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ABOUT JoliSoleil

Our Vosges farm near La Forge

Your JoliSoleil wine expert

 

I am Jacob.Pieter Smits. You can click on my name to view my LinkedIn profile.

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JoliSoleil is the name I gave the old farm (+/- 1750) in France that I bought in 1999. For four people there is a possibility to stay with us in La Forge and tour or taste from this wonderful location.Web: fermejolisoleillaforge.com 

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After emigrating from Holland to France in 2003, I also named my company "JoliSoleil" or "JS".

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I have been interested in wine practically all my life. Living in Amsterdam I did the "SVH- Slijters Vakopleiding".(WSET 2)

It is not a coincidence that I came to live in France right between the wine regions of Alsace and Burgundy.

 

The wine tours started as a hobby. Over the years they became more and more important. It grew to be part of my business in 2012. Since then I organize private (more) day tours and wine tastings in the French Alsace and Burgundy region and Tuscany Italy all year round.

Of course I wear my own t-shirts.jpg

Hotels and restaurants

 

We can help you selecting 3*, 4* or 5* star hotels in the 3 tour regions. As we do private tours, it is all up to you.

 

We select centrally located hotels so you can tour with us from there and you do not have to move too much and waste precious time. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We take you to hidden treasures to enjoy the local food and wines.

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On our (more) day tours you will often dine in Michelin starred restaurants. We know a lot of the wine makers and chefs personally.

 

In Alsace and Vosges also city and genealogy tours

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For people that do not want to do just wine tastings in Alsace, we also offer a combined village and wine tour. We then take you to Riquewihr, Colmar and Eguisheim and do one extensive wine tasting. We start this daytour with a visit to the castle of Haut Koenigsbourg.

 

The big advantage of a private tour is that you decide what you want to do. You want to do some shopping, taste cheese or chocolate? It is all possible.

We have even organised private boat tours in Strasbourg and Colmar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For some people coming to Alsace or Vosges has to do with finding their roots. People want to see where their forefathers have lived. In other cases they are looking for birth or marriage certificates.

 

For these visitors and people that are working on their family trees and are doing ancestry research, we offer genealogy tours.

 

Before going on such a tour we will do some database research first and we will make appointments with city halls, synagogues, etc, 

A tour like this can be combined with some wine tasting and site seeing.

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Language, Sprache, Taal, Langue

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  • English

  • Deutsch

  • Nederlands

  • Francais

 

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Transport

 

To be able to do the tours we can pick you up and drop you off at your hotel, etc. I am fully licensed for transports up to 9 persons..

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Up to 4 people we use a glass roofed Peugeot 5008. On request we can take a minibus so everybody has a window seat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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For 5 to 8 people we take a Peugeot or Mercedes minibus.

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For groups between 9 and 50+ people we provide a tour bus plus driver.

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