A nice weekend away

Advantages: Comfortable and clean
Disadvantages: Had to get wet to get to the room

...Back in January I fancied having a few days away on my own and decided to go to York as it was far enough away to feel like a mini holiday, and I had never been before. The Hotel du Vin York is a new addition to the group, opening its doors in Autumn 2007 and has 44 bedrooms. I caught the train to York and the hotel was only a short walk from the station. It is situated just a short way from the race course so I am sure it is popular when the races are on. On first impressions the building from the outside was really nice with a large driveway and massive entrance door. But inside it wasn?t clear which way the reception desk was and when I found it, it wasn?t that accessible. The desk was situated behind three large pillars which didn?t leave much room between the desk and the pillars and it was a good job I didn?t have any large...

wolfey59 11.09.2009 · Read review
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Review of Hotel du Vin & Bistro, York

French Culture In Harrogate, Who'd Have Thought It

Advantages: Great location, even greater wine cellar
Disadvantages: Breakfast was not quite to the standard I was expecting.

...Hotel du Vin are an exclusive brand of boutique style restaurants beginning with their first Hotel in Winchester back in 1994 this popular brand have spread across the UK at a rate of knots. With Hotels in Harrogate, Henley On Thames, Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Glasgow, and Tunbridge Wells. The next 12 months are going to be one of the most exciting in HdV?s history with Hotels opening in Cheltenham, Cambridge, York, Poole and Newcastle. HdV offer the hotel guest an exclusive experience far different from any other hotel chain in the UK with the exception of course of Malmaison its sister company. Each hotel offers individual qualities or facilities but all contain certain specific requirements in order to make them part of the HdV ethos. HdV Harrogate appears to be one of the more written about hotels in the chain, but I guess...

sghawken 18.06.2007 · Read review
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Review of Hotel du Vin and Bistro, Harrogate

My mis-spent youth transformed!

Advantages: They ask you to take the `freebies` away !
Disadvantages: Gets very busy and may need to book well in advance.

...History : Many years ago when I was a young under age alcohol drinking teenager living in a small village outside Winchester, Hampshire my friends and I would go to what was then called the `Southgate Hotel` to sneak inside the stale smelling bar to pretend we were 18 and sip martini and cinzanos believing we were the height of chic...................... In 1994 some one had the good heart to transform my illegal drinking den into the first Hotel Du Vin, a hotel built on its reputation of quality and turn it into something so chic, smooth and luxurious that I had to pinch myself the first time I revisited it. This is now one of several Hotel Du Vins and has been an adult retreat for me for 3 times now - I like to think that both myself and the hotel have improved with age ! Location: The Hotel Du Vin...

garageroom 23.11.2006 · Read review
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Review of Hotel du Vin, Winchester

Canal du Midi

Advantages: architectural wonder
Disadvantages: cost many human lives to build

...The Canal du Midi, is a man dug canal, situated in the south of France, and joins the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean sea, via the Canal Garonne. The water sources which allow the canal to be constantly navigable, come from the Montagne Noire, (situated in the south west of the Massif Central, near Mazamet, in the Tarn area), by three lakes, and the Saint Ferréol dam. This technical challenge, first imagined in 1539, stayed a project on paper for almost a century, until 1636. ¤ø,¸¸,◊,¸¸ ,ø It was Paul Riquet, an ingenious engineer, born in Béziers in 1604, who started the first portion of the Canal in 1636, under the reign of Louis XIV. The Saint Ferréol dam was built in 1667, and in 1680, the locks at Béziers, called "Les écluses de Fonseranne" were built. Pierre Paul Riquet died that year, and the very first navigation...

bodsquidge 25.06.2007 (09.06.2007) · Read review
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Review of Canal du Midi, Languedoc

Hotel du Nord

Advantages: Beautifully filmed, poetic, magnificently acted masterpiece of cinema rarely matched today
Disadvantages: Nothing... genuinely nothing

...I first saw Hotel du Nord as part of a double bill with a film by Jean Renoir (I forget which - though I think the brilliant Le Crime De Monsieur Lange) and I was frankly going to see the Renoir film and thought, hmmm, I'll just have to sit through Hotel du Nord and grin and bear it. Something about the film just really didn't appeal. Then right from the opening shot that tracks down from the bridge over the canal Saint Martin and along the side of the canal to where the two lovers, played by Annabella and Jean-Pierre Aumont, settle against one another on a bench, despairing and apparently doomed I simply didn't look back. I couldn't. Since that Sunday afternoon I have always had something of a soft spot for Hotel du Nord. It is firmly placed in the traditional of French cinema of the thirties. Like his contemporaries, Renoir...

No_name 11.02.2007 · Read review
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Review of Hotel Du Nord (Subtitled) (DVD)

Absolutely Rubbish

Advantages: Cheap
Disadvantages: Very harsh, has a acidity taste

...Marks & Spencers the day before. The wine in question wss the Vin de Pays du Gers and the culprit for my purchasing this wine was none other than our "In-House Wine Connoisseur" Miss Blurbubble. A bit about the wine before I start bubbling (intended mention) about the wine itselft. Vin de Pays du Gers is basically the second most produced wine in France. 1,800,000 Hl of the wine is produced yearly and produced in an area referred to as the "Gers" in France. Marks & Spencers, like other makers such as Tesco etc, have joined in the band wagon of having their names attached to economically viable and economically priced wines, by linking up with French companies that provide and produce the respective labels of wine. Unforunately the wine in question is absolutely horrible. It was lucky that I was already "happy" after my...

vinodgm 26.05.2002 · Read review
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Review of Marks & Spencer Vin De Pays Du Gers

Squeezed for pleasure

Advantages: Pleasant, easy drinking, cheap wine
Disadvantages: Sometimes Aldi run out

...We have all been beefing about being reduced to writing ops in the new Food & Drink category, then it hit me – an excuse to drink more wine! Where I used to go to the cinema with a notebook, to write film reviews, now I can sit at home, slurp and try to write something coherent. Great. I thought of attempting to write a proper wine review, of a really good bottle, then thought I’d be honest and tell you what I normally drink. Baron Saint Jean Vin de Pays du Gard is sold exclusively (as far as I can tell) by Aldi. They sell is at an unbelievable £2.09 a bottle. A proper, 75cl bottle! I can’t remember why I first took a chance and bought a bottle – either extreme woolyheadedness or a week when I was totally skint. But I was very glad that I did. It’s alright! Now I usually like a full, well-rounded red...

MichelleScott 12.11.2001 · Read review
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Review of Baron Saint Jean Vin de Pays du Gard

Death du Jour - Death of the day

Advantages: More exciting than the last
Disadvantages: Technicality distracts from the story at times

...Death du Jour is the second book in the series starring Dr Brennan, and is just as good, if not better. This book starts with a bit more excitement that the last book, with Brennan exhuming (digging up) a body from the 1800?s. Shortly after this there is a fire in a house where five bodies are found, including two small children who were only eighteen months old. These two stories run along side each other for a while, which does get a bit confusing at times. This book also details Brennan?s life as a tutor of a class in a small town called Charlotte in America and again, she goes back and forth between here and Quebec, in Canada throughout the book, making it slightly confusing. Whilst in Charlotte, Brennans daughter comes to visit and they go to a small island which is owned by one of Brennan?s friends. He is breeding monkeys...

wolfey59 08.08.2009 · Read review
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Review of Death Du Jour - Kathy Reichs

MORE BOOZE NEWS

Advantages: Distinct flavour
Disadvantages: Can be pricey, bit too sour

...OH gawd! I?m at it again! Another alcohol opinion ? seems I can only go one or two opinions without writing one but the food categories ? well, let?s just say that I don?t eat a lot! Today?s subject ? Marks and Spencer Vin De Pays du Gers ? a French white table wine, though what the ?du Gers? bit means I couldn?t tell you. I bought two bottles of this just before Christmas and took one bottle over to the parents for Christmas dinner and kept the other in my fridge. We polished off the first bottle over the turkey and I have just hauled the other bottle out of the fridge and finished it off myself. The description on the bottle made us all laugh -? refreshing and vivacious? ? VIVACIOUS?! How so with a wine? It didn?t dance around the table or tell us jokes or anything! Although it certainly was refreshing and unusually tangy ? I...

blurbubble 10.01.2002 · Read review
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Review of Marks & Spencer Vin De Pays Du Gers

A Champagne of Hotels

Advantages: Pure unadulterated luxury and great service
Disadvantages: erm... nope can't think of any

...I like doing really daft spontaneous things. That's why I told my partner we were going out for dinner at the Hotel Du Vin in our nearby town of Tunbridge Wells, but secretly booked us into a luxury double room upstairs too. Now seeing as Tunbridge Wells is only a few miles away, it was a tiny bit of a decadent gesture but hey, let's go mad once in a while. I nearly managed to blow the whole surprise when in the bar for an aperitif I told him the glass of wine had already gone to my head! 'How are we going to drive home then?' he said worriedly. He then preceded to spend the whole evening weighing up the options of trying to catch the last train home, or splashing out on a cab and collecting the car the next day. Knowing our bags were already upstairs from when I'd checked in that afternoon I smiled to myself. Luckily the food...

Nell31 24.08.2005 · Read review
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Review of Hotel du Vin & Bistro, Royal Tunbridge Wells