
your choice.
You alone or you with another (we can only teach two at a time) will start each day with a trip to the farmers' market or to the grocery store. We will visit a local winery to taste and buy wines. You may choose your own menu from over 40 dishes in preparing a three, four or five course dinner, depending on the menu. Depending on the availability of ingredients, you may learn how to make appetizers such as boudin blanc (low fat sausage), rillette (a cooked meat spread) with pork or rabbit, liver pate, and main courses like pot-au-feu campagnard or baked fish quenelles (a sort of dumpling). You can learn how to prepare pintade (guinea hen - much like pheasant), how to create a delicious puree of most vegetables that offers vivid taste and retains the original bright colors of the vegetables, themselves plus special desserts like tarte tatin (a rich, upside-down apple pie originating here in the Sologne) or chocolate mousse. The lessons usually start with shopping each day at 10AM. A cookbook with all our recipes, including our breakfasts, will be yours to keep (loose-leaf or CD-ROM).
| Rate - per day with Continental Breakfast for two each morning | Willow: $140 (100 Euros) | Cinnamon: $130 (92 Euros) |
| Paris stay | Market Price at the time of reservation | |
| Picnic Lunch | $50 (35 Euros) | |
| English High Tea for two | $50 (35 Euros) | |
| Local Day Trip (your choice of destination from our list) for two (Guided Tour) with Picnic Lunch and Admission Fees | $225 (150 Euros) | |
| Local Day Trip (your choice of destination from our list) for two (Guided Tour) with Lunch and Admission Fees | $325 (220 Euros) | |
| One day French farmhouse cooking experience for one or two. Shopping, Winery Visit, or Regional Produce Visits. Using the ingredients you purchase. Recipe loose-leaf or CD-ROM. Dinner for two (the results of your own cooking!). Lodging not included. | $225 (150 Euros) |
