La Grande Epicerie

The food section of Le Bon Marché department store is a veritable paradise for foodies. It carries a vast selection of all types of exquisitely laid out products imaginable. The best French and international brands are featured here, and the establishment this year launched its own brand. The basement has a beautiful wine cellar divided according to the different French DOs, and a restaurant – Le Balthasar. Some areas, like the cheese and fish sections, have a bar counter and tasting tables. Also on sale are themed gift hampers (retro, aperitif, picnic, Breton, girly, etc.) which you can customise to your taste.

Ladurée

Probably the most famous brand of macarons worldwide and, no wonder – they are super! They come in chic boxes running from €17.10 for six pieces to €127.65 for 55 pieces. The range of flavours includes delicate macarons, such as fleur d’oranger or rose petal; sweet, like the chocolate or salted caramel, and original ones like the smooth fruit and spices or the Marie-Antoinette tea. They have various tea rooms at different spots in Paris with truly delightful retro-romanticist interior design. If you don’t have the time to drop in on on one of their establishments, you can get hold of a box of macarons just before you board your flight, as they have very handy booths at the Orly and Charles de Gaulle airports. You can even buy them online.

Fauchon

This exclusive gourmet store has various branches around the city, although perhaps the most emblematic one is in the Place de la Madeleine. It comprises a pastry shop, a bakery and a food department with the best cheeses, foie gras, caviar, cold meats and seafood, among other delicacies, in addition to cava, wine and champagne. You can also eat right there in the interior, or out on the terrace.

La Maison Plisson

In the République neighbourhood, this food store and restaurant with a terrace is ideal for the bobos (bourgeois, bohemian) of Paris. The decoration is as impeccable as the selection of French and European wares, with the accent on organic, craft produce.The owners have roamed the various regions of France in search of the best producers and conducted blind tastings to ensure they’re getting the finest wines. The premises house a butchery, pork butchery, fruiterer's, bakery and cheese section and, in the basement, wines and packaged foods.

Mariage Frères

These tea specialists carry over 500 tea varieties from the world over, some with suggestive names like Neige de Jade, White Himalaya or Dragon. Whether classic or rare, they are all excellent quality. Their passion for this beverage encompasses their whole universe, with offerings such as tea sets, and tea-scented incense or candles. Their establishment in Le Marais quarter is priceless – colonial in style and with refined service – although they have other shops across Paris.

E. Dehillerin

The city’s oldest kitchenware store is a veritable culinary museum, with all kinds of pots, casseroles, frying pans, cocottes, pastry moulds and other cooking utensils. Particularly striking are the retro-style copper pots, although here you can find the most unexpected oddities, such as a duck press.

À la Mère de Famille

The oldest chocolate and sweet shop in Paris, founded in 1761 in the emblematic Montmartre, is a must-visit mecca for the sweet-toothed. Sweets, biscuits, macarons, candied fruit and a wide variety of enticing confectionery which you are advised to succumb to. They published a beautiful book which has a Spanish version by Lunwerg.

Text and photos by Isabel Loscertales of Gastronomistas.com

In general the rule is that the further north you go in Italy, the more entrenched is the habit to enjoy the appetizer. Not surprisingly, the Piedmont area is known for the production of vermouth with brands such as Martini, Cinzano and Carpano.

The vermouth was invented in the cellar of Antonio Carpano’s in Turin in 1786 and from there the Piedmontese nobility made it fashionable. There are other versions that trace their origin to Hippocrates, the famous Greek physician who mixed white wine with plants like the wormwood to create a beverage for medicinal purposes. But it was not until 1838 that the brothers Giuseppe and Luigi Cora began to develop it industrially and distributed it worldwide.

Now the word vermouth has a more generic meaning. It refers both to the drink and to eat a tapa before lunch. In Italy the starter is not at noon as in Spain, but after work. It usually starts from 18:00 and end at 21:00 AM and is an economical way to take a break from work while sipping a drink and snacks, which can be alcoholic or not.

A very common option is the spritz, -with aperol, champagne, an orange slice and ice- the Negroni -with gin, campari, vermouth and an orange slice- the mascerotti -with wine, soda and champagne- or the Amaretti di Voltaggio, which goes along with their famous focaccia, savory pastries and other delicacies.

In Genoa, a port where botanical species from around the world arrived, the habit is strictly fulfilled and the tastiest appetizers are prepared. Here vermouth is a deeply ingrained habit, a social act that almost no one renounces. A moment to enjoy after work, listening to the tinkling of ice crashing.

You can have it in the historical premises or in the modern establishments that agglutinate especially in the Piazza delle Erbe, San Donato, Via San Bernardo or Porto Antico area.

Here’s the theory, now let's put it into practice!

Pasticceria Liquoreria Marescottis Cavo
Via di Fossatello, 35R and 37R

In the old town of Genoa, -the largest medieval quarter in Europe- you can find this historic café, bakery and liquor store. A local that dates back from the eighteenth century, which retains its old Charles X style furniture and a floor designed by Rubens himself. Tourists come to the establishment to observe the "prettiest pastry Genoa", to try their high quality confectionery and the Marescotti appetizer, a herbal vermouth.
You must keep an open mind to find the restaurant on the first floor because they have no sign.

Le Corbusier
Via di San Donato, 36R

Another historic local is Le Corbusier, specialists in cocktails-some self-created- and that has gained prestigious national and international awards. Martini itself can be found in twelve different variants.

Caffè il Barbarossa
Piano di Sant Andrea 23
www.cafeilbarbarossa.com

With an enviable location -very close to the house where Christopher Columbus lived-, and one of the most fun places to enjoy the most original appetizer in Genoa with its pleasant outdoor area, especially during summer.
The Caffè Barbarossa offers a wide range of whiskeys, cocktails and international wines and sparkling Genoese, in their restaurant, you will find vegetarian and vegan dishes. Look closely at their walls where the original rates of the brothels of the historical town hang.

Libreria delle Erbe
Piazza delle Erbe, 25R

An old bookstore downtown now transformed into a modern place. It still retains the spirit of the literary coffee -to consult and buy books-but, while enjoying cultural interventions you can also have a good coffee, snacks, cocktails, wines and beers.
They have a full weekly program of activities for lovers of art and culture.

Picture by Termolan

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With the setting sun as an idyllic backdrop, the beaches of Bajo de Guía, La Calzada and Las Piletas as unique race tracks, and swimming costumes as the main attire of the onlookers, the horse races of Sanlúcar de Barrameda are a must-see classic of summer in Cádiz. This horse-racing competition, designated an International Tourist Interest Event on account of its setting, with the Guadalquivir river mouth and the Doñana National Park in the background, is also one of the oldest competitions of any kind in the country, dating back to 1845. It now draws a crowd of around 30,000 visitors each year, eager to spend a lovely evening in which the horse races are the perfect excuse for soaking up the scenery, watching thoroughbreds in action and – needless to say – betting on the winning horses.

This year will see a total of 23 races, to be held from 3 to 19 August and divided into two cycles of three days each – the first, during the first half of August, on the 3rd, 4th and 5th, and the second, in the second half of the month, on the 17th, 18th and 19th. The races are run between six thirty in the evening and half past nine at night, a time when the low tides fall on weekends in August.

Manzanilla Sherry Cellars, Nature in the National Park and Much More

In addition to the spectacular summer horse races, Sanlúcar de Barrameda has a lot to offer visitors to the city, located on the mouth of the river Guadalquivir. This seafaring resort, a witness to Columbus as he embarked on his third voyage to the Americas, as well as Magellan and Juan Sebastián Elcano on their first circumnavigation of the world, still harbours signs of that period of splendour related to the discovery of the New World. Indeed, the city’s heyday accounts for much of its historical legacy, as attested by the 16th-century Church of Santo Domingo and the 17th-century Church of La Merced. There are also examples of earlier constructions, notably the Church  of Nuestra Señora de la O, with its spectacular Mudéjar coffered ceiling, and the 15th-century Ducal Palace of Los Medina Sidonia, the former residence of the nobility of Sanlúcar.

Sanlúcar’s importance is also enhanced by its proximity to the Doñana National Park, reached by boat from the city. This accounts for a large portion of the visitors who come here each year. The claim to fame of this priceless national park includes the fact it is one of the leading passage areas of migratory birds in Europe. Make a point of signing up for any of the host of excursions running from Sanlúcar to Doñana, which range from outings to observe the fauna and flora to bicycle tours of the area.

To offset so much nature, you always have the option to indulge in an enological tour of the manzanilla sherry cellars. Manzanilla is the wine par excellence of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, where the leading wine cellars are Barbadillo, Hidalgo, Argüeso, and La Guita. By chance, the dish that best pairs with this variety of sherry is another classic of the area, the “langostinos de Sanlúcar” (Sanlúcar prawn).

Book your Vueling to Jerez de la Frontera, hardly half an hour’s drive from Sanlúcar de Barrameda, and revel in these spectacular horse races.

Text by Los Viajes de ISABELYLUIS

Images by Guillén Pérez

“Det finns inget dåligt väder, bara dåliga kläder”, this Swedish phrase means there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes that don't keep you warm. So there's no excuse not to have an unforgettable time during mid winter in a city like Stockholm, which brings in the new year with joy and hope (despite the cold).

For anyone who wants to have an unforgettable time bringing in 2015, Stockholm is definitely one of the best options in Scandinavia. Its streets fill with life, with excellent restaurants and little places to drink glögg (mulled wine) and eat pepparkakor, the typical ginger biscuits eaten at Christmas.

While it is true that most New Year festivities in Stockholm take place in hotels, clubs or friends' house, the city also prepares great New Year celebrations.

The church in Storkyrkan de Gamla Stan – Stockholm's old quarter – is the venue for the New Year's Eve concert called Nyårskonsert. The City of Stockholm also organises a fireworks display to welcome the New Year. The resulting image is unforgettable, as the light from the fireworks creates a dramatic contrast with the snow covering the entire city.

After the chimes have struck, most of the big parties take place in the alternative neighbourhood of Södermalm. One of the best known is the Södermalmstorg, which takes place on Götgatan Street. Music and fun are guaranteed to keep going till dawn.

On January 1st, the open-air Museum of Skansen hosts the Ring Out Wild Bells concert, with a reading of the New Year's poem of that name by Tennyson, which is broadcast live. This event also closes with a fireworks display.

For more sporty people, another option for January 1st is to go ice-skating in Kungstradgården, a kind of Central Park and one of the most popular places in Stockholm.

By Eddy Lara Brito from DestinosActuales.com

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