It’s been a bit quiet on this front, but for good reason: Andy and I just got back from a trip to France. We spent six nights in Paris, a night in Champagne, and three nights in Alsace, and while I’ve been to France several times, this was by far our best trip yet.

We booked a 10-day trip about nine months ago on a whim when we saw a deal for $298 to Paris roundtrip on Lufthansa. Later, we decided to tack on some additional travels within the country. This made our schedule for the trip pretty interesting: We spent three nights in Paris, then took the train to Reims, the capital of Champagne. There, we rented a car, spent a day and a night there enjoying bubbly, and then made the four-hour drive to Eguisheim in Alsace, where we spent three days and nights. I was in the region for some reporting, and our days were jam-packed with trips to wineries, meetings with vignerons to learn about what they’re working on, and visits to some of the region’s most notable vineyards. (It was incredibly fun and rewarding, but more on that later.) Then we chucked the car in favor of high speed rail, and it was all Paris for the remaining three nights of our stay.

Much entire first leg in Paris felt like a jet-lagged blur, but once we got past that, it was just an incredible time. Of course, we went back to some of our favorite haunts, like Pierre Herme to have his 2,000 Feuilles dessert, and L’As du Fallafel for our very favorite falafel and pita. We met all sorts of people from all walks of life in various circumstances. Mostly, it reminded me how big the world is, how many ways there are to live, and how kind most people really are. So that made it, arguably, the best trip I’ve ever been on to date. Having good food while traveling is great, but meeting generous people while traveling is even better.