Dear members and friends,

Our Grand Chapitre provided the perfect opportunity to spend four days together with a good number of international members, with whom we shared a wonderful time and plenty of laughter.

The Normandy weather was fairly kind to us, allowing us to fully appreciate the stunning Calvados landscape and even letting us round off our Grand Chapitre with a magnificent feast of a barbecue.

This Grand Chapitre gave us the opportunity to discover, or rediscover, the delightfully charming town of Bayeux, its remarkable and unjustly little-known Baron Gérard Museum, its famous Tapestry, elegant cathedral and delicious market.

Throughout the event we paid tribute to those who so bravely landed here in June 1944: we visited the fascinating D-Day Museum at Arromanches (with our equally fascinating guide) and some of the D-Day landing beaches. Even the wines chosen for our Gala Evening came from different countries involved in D-Day.

We also shone the spotlight on Normandy itself, with a tour of pretty villages, farms and a well-known Calvados distillery. The Calvados region is also known for its casinos and we set up our own for one evening only in the stunning Château d’Audrieu.

Lastly, as you would expect from an association dedicated to food and wine, we enjoyed exceptional dinners, created exclusively for us by the region’s greatest chefs.

It was during one of these dinners that we were surprised to encounter a table with four guests, when we had hired the entire establishment for our own private event. To be fair to the Chef, these guests had booked their table six months before. Imagine our surprise when we found out that these four visitors were members of the Wichita Chaîne in Kansas, in the United States (including its Bailli and its Vice-Conseiller Gastronomique), who happened to be dining in the same Michelin-starred restaurant as us!

The time has now come to take stock of our Grand Chapitre, so that we can see what we did well and what can be improved (your views, comments and suggestions would be welcome).

We are pleased to announce that our next “France Grand Chapitre” will take place from October 11-15, 2023, in the incredible city of Carcassonne. So make a note in your diaries as we are counting on you all to share another wonderful experience.

Best wishes

Laurent Poultier du Mesnil
Bailli Délégué
Member of the Conseil Magistral