About
Why this way?
For a combined fifty years, Sébastien and Dan have been hanging around in the wine business. Dan’s early start in restaurants led to importing and distributing, winery work, retail sales, a new passion for olive oil, and two kids that are filling up their passports. Sébastien’s experiences in South Africa, France, Italy, Vancouver BC and Portland, along with a shoe-size changing adventure on the Camino de Santiago, all have shaped a career arc.
Along the way, we’ve been fortunate to earn a living that didn’t require much of a demarcation line between regular life and work life.
The real treasure of all that yeoman’s work has been connecting with people of a similar mindset, no matter where we are in the world. From the hundreds of winemakers to thousands of customers we’ve shaken hands with over the years, one thing has always remained the same. We like to figure out ways to connect good humans with other good humans.
Why Not?
What does ‘Cur Non’ mean? This is a Latin phrase that translates to ‘Why Not?’ It was the self-styled name of Maurice Edmond Sailland, one of France’s most important gastronomes and travel writers from the late 19th and early 20th century. He went by the pen name Curnonsky, and his narratives eventually gave birth to the modern day Michelin guide.
He even is credited with illustrating bibendum, the roly-poly mascot belonging to the Michelin tire company.
Ever since I’ve read about Curnonsky I’ve felt something of a kinship. I’m guessing there are a lot of you out there just like me that might enjoy tooling around the countryside eating and drinking locally!
the curnonsky approach is our approach
It wasn’t exclusively at the dinner table or around a barrelhead where we’ve gained our collective knowledge and informed our own travels. We’ve been introduced to history buffs, art historians, and architects. And we’ve gotten to know artisans that make pottery or fine cutlery, farmers that grow the herbs for Ricola cough drops, and innkeepers that will hold discourse on the merits of using at least six different corn varieties to blend their polenta.
And that’s the manner in which we want to travel with you: Unusually and unconventionally, and with an eye toward using food and wine tourism to open other avenues of exploration!
By train. ON Foot.
in a van.
One or both of us will be with you the whole way on our tours, doing all the advanced planning, and making sure you’re moving from point A to point Z in a comfortable, safe, well-rested, and very well-fed manner. We’ll visit wineries, artisans, and olive oil producers; we’ll take walks and move our bodies; and we’ll get off the beaten path. And yes, you'll also have some time to yourselves (in cool places) so you can share with the rest of us what you discovered that we did not!
Unless otherwise noted, we’ll travel in groups 7-10, which would put us in one van together, or in the first class car on the train, and make it easier to coordinate restaurant reservations, reserve fantastic private homes or boutique lodging to sleep in, and not lose anyone in the train station.
ready to roll?
If you’re curious about active, thought-provoking, unique travel, and have a regular itch to be somewhere you’re not…
If you’re someone happy to travel with other people for a week, starting as strangers and ending as friends…
If you’re interested in the idea of slow, ecological, and spontaneous travel, and not so interested in copy-pasting a travel itinerary from a guidebook…
Then we’re probably the right tour guides for you!
Shoot us a note. Let’s see what happens…
