Month: August 2019

BEAUNE EST BON[Say “Bone eh Bone.”  Except swallow the hard ‘n,’ in a typical French style!] The city of Beaune is good!

The Bourgogne is an area of France that Americans call “Burgundy.” It’s about a three hour drive from Clermont-Ferrand, through the mountains and Lyon, in the east-central region of France. Not only are Burgundy wines grown and bottled there, thousands of vineyards of pinot noirs, Chardonnay, Chablis, and Beaujolais are all in this climat as well.

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And the châteaux! Incredible! They are very, very beautiful, on gorgeous estates that are straight out of French postcards. And don’t forget about the extraordinary cellars: the vaulted cellar beneath Château de Meursault, where we sampled the goods, is superb and the largest in Burgundy. 

Did we sample? Oh, yeah. Nice. Although I personally prefer a hearty Bordeaux (another French wine region trip, still to be taken) or a Pouilly Fusse (a Chardonnay), the burgundy wines of the côte de Beaune are amazing!

You know, it just doesn’t make sense NOT drink the wine in France, when the glass of wine at the brasserie or cafe costs less than a glass of Coca-Cola! #nobrainer

And the VOCABULARY…we’ve been learning a whole new set of adjectives to apply to wine, in English and in French. Wine can taste like or be: jammy, graphite, diesel, fruity, smoky, astringent, pears, petroleum, green pepper, black pepper, thin, angular, zippy, austere, opulent, fleshy, buttery, fleshy, exotic, clean, granular, powerful, and chewy! CHEWY? Yes, Chewy!

And did you know there are not ONE but THREE ‘noses?’ Upon the pour, you smell the wine in the glass – before you oxygenate it – then you swirl the wine in the glass and breathe in deeply again. The third ‘nose’ is after the wine is gone – and you literally inhale the aroma again to compare against the first two noses!

Please don’t do this in your local cafe – but if you are at a tasting, it is perfectly acceptable and customary to take the first mouthful, swish the wine around your mouth, and spit into the receptacle. You may laugh, but I had to turn around and spit with my back to the group – I just couldn’t bring myself to SPIT in front of all those people!!! My mama taught me SOME Southern manners!

We also had a picture perfect lunch at an outdoor cafe, straight out of a French countryside daydream. L’ambiance, tranquil dogs lying under tables, awnings with French names of the family proprietors proudly displayed – so wonderfully shishi. And it included a new vocabulary lesson for me on what carpaccio means – which I found out after I agreed to have the ‘plat du jour’ without knowing what it was. 18 months ago I wouldn’t be caught dead having this for lunch. I should get points for being able to eat about half of it.

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If you want to see the pictures of Beaune and the region Bourgogne, you can click here.

Wishing you a wonderful day,

Mindy

PS – Happy, happy birthday, Lisa! And many more, person!

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*When Tanner and I were going through the craziness of preparing to move to France in July 2017, every single moving-related-person told us that FRANCE – as in, the nation – goes on vacation for the month of August. We couldn’t comprehend that.  It sounded like they had just said something in Chinese.  What?  Say that again?  And we didn’t believe it.  There’s no way that a NATION shuts down for 1/12 of a year.  Is there?

Oh yes, my dear…it’s true. Completely true.  It’s not a European universal, but VACANCE is a part of your RIGHTS in France.  CLOSE UP. SHUT DOWN.  FINI. THE END.

The Grande Vacance!  It’s technically three – or four – weeks in August – but there’s the two weeks leading up to it, which some people take, too, and others who leave early because the school holidays begin in July…  and everyone is busy getting READY for vacance, so not much work going on…a dear friend of mine even had a funeral in the family take 9 days to schedule, because it is the end of July.  Of course!   

So we are looking at a shutdown of all production from about July 10 until September…really.  I mean it.  Hard to wrap your American head around that, isn’t it?  

Even The Local media comments on it – (Click on the link here, as you wish).  “Workers in France are granted more paid holidays than anywhere else in the world, but they want more it seems. According to a new study by travel site Expedia, the French feel feel more “holiday-deprived” than any other nationality.”

The grocery stores are still open, and self-serve gas stations, and banks and large department stores, although the hours are reduced (from what we already call ‘reduced,’ a 32-hour work week.  It took me four days just to schedule a phone call with the bank – no tellers, no walk in).  After all, it’s VACANCE!  Kind of like Christmas in July.  The dry cleaner lady told me today to return for my pants at the beginning of September.  And the four hour trip to the beaches in the south of France averages about 12 hours right now – so says my friend who lived it! 

Cafes, daycares, bakeries.  Closed.  Doctors’ offices, restaurants, dry cleaners.  Gone.  I think the mail still gets delivered but I’m sure it takes an extra 10 days – on top of the three weeks it already takes…

The good news is no one is leaving a lot of work for you to catch up on – your emails aren’t piling up – you don’t have to worry about people in the office talking about you – and IF you are around, there’s plenty of parking!

As for us, next Tuesday, we’re hanging out our shingle.

  

Happy vacation!

Mindy