Comments from Atlanta

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Comments from
The Atlanta Wine Auction
Catalog 2004

Papillon leases large houses for two-month periods and then hosts up to five couples for six-day stays. They cover all expenses, all breakfasts, all evening meals, and all but two lunches (taken on your own to facilitate free-time, shopping, etc. The accommodations are generous--separate bedrooms with adjoining baths, a comfortable seating area and delightful dining room. At St. Jean de Luz in Basque Country, there's a swimming pool, a tennis court, and beautiful views of the coast and surfers to the east and the Pyrenees to the west.

Best of all, Ellie Sherman is the best cook we've ever met. You'll enjoy an Ellie lunch or dinner every day, and you can even accompany Ellie while shopping on market day. Dennis Sherman comes with Ellie, and he know everything there is to know (or at least everything you need to know) about wine in the area as well as wines from Burgundy, where Dennis and Ellie have lived for over twenty years. (He's from Ohio, she's from Maryland--you can understand what they say.) With Dennis and Ellie come Jamie Blair Gould, who is the most knowledgeable guide we've ever known (in time off from Papillon, Jamie works with Rick Steves of TV fame). Dennis and Jamie have two eight-passenger vans for day tours, so the group can be split if there are different interests.

The great thing about a Papillon visit is that you arrive and put yourself in Dennis' and Jamie's hands. They'll suggest the week's visits, etc. even help with shopping or winery visits or any special interests.

Of all our Papillon trips, your catalog writer liked Pays Basque best of all. The location--the southwest corner of France, between Biarritz and St. Jean de Luz--is just north of San Sebastian and the charming fishing villages of Spain. All the excursions we took were less than thirty-minute drives. The food was glorious and a very different experience. If you've never been on a tapas crawl (tasting marvelous delicacies at bar after bar) and enjoyed a 'txocoli' ( a spritzy Spanish white wine) you've missed one of life's great treats. We do go on. The setting is unique, the Basque people friendly and welcoming, and the house comfortable and beautifully situated.

You are on your own getting there--and that can be part of the fun--but once there Dennis and Ellie and Jamie will take away all your cares and worries (except about gaining weight) for six memory-filled days.

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