First of all I would like to thank all of you for the great insights provided. My wife and I live in Brazil and go to Europe once every year for 3 weeks, one devoted to skiing and two to wine/gastronomic learning. Last year we explored northern Italy and the information obtained from egullet was essencial for the success of our trip - we are curently preparing our reports on the places we visited and should post them shortly: - St. Hubertus (Alto Adige) - La Stua di Michil (Alto Adige) - La Siriola (Alto Adige) - Le Calendre (Veneto) - Osteria da Fiore (Veneto) - Enoteca Pinchiorri (Toscana) - Il Cibreo (Toscana) - Da Caino (Toscana) - Guido da Costigliole @ Relais San Maurizio (Piemonte) - Il Centro (Piemonte) - Combal.0 (Piemonte) We really do not care that much about michelin stars but rather base our planning on input from people like you. In general, we strive to (i) strike a balance between classic and innovative (but always with a local ingredient focus), (ii) find a great wine selection (value being more important than size of cellar), and (iii) have loads of fun during the experience ( we hate "stiff" service). We achieved this during our last trip, thanks to all the available threads in the Italy board. Now we're planning our next trip (late feb 05) and would like to check whether you could give us hand. We will arrive in Geneve and drive to Val d' Isere, where we'll spend the week. After that we'll drive to Valence and start the oeno-gastronomic trip all the way to Strasbourg in Alsace. After reading all of the threads on the region, we've already decided we want to visit: La farme de Mon Pere (Veyrat's winter "gig" at Megeve),Troigros, Georges Blanc, Cafe des Federation (bouchon), Jardin des Rempart, Rotisserie du Chambertin, L'Arnsbourg and Buerehiesel. Although we would welcome any recent updates on the restos described, we are really hoping that we can collect your thoughts on smaller, lesser-known restos, bistrots, bouchons, brasseries or winstuben you might have bumped into during your own journeys to the Rhone-Alps, Burgundy and Alsace. Thank you very much in advance and let me know if you need any tips about Brazil! A bien tot!
