Yesterday started as well as the day before had finished when we were served a great breakfast of freshly backed croissants, chocolate croissants and baguettes with some cheese, butter and jam (As we had agreed on with the chef the night before).

The idea was actually to stay one more night at the hotel after Mr Kamal had brought to our attention that the best Lebanese wineries were not so far and he could arranged a tasting and lunch at one of them. First, we had to deal with Rod plane tickets since he had booked for early today and we thought we should be back in Beirut the night before his flight. Changing the ticket ended up being a costly option so we thought about other options since we really wanted to go to the winery and staying at the hotel one more night was definitely a nice proposition. Talking with the very helpful reception, we found out that we could get a ride to the airport early today for a very decent price and we would get on time for Rod’s plane if we left at 6:30AM so that solved the issue.

We left for Chateau Kefraya at 1PM and one hour later, we were on the domain. It turned out nobody else was there and we had the cave and restaurant for ourselves.

We first started with a great tasting with the clerk going over all of the chateau’s wines and telling us more about wine in Lebanon and histories of the chateau. We got to taste a large sample of the wines he had. He did not get older than 2000 for the great Red Chateau Kefraya and did not offer any of their top-end Comte d’M though. The top-end having only started recently, it might have been too young anyway.

We then sat up for lunch. The menu was again all in French so I translated some words to Rod. We set for deli meat plate, coq au vin for me and a filet sauce Roquefort for Rod and a cheese plate to finish. And of course, a bottle of red Chateau Kefraya 2000 to accompany the meal! I was very pleased with the whole experienced but Rod did not like his main dish that much. The sauce Roquefort was not very good and the steak was cooked medium while he had requested rare. And they charged us two servings of tapenade while we had not asked for it or told it was not free. (Yes, I can be picky)

The rest of the day went very well with a smooth ride back to the hotel to watch France-Switzerland and Brazil-Croatia and a nice dinner again.

This morning went as planned with a great breakfast again and the added advantage of having Mr Kamal himself driving Rod to the airport and me to Beirut as he had some business to deal with here.

Rod and I parted ways again for the third time in less than a month. He is going to London for some days and down to Spain from there. I am sure we will meet again soon.

All in all, our experience at the Hotel La Memoire has been great. It is a very nice hotel with a lot of charm and a great staff.

For the two days we were there, we were the only guests in the hotel so we had all the staff working for us. At the same time, there were so many of them that it looked a bit curious at times.

If I had to be perfectionist, I would change the dinning outdoor area to wood personally as it is not up to the rest of the furniture. The staff is a bit inexperienced but all the little imprecisions are easily forgotten when you see that they really are enthusiast about working there and doing whatever it takes to help you on any matter. Some little things are not perfect yet but what can you expect after nine days. Having talked quite extensively with Mr Kamal and some members of his staff, everything will get very smooth very soon and Hotel La Memoire is promised to a bright future. If you go to Baalbek, be sure to check it out.

Being able to enjoy the beginning of an hotel like this is quite an experience and I enjoyed it a lot since everybody was so enthusiastic about making our stay comfortable. I hope this enthusiasm does not get lost as time passes and the hotel becomes more famous and more busy. Great memories!

These 3 last days have definitely been different than the rest of my trip. I think I needed to splurge a little bit after traveling kind of rough for the last month. This was perfect! Now, back to normal ;).