2:00 Saturday afternoon

Torie: "You're drinking wine?"

Erik: "What? I'm eating lunch!"

And you wonder why we don't want to leave!

(honestly, I think I'm more offended that he didn't offer me a glass. Perhaps it's because I've been correcting his English. 'Boughten' isn't actually a word, is it? And would anyone care to share some correct uses of the word 'propose'? We throw it around here all the time, mostly as a joke, because it's one of those words that I don't think is used the same way in both languages. The French like to think it is, though)

Just a Regular Sunday Afternoon

Today we headed out to the Parc Floral to check out another wine show, this time it was Vins deTerroir. I was feeling pretty special because we received free tickets in the mail from a winemaker that we visited at the last show, until we realized that the tickets were available free on the internet. No problem, it didn't affect our enjoyment this afternoon, which began with a walk through the beautiful Parc Floral to get to the salon that was housing all the wine.

I hear it's snowing in Canada? We have the beginnings of spring flowers here. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, and the daffodils were sprouting.




We had a picnic in this exact spot last summer, now it's planted with geranium bulbs.


A lonely peacock


Where's the wine?


Ready to start tasting!

Highlights of the show (aside from the free wine) included the winemaker who told us that you can't learn to appreciate wine, it's part of your (French) culture. All us Kiwis and Canadians are just faking it, apparently. He also complained extensively at the difficulties and costs associated with trying to get into the Canadian wine market, something that we heard frequently at the last show we attended.


Inside the hall


Anja checks out the cheese


Two happy tasters


The haul.


Our impromptu picnic


Impromptu picnics call for make-shift utensils, such as a credit card cheese cutter....


And keys to push the cork into a bottle of freshly purchase wine.


It was a lovely afternoon.

A New Challenge

I think we can do it! A whole 1500 grams of goodness!


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And on an unrelated note, here is the bounty that we brought home from the wine show we attended a couple of weeks ago. We've polished off two of the bottles so far, and I'd post the names, but we stupidly recycled the bottles. Too bad, because they were delicious. Unfortunately, none of them are available at stores in Paris :(


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An on another unrelated note, Erik has been losing some weight around his midsection. He thought it would be funny to show everyone how he has managed to lose this weight. Well, that and a steady diet of bread and cheese, among other things. I'm only kind of kidding.

(plus, if you look carefully, you can kind of see the amazing watercolour that my mom did of the Time Machine, propped up against our tv.)