All About Hotel Barge Charters: Upper Loire

Showing posts with label Upper Loire. Show all posts

Monday, December 05, 2016

French Hotel Barge RENAISSANCE offers 2 free hotel nights

The French Hotel Barge RENAISSANCE is offering two free nights at the 4-star Hotel Westminster in central Paris for charter guests in 2017. The hotel stay includes breakfast and can be used either before or after your cruise. This offer can also be combined with current specials on the Renaissance of 10% off charters for select departures in April and May and 10% off per cabin on select departures in May. Booking deposits must be made by January 6, 2017 to be eligible.

The eight-passenger, French hotel barge Renaissance provides a true luxury cruise experience. Among its amenities are spacious suites, an on-deck heated spa pool, alfresco dining on the forward deck, a fireplace in the saloon – enjoy these things along with the undivided, personal attention of a five-person crew that includes a captain, tour guide, master chef and two hosts/hostesses.

The Renaissance travels along the Canal de Briare and Canal Latéral à la Loire between the towns of Montargis and Chatillon-sur-Loire. This area is known as the Gâtinais and the "Garden of France". The Canal de Briare is one of the oldest canals in France, completed in 1642, and is steeped with history. You will discover quaint villages, beautiful scenery, and partake in interesting side trips.

Enjoy a French Barging Cruise in 2017 ...

Contact Paradise Connections Yacht Charters to book RENAISSANCE
View Renaissance's online brochure
Visit our website for more info on our barges and barging: www.BargeCharters.com

It's not how far nor how fast, it's the pleasure of the journey that keeps people coming back for more.

Saturday, October 10, 2015

RECIPE from French Hotel Barge Renaissance: Sticky Toffee Pudding

We would like to share a recipe from the French Hotel Barge Renaissance.

Luke Dessain is a very talented young chef who loves the barging life. He started his career as an 18-year-old working as a sous chef in a French Alps ski resort where he learned to cook classic French cuisine with a Scottish chef as his mentor.

In the 8 years since then, he has refined his considerable skills and now loves nothing more than creating dishes using wonderful local ingredients as the chef aboard Renaissance in Western Burgundy.

This recipe for Sticky Toffee Pudding originates from Luke's English childhood.

Ingredients

2 cups of dates
3 Earl Grey English Breakfast tea bags
Brewed coffee
1 cup plain yogurt (don’t throw that cup away!)
1 yogurt container each of sunflower oil and sugar
3 yogurt containers of flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
4 eggs
Between 1/3 and 1/2 cup of salted or unsalted butter
Between 1/3 and 1/2 cup soft of ight brown sugar
Generous 1/3 cup of cream

Method

De-seed the dates and chop finely. Put the dates in a saucepan with the coffee to almost cover, add the tea bags and cook on a medium heat until reduced.
Combine the flour, sugar, oil, yogurt and eggs until smooth.
Add the reduced dates, mix, then add the baking powder. (Don’t forget to take out the tea bags first!).
Heat the oven to 350F/180C.
Put the mixture into small buttered and floured ramekins (muffin tins could also be used) for cooking and bake for about 20 minutes or until set.
For the caramel sauce, melt the butter and brown sugar together, stirring over a medium heat. Once the sugar has dissolved, add cream, stirring, and reduce to a thick sauce. Note: if you don’t care for salted caramel, use unsalted butter.
To plate up, pop the pudding cakes out of their ramekins, warm through but don’t cook more and cover with the warmed caramel sauce (if there’s any left over, it will keep in the refrigerator).
Garnish with a raspberry and serve with vanilla ice cream.
Enjoy this indulgent pud!

Thank you, Luke, for sharing this recipe with us!

To learn more about cruising the French canals upon Renaissance, read a previous post which tells more about the barge, and view our online brochure.

Looking forward to your inquiries

Contact Paradise Connections Yacht Charters to book RENAISSANCE
View RENAISSANCE's online brochure
Visit our website for more info on our barges & barging: www.BargeCharters.com