It’s a lifestyle
Maison Meritage
Maison Meritage is the vertical expansion of Meritage, an award-winning restaurant with classic French flare, that was established in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 2007.
The staff are hospitality professionals, many of whom have given their careers to work for the restaurant and the vision of it’s founders, Chef Russell Klein and Desta Maree.
Meritage has long operated by the mantra that you take care of those who take care of you, and Desta Maree has invested years developing trips - with both her staff and guests in mind, to give the best of an experience in France that is not tourism, rather it is immersion.
We bring members of our team for the inspiration and exposure for them personally and professionally, while also supporting the tours and learning the history of places like Meritage along the way.
While you may not see the Louvre with us, you will experience open-air marché and cooking from the fresh ingredients acquired there. You will tour not just a prestigious winery, but also a family owned and operated one. You will not just drink Bordeaux, but the best of Bordeaux, and understand why. Trust us, is it not what you think. This is experiential education, for everyone involved.
Immerse with us in France
As part of our professional development at Meritage we began a travel and immersion experience for our staff and for some selected guests. This is hyper-small-group travel, where you are staying in a common residence, share destinations and some group activities with folks, but the trips are curated and personalized.
We can catch as many Michelin stars as your heart desires, or we can show you some gems that should be. We can focus on wine, we can focus on food, we can do both. We can also spice things up with some time on the coast, or we can add in some history for good measure - though we are surrounded by it, so hard for it not to be part of the experience altogether.
This fall we tour through Bordeaux and Paris, with a band of solo travelers it appears. So, if you are up for the adventure of a lifetime, hit us up and fill your own questionnaire to see if this is the trip for you!
We go to France every Spring & Fall - the “shoulder seasons” and we know just when and where. Turkey with us will be attached to one of the Spring or Fall trips to France. To go on your own, we can help you with that too. Just select the
Medical Tourism, Istanbul & Countryside
We have been there, and we have done that. Desta Maree literally traveled for this trip in order to take care of self, but also in order to access medical care in a way that information based and may actually give the answers to the questions we didn’t even know we should be asking. Full medical evaluation in a week anyone?
The level will shock you. As will the price. Similar health evaluation in the USA starts with a $5,000 deposit and ranges from $15,000-$45,000 dependent upon the level of diagnostics necessary.
We can offer a variety of levels of support:
Basic Medical Tourism Package
(10 day trip)Curated Medical Tourism Package
(10 day trip)Platinum Package Medical Tourism
(14+ day trip)Escorted Medical Tourism Package
(14 day trip - Nov 1 - Nov 12, 2025, dates are fixed due to travel schedule)
None of this mentions how amazing a city like Istanbul is, and how you can do both - have an amazing trip to an exotic place (with some of the best medicine in the world) and see one of the most influential places in the world.
What’s included?
Our trips are built to be “all-inclusive” yet you can also choose to augment your experience. Medical trips are inclusive of the tour, and the services selected. For the medical tours, the medical payments themselves are confidential and are handled between you and the hospital. The translators are with you the whole while and can negotiate and communicate with, and for you.
For more information about this, check out our FAQ.
Upcoming Info Sessions About Our Travels
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Maison Meritage Fall Tour to France Info Session & Happy Hour
June 12
Thursday 4pm-6pmThinking of joining us on our Maison Meritage tour this fall? Join us for a Happy Hour in the Médoc Room of Meritage and ask all of the questions!
This years dates are set & we are spending Halloween in Paris!
Tour itinerary will be available, and guidance for this Fall, if it is a good fit too. This trip we will be an exploration of wine with Stéphane Vattepain joining us. And, we happen to have a lot of interest from solo-travelers for this trip. Airfare is pretty affordable at the moment, and for a trip to France, the timing for starting the booking process is best to begin now.
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Medical Tourism in Türkiye Happy Hour & Info Session
June 15 - Sunday
4pm-6pmAre you interested in making a real investment in self? Have you considered a full medical evaluation, to get a baseline for your health and to deep dive and see if there are any lurking health problems? Maybe you have a proactive personality? Maybe you prefer the privacy of the state of the art hospitals, without having to share any of the information with your own doctors or insurance companies?
We are guiding folks through a trip to Türkiye, to enjoy Istanbul a world-class destine nation in its own right, alongside having access to some of the best medicine in the world for a fraction of the cost in the United States and with all of the privacy you would like to maintain.
This is living life on your own terms, in a city that will take measure of what you are made of, and leave a life-long impression. Let’s us guide the way and make this extraordinary opportunity possible for you.