This is the third and final part of our trip to France in 2019. Part 1 was to champagne country , Part 2 Bordeaux , and this Part 3 to Cognac, which is both a town ( 250 miles southwest of Paris ) and the highest form of brandy. All bottles labeled Cognac are produced from grapes grown in this location. The population of Cognac is around 19,000, but was as high at 22,000 in 1975. We only stayed two nights in Cognac, at what was then a new Chais Monnet , one of the very finest hotels we have ever experienced. Virtually adjacent are the grand four cognac companies, Martel, Hennessey, Courvoisier and Rémy Martin. I picked this hotel because Rémy Martin is just across the street, where we had made a special appointment to get a private tour. These four make 93% of all the cognac drunk. We arrived by train. Every major train station has a taxi stand, right? Nope. We waited for 15 minutes, and finally got some...

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