The Final Countdown....

On Thursday night we will board the overnight train headed for Munich. On the train we will be sleeping in a couchette with four other people (yikes!). I hope no one snores.



Our basic itinerary is this:
-one night in Munich, take the train north to Augsburg.
-one night in Augsburg, bike to Donauworth.
-one night in Donauworth, bike to Nordlingen.
-one night in Nordlingen, bike to Dinkelsbuhl.
-two nights in Dinkelsbuhl, bike to Rothenburg-ob-der-Tauber.
-two nights in R-o-d-T, train to Wurzburg.
-two night in Wurzburg (happy one year anniversary to us!), somehow ditch bikes, pick up rental car and drive to Rudesheim, just south of the Rhine Valley.
-one night in Rudesheim, drive to St. Goarshausen.
-one night in St. Goarshausen, drive to Boppard.
-one night in Boppard, drive to Bacharach.
-one night in Bacharach, drive to Bingen.
-one night in Bingen, drive to Frankfurt, get rid of car.
-one night and two days in Frankfurt, and we get on the train that Sunday night to come back to Paris.

The first leg of the trip, up to Wurzburg, is about half of the Romantic Road. The second bit, starting at Rudesheim is part of the Rhine Valley. And if any of you have found a map, you might notice that the cities on the Romantic Road are actually a lot farther apart than the ones we're visiting (by car) on the Rhine. If we were sane, we might have chosen to bike the Rhine instead, but we figured a car would allow greater convenience for transporting wine. Priorities...

And hopefully we can get bikes. It might turn out to be a bit of a pilgrimage for the first week or so if we have to walk between towns. But we won't worry about that...

You should see it!

Last night we went to see the movie Tsotsi.

It was fantastic. Great acting, great music, great plot, it had us all in tears at the end.

And as a side note, at the store yesterday we picked up some more treats...

The brownies and the coconut cakes. Not as good as the almond ones, but still quite tasty.

Impulse purchase

At the grocery store last night, Erik and I both picked up some impulse purchases. I won't tell you about the one that Erik found, because he's not too proud of it, but these little cakes are fantastic!

A financier is a small cake-like cookie made with ground almonds. I've had them before at various bakeries, and always love them, but they're a bit pricey, so I don't buy them too regularly.

These individually wrapped cakes were so good that we almost finished the whole bag in the elevator on the way home. Erik had the last one for dessert with nutella spread on it, and, well, I'm sure you can imagine how good that was.

So these little cakes will now become part of my regular treat rotation, which currently includes (but is not limited to) orange flavoured chocolates that are pringle shaped, hazelnut tortinas, any plain milk chocolate bar, the yogurt in the terra cotta pots (although those seem to be making a fairly regular appearance around here) and chocolate covered marshmallow teddy bears. Oh, and I've recently discovered the French macaron, which probably deserves an entire post to itself. More on those another time.

Happy eating!

We're still here...

Not too much to report.

Changed the look of the blog, I thought the navy blue was getting a bit depressing. What do you think? Also trying to decide I should put the clocks in again. Any thoughts? Or have we all figured out the time differences? Or do we just not care anymore? :)

It's been a slow week for me. First week of vacation, and I spent the first two days not doing too much. It's just been too hot! I did go to the doctor (woohoo! Things happen fast in France. Appointment was made the same day, I had to get blood work done, and I got the test results in the mail the next day! I didn't think that was possible!).

I realized tonight that it has, however, been a week of not cooking.

On Monday we had a lovely dinner at a restaurant across the street. A tiny little place, with a pretty basic menu, friendly owner. Erik had an amazing steak tartare that was lightly fried, and I had pesto risotto. Yummy!

Tuesday we got pizza. Too hot to cook.

Wednesday Erik's supervisor had us, and some other people from the lab over for a barbeque. His backyard was huge, and he had an amazing number of varieties of tomatoes. Great food, and it began to pour just as our meal was ending. What a relief!

Thursday Pavel and Tatiana had us over for dinner with another big boss from the lab. The meal was absolutely delicious, from the champagne aperitif, to the lamb, to the tiramisu. Pavel truly outdid himself.

And tonight we had a boring old stir fry.

And that's about it.

I hope everyone is doing well. We're off to rent a movie.

(did I mention we finally got a fan???? We had been told at Darty that they weren't getting any more fans until the end of the month. When I went to pick up the Brita we ordered on Tuesday, however, there were a couple of fans there! People were leisurely reading about all the features, and comparing prices, but I just grabbed the fist one I saw. Seriously. When there is a fan shortage during a heatwave, do you really care if your fan is the 'silent' kind? Come on!)

Feeling hot, hot, hot!

Lets just say it's a good thing Blogger wasn't working yesterday when I got home.

Because I was not a happy camper.

It has been HOT here in Paris all week. I don't like to complain, and it really hasn't been too bad (aka we still don't have a fan, although that's partly because the Inno no longer has ANY--and trust me, I was ready to pay good money for any kind of cooling device yesterday).

But sometimes, it's just ridiculous.

Like my train ride home.

The train I take in the afternoons is basically a slow moving sauna. Zero ventilation. Ridiculously hot temperatures. The metal armrests were too hot to touch. I sweated more on that 20 minute ride than I do in a 60 minute fitness class. I was sweating so much I had to stop texting Erik because my fingers were slipping off the keys, and I'm pretty sure my phone isn't waterproof. I even took a picture of my disgustingly sweaty face because I couldn't believe how hot it was.

But it's a bad picture, and I'm not nearly as grumpy as yesterday, so I won't post it.

And to top things off, super fast checkout guy at the Inno was being purposefully super slow. As in, wouldn't ring an item through until you had put it in your bag. Meticulously folded every article of clothing that the woman in front of me bought. Spent five minutes trying to get the security tag off an item with the checkout divider. And he thought this was hilarious.

Me, not so much.

Luckily for Erik, who bore the brunt of my heat-induced frustrations, our favorite cafe, the Time Machine, is air conditioned.

I think we'll be spending a lot of time there this summer.

(and I'd prefer this hot weather any day to snow)

Happy summer!

(and here's a link to a Paris food blog with some tips on how to survive in this crazy city this summer)

Real Food

My new favorite snack.

How did I ever survive without Nutella?

The Socialist Party party

On Thursday evening, on the way home from the gym, Erik and I noticed a party being set up on Edgar Quinet Blvd. There were people putting beers on ice, and a DJ was setting up his equipment.

We decided to check it out.

So off we went after dinner to the Socialist Party party. And what a party it was. There were drinks and a bake sale, and the 'dance floor' was packed. With a huge variety of people. Lots of families and cute kids, some teenagers that looked like they were 'warming up' for a night on the town. Some single people. Some homeless people. And everyone was having a good time.


We grabbed our beers and joined in the fun.



There was a conga line, and they played the Macarena, and Cotton Eyed Joe. Cheesy songs, but ones that kept everyone moving.

Can you see the Tour Montparnasse in the distance?

It was a good time. Until we realized that we'd had perhaps too much fun.

It was a rough day on Friday.

I can't believe I'm going to write a post about...

McDonald's.

It's been on my mind a lot lately.

We've eaten there twice in as many weeks, which is probably two times more than we've eaten there since we got to Paris.

It's just so good.

Really.

And they serve beer.

And what else could you possibly eat the morning after an evening where you consume too many cheap beers?

And they give you frites sauce with your fries, as well as ketchup. It's kind of like a cross between mayonaise and tartar sauce, and it's fantastic.

It's not going to become a regular staple in our diets, but it is somehow very comforting to know that a cheeseburger and fries tastes exactly the same here as it does at home. Well, that's actually kind of scary, but when you just want a good old reliable meal, it can't be beat.

Ok. I promise I'll only talk about real food from now on.

Happy Bastille Day!

Last night we headed down to the Champ de Mars to watch the Bastille Day fireworks in front of the Eiffel Tower. It was the place to be, and the ENTIRE park was absolutely jam packed with people. We found a spot farther back, with a good view of the tower and got comfortable. The feu d'artifices were set to music, Mozart, which really added to the performance.



waiting for the show to begin

A day in Epernay (and Hautevillers)

Day number four started off bright and early with a nice traditional French breakfast at the hotel. We had learned the night before that the village of Hautevillers, the supposed home of Dom Perignon the monk, was a mere 6 km away, and a 10euro cab ride. Our pleasant cab driver dropped us off in front of the tourist office in Hautevillers, where we purchased a walking tour map, and set off to enjoy the scenery.



















The village was full of quaint houses, with lots of flowers and cute signs above the doors. We visited the chapel that was part of the abbey with Dom P lived, and then ventured out to the vineyards. Heading back into town we decided to stop for some tastings, and were pleasantly surprised that many of the small wineries in the town offered free tastings, and very reasonably priced bottles. We went to three houses. I don't remember much about the first one, but the second seemed like someone's house. We were greeted at the door by who we think was the daughter and her dog, and she promptly started pouring us glasses of their different champagnes. After tasting all that they had to offer, Erik and I bought a bottle of their Abbatiale, which was delicious (Erik kept calling it abbatoir, which apparently means slaughterhouse. The owner didn't seem to think it was funny).

We quickly headed to one more that we were interested in, and got there right before they closed. They also generously poured samples for us, and we all bought bottles from them. Both champagnes that we tried were not available in stores, and it was fun to visit a different kind of champagne house, as both were clearly family run, and the people serving us had a lot invested in their product. A nice change to the 'big box' champagne houses in Reims and Epernay.


















We grabbed a cab back into town, and had lunch at a nice little cafe (named the cafe Paris). After lunch we headed to what was supposed to be the best tour in all of the region!

Drum roll please...it was Moet et Chandon.

One of their vineyards in Hautevillers

Now, you have to realize, that we're a little bit spoiled by this point. And we've already had about 6 glasses of champagne, and it's barely 2:00. And, group tours are just not that fun when you're used to personalized attention of a private tour.

Nancy's hero

Anyway, Moet et Chandon was beautiful. They own and produce the Dom Perignon champagne, and they had a statue of him in their courtyard. The house was beautiful, and the cellars were some of the nicer ones that we'd seen, but by this point, we really didn't need a tour. But we had a very knowledgeable and pleasant guide, so we sucked it up, and made it through to the tasting (it's hard work!).

Rows and rows of Dom Perignon

We did learn that Dom Perignon is never aged with a metal cap. Our guide was reluctant to talk too much about this prestigious brand, because there is a separate tour for it (Steve and Christy, are you interested??), but we specifically asked about these corks, so he had to tell us. This stuff is aged for ages in the cellar, and unsurprisingly, was the priciest that we saw in all the boutiques.

We made it through to the tasting where we tasted two of their millenium champagnes, and I think that's when we reached our limit. I was done. That brought the total up to 8 glasses that morning, plus a lot of sun and walking, and we were beat. Not as beat as the woman we saw passed out on some cushions outside the boutique, but that's another story.

We said goodbye to the land of the bubbly, and headed for the train station. The train was packed, and the only place we could find room for all of us was in first class, so we rode back to Paris in fear of getting kicked out (Daryl was going to handle any problems. Do you speak English? was our motto. We had the LP prominently displayed). Alas, all our worries were unfounded, and we made it safely back to Paris in the comfort of our private first class cabin.

And so ends our adventures in Champagne. I deliberately plan my route through the grocery store now so I can ogle the champagnes. Of the four bottles we bought, three have been drunk. Did we mention that Nancy and Daryl bought four magnums? We're so proud of them.

I hear they make a lovely foot rest :)

The city is quieter than it has been all day.

As dissapointment hangs heavy in the air, Erik and I are happy that we'll at least be able to get some sleep tonight.

Is it bad that the highlight of our evening was drinking beer at McDonalds for dinner?

Reims to Epernay

Day number two of our trip was a day of walking.

We (well, maybe I) had the great idea of doing some biking. There is a route touristique around the champagne region that goes through vineyards and small towns, and it seemed like we could do some biking along it, so we headed out bright and early for the bike rental place listed in the Lonely Planet. Turns out it was a bit farther than it seemed, and took us through some less than desireable neighbourhoods (but still interesting. We couldn't figure out the antique shop in between two porn shops). When we finally arrived at the bike place, it quickly became apparent that this was not a rental place. More like sales and repairs. But the staff humored us, and began pulling out bikes for us to 'rent'. But these bikes looked like they had been brought into the shop ten years ago for repairs, and never got fixed. Plus, they only had three. So we quickly vetoed that idea, and headed back into town to visit the surrender museum.

The surrender museum is part of a lycee in Reims that was used by the Americans during the Second World War. It also happens to be where the first unconditional surrender documents were signed by the Germans on May 7th, stating that all operations were to cease on May 8th. The museum is now closed off from the school, and contains a large selection of war memorabilia, and the map room, where the surrender was signed, maintained in perfect condition.

Here's a good picture of Erik really getting into it.




Being tourists on the way to Pommery

After the museum we decided to squeeze in one more tour before catching our train to Epernay. We headed for Pommery because it seemed to be the only one that stayed open over lunch. By the time we got there, we realized that it may stay open, but it doesn't run tours. But we were so hot and tired that we hung around for an hour and a half to wait for the tour. Pommery was the only house we visited that actually looked like a castle. The grounds were quite elaborate, and very beautiful. There was some kind of modern art exhibition going on, most of it in the cellars, which we found a bit strange, but apparently Mme. Pommery (she was a veuve too) was really into art, so this is apparently a way to honour her memory. We again had a private tour, but it was rushed because we had to get our train.

Erik's new favorite 'tour guide' pose outside the Pommery estate


One of the great chalk carvings that was in the cellar


Check out the size of these! I think they were Jeroboams.


Lovely arches


And of course a tasting. We all decided that we didn't really like Pommery. There was a lot of hype over all their products, and they are the creators of "Pop" the first champagne you can drink out of the bottle (right up our alley!). Our tour guide admitted that Pop wasn't really a good champagne (in fact we weren't even allowed to taste it), and the other ones that we tasted were just mediocre. Too bad it's so popular in France.

Once the tour was done, we rushed back to the hotel to grab our stuff, and a bottle of champagne for the ride. We got some kebab-frites sandwiches to enjoy on the train. The train ride was lovely, going through the vineyards, and we had our own private compartment, that made it easier for us to enjoy the Bollinger champagne that we had picked up.

Enjoying our kebab-frites


Enjoying the view

After we had checked into our hotel in Epernay, Daryl and Erik aka DandE tours, took us on a guided tour of the city. We quickly checked off the handful of things to do there other than drink champagne.


The handsome tour guides. Note the matching outfits.

And that was the end of day two. Stay tuned for the next episode of our adventures in Champagne...

How to make champagne

By tour number seven, you can run the show. All the big houses explain the same steps in the same way, and it can get a bit tedious sometimes. But we did learn a lot. After our magnum last night, we ran through the steps again, just to make sure we got it.

So, for your reading pleasure, here is how champagne is made.

Champagne only comes from the Champagne region in France. There is a Champagne association of some sort (can't remember the name) that controls all things about this delicious drink.

It can only be made from three kinds of grapes: Chardonnay, Pinot noir and Pinot meunier. Houses can use whatever combination of these three that they like, but chardonnay and pinot noir seemed to be the most common. All three grapes produce white juice, but pinot noir and pinot meunier grapes have black skins.

Grapes are grown on the Premier cru and grand cru vineyards in the region, which means, basically, the best 20% of vines in the area. The chalky soil of the region absorbs moisture, and then releases it during dry periods, which creates ideal growing conditions.

The grapes are harvested in the fall, on some date that is determined by the association. Apparently they are picked by students, but we didn't really buy that. All the grapes have to be picked by hand, and all varieties are kept separate. Most of the big houses still use the old fashioned hand press machine to gently press the grapes and release the juice.

The juice is then aged in stainless steel casks for two weeks (or some other short amount of time). At this point, the winemaster begins to taste the still wines and begins the process of blending the different champagnes. A house champagne, usually their 'brut', generally has the same flavour every year. Its made with grapes from many different years, and therefore sold without a year on the bottle. The winemaster is responsible for replicating the houses 'signature' style in the taste of the champagne. Vintage champagnes are made with grapes from just one year, and roses get their colour from an addition of red wine.

The wines are then blended and bottled, and yeast is added. The bottles are sealed with a metal cap. These bottles are then stored in the chalk caves (which, because of their porous nature create a constant humid, cool environment, that is perfect for champagne), on their sides. Regular champagne must be aged for a minimum of 15 months. The big houses all aged for at least 30. Vintages are aged longer than that, and apparently Dom Perignon is aged up to 30 years before being sold. As the champagne ages, the yeast reacts with the sugar creating carbon dioxide, which creates the bubbles. As the yeast dies, it sinks to the bottom of the bottle. The bottles are slowly rotated until they are in a vertical position, where the yeast sediment collects in the neck of the bottle. This process takes place on the riddling table, which was invented by Madame Clicquot herself. It used to be done by hand, but nowadays, there are machines that replicate the gradual riddling process on a much larger scale in much less time.

Once the sediment has settled, the tops of the bottles are dipped in a freezing cold brine, freezing the sediment. The bottles are uncapped, and the pressure from inside forces the cube of sediment out. The liquid that is lost is replaced with a mixture of still wine and sugar. The amount of sugar that is added determines whether the wine will be brut, dry, demi-sec, etc. More sugar=less dry. The bottles then get their natural corks and wire cages, and are labelled and ready to be sold. The general consensus that we got was the champagne is sold to be drunk right away. Once the yeast is removed from the bottle, the flavour of the drink doesn't develop any more, and so storing of regular champagnes is not recommended. Vintage champagnes can be kept for a bit longer.

Whew! I think that's it. I think I'm ready for a drink...:)

Reims

Well, Nancy and Daryl left this morning (sniff, sniff) and we're all alone again, so I guess it's time to write about our adventures in Champagne.

Wow, I just realized how many pictures there are...I'm going to try and choose the highlights.

So, we left Tuesday afternoon and arrived in Reims with enough time to walk around the city and see some of the attractions (which surprisingly didn't involve champagne!!)

Our first stop was the Carnegie museum which had spectacular art deco architechture. The chandelier in the lobby was beautiful, as well as the mosaic tile around the walls.

Next stop was the Notre Dame Cathedral. This spectacular church used to host coronations for the French royals, and contained many amazing stained glass windows and architechture.


After the church, we decided to get in the mood, and enjoyed an aperitif in the park before dinner.



The next day started bright an early with a trip to the Veuve Clicquot house. We had booked a visit, and were quite excited to get started. It was a good first visit, clear and concise, covering all the basics. Of course it finished with a tasting, of their new non-vintage rose, my favorite! We browsed through the boutique filled with assorted Clicquot merchandise before deciding to head to another house.

Heading down to the cellars


Barrels from some of the different vineyards


The most important part of the tour

Piper Heidseik was our next stop. A fellow teacher had mentioned that their tour included three glasses, and we thought that sounded good. Turns out for this tour we got to ride in our own self guided car, and were taken through a pretty cheesy audio tour of their cellars. But lets be honest. We weren't really there for the tour. We finished that visit with a tasting of their Brut, their rose and a vintage, and we enjoyed being able to compare the different varieties.

The host who took this picture almost got run over when the car started unexpectedly!



After a quick lunch, we headed for our third tour of the day. Mumm. Which we learned is actually pronounced 'Moom'. Anyway, this was my favorite visit of the whole trip. We were the only ones on our tour, and our guide was very knowledgeable. By tour number 3 you start asking questions, and she was pretty good at answering them. Mumm had an interesting period when they used ceramic casks for the ageing of the grape juice after it's been picked. All the houses now use stainless steel, but I think that Mumm was the only one that ever used ceramic. They were kind of interesting, although we never figured out why they did that. Another tasty tasting wrapped up this tour too, their blancs de blancs made with 100% chardonnay grapes, the rose and a vintage (Erik and I seemed to be fond of the many vintages we tried...)



A picnic dinner in the hotel room (couldn't find a good park) washed down with two bottles of champagne, and we were finally ready to call it a night.

That's it for today, folks! Stay tuned for more from our adventures in Champagne...