Le Beaujolais Nouveau

Question #1:

Le Beaujolais Nouveau is:

• A) the third Thursday of November


• B) really mediocre red wine


• C) a trick the French play on the rest of the world


• D) a party at the kid’s school

Wong - the answer is…all of the above, let me explain.

A) The third Thursday in November has been the traditional day for the release of Beajolais Nouveau for a few decades now.  The choice of a Thursday, instead of a specific date in November, is assumed to be done in order to associate the release with a weekend.  The Beajolais Nouveau phenomenon really got kick-started in the 1980’s when one of the largest producers decided to add a bit of excitement to the release of this previously locally consumed low-quality wine: a race to Paris to see who could get their wine their first.  This then spread to other cities in France, then Europe, and on to the US, and eventually Asia.

B) Beajolais Nouveau truly is a  really mediocre red wine, partially by nature of the rules that they have put in place, and the hype that they have created.  Just by stating that a wine shall be ready by a certain date seems a bit odd, for an agriculturally dependant product. It would be like saying that you will sell your first apple pie made with apples from a certain valley on a certain date, every year.  No allowance for late rain, cool weather, freak storms, problems with harvest, dry spring…nope, if you will have the finished product ready by the Third Thursday in November - then you will have to harvest with enogh lead time to absolutely ensure that you have the wine ready by then.  This is now especialy true since they seemed to have succeeded in convincing many people into thinking that not only is this wine something worthwhile, but that drinking it on a certain day is even more so.  On top of that, apparently the rules that are in place for the actual fermentation (letting the smashed grapes sit and actually turn into wine)  of Beajolas is mandated to something like 3-10 Days…then bottled. That’s it. 

C) It would seem at first easy to criticize the French - until you realize they are in on the joke.  It seems easy to criticize them for creating a circumstance that in a way forces them to hinge their reputation on what has a very good chance of being an inferior product.  At first many seem ready to call their bluff: “But you know what?  It’s not even good!”  To which the French seem ready to reply “shhhhh.  C’est vrai. Mais don’t tell the others…especially the Japanese”  I read an article in Le Post  entitled: “Beaujolais nouveau : mais pourquoi est-il aussi mauvais ?”.  Basically: “Beaujolais nouveau: but why is it so bad?”  So it would seem that indeed they are well aware of this - they know what it really is.

Why ‘especially the Japanese?” - well it would seem they are by far the largest importer of this wine. Estimates are that Six Million bottles are sent there every year. The vast majority it would seem - are express-air shipped. They retail there for almost 10x the 3Euros they fetch here in France. Plus - you can count on the Japanese for ‘adaptations’ like this:

wow.

In Japan it is apparently the most popular wine, and there is even a spa where one can bathe in the stuff.  <insert your own joke here re: wine finally having some body in it>

D) Friday night was the Soiree Beajolas at our kids school. It was sort of like a parent-association thing- dinner and an auction -to raise money for the school.  We were told prior to the evening: “don’t worry - you only have to have one glass of Beajolais, and then they bring out the good stuff”  Well unfortunately, that did not turn out to be true this year, but it was a pretty interesting evening.  There was a live auction, but we didn’t buy either the fois gras, the diving vest, the weekend at someone’s vacation house, nor any of the other many fine things that were up for grab.  It was in the cantine at the school - and for a small school, there were quite a few people there.

La Grande Chartreuse {pt. II}

We continued on, along the winding road that shadowed the river at the bottom of the gorge until we got to the grounds of the museum and had our pic-nic. It should be noted that a French grocery store is a great palce to get everything that you need to get a real pic-nic going. [I assume that’s what the small wine bottles were made for]

We found a bench at the end of a tree-lined path, right between some high-alpine pastures and had our lunch.  A well balanced meal that had representation from each of the major (french) food groups: bread, cheese, wine & chocolate.

When we finished our lunch we wandered over to the museum.  The museum had of course been one of the two main sites of the day - but since the distillary was closed - was now more the main point of the day trip.

Ferme pour l’hiver

Closed for the winter.

hmm.

“This seems like a great time to go for a hike up and around the actual monastery.”

The walk was quite a bit of uphill - especially for the kids - and especially since we had already hiked around the gorge  just before lunch.  They were great - for the most part - and kept on going.  We walked up to the massive walled compound, then up above the monastery - in order to get a bit of a view down into it.  Then we took a hiking trail through the forrest that wrapped around and eventually headed back down to the car.  It was a nice day out, the views fantastic, and it was a great day of  hiking.

The sun was just dropping behind the mountains as we got back to the car and started to head back.  On our way home we took a more direct route over a pass, and directly down to Grenoble, then across the valley, and back up the other side to go home. Near the top of that pass the kids saw what was for them, the most exciting and memorable thing of the day.  Not the 900 year old stone arch bridge, not the rocky peaks of the Massif de la Chartresue, not the massive monastary in a high-alpine valley, not the micro-climate of lush fauna at the bottom of the gorge….Nope - a bit of snow on the side of the road.  hmm

La Grande Chartreuse {pt. I}

The colour chartreuse  takes it’s name from the Chartreuse liquor, which is made by the Carthusian monks, who are so named because St Bruno started the order in the Chartreuse mountains about 900 years ago.

Well those mountains just so happen to be just across the valley from us - so last week we decided to have a little outing there.

We thought we’d start with a visit to the Chartreuse distillary - where the infamous liquer is made. There’s a 3D movie, and all kinds of cool stuff that we thought the kids would like.  Sorry - it’s closed on weekends between Tousaint and April.  Of course.

So we picked up the makings for a pic-nic and headed up towards the second part of our outing - the original monistary of the Carthusian order- le monastère de la Grande-Chartreuse.

It is a beutiful (often frightening) drive up a narrow gorge to get there -and along the way we saw a trail that headed off down along the river at the bottom.

We stopped and wandered along for a while, walking over some nice brand-new well constructed bridges, hanging on to some cables along slippery rock steps, and gong past a very small 900 year old stone bridge.

It was well past 1 when we got back to the car so we headed up to the Musee de la Grande Chartreuse for a quick pic-nic - and then for a visit…


(continued here...)

La fête de la Saint-Martin

On Friday I was looking through the kids cahier jaunes (yellow notebooks - it’s the way you communicate between parents & teacher/school) and noticed a little insert from the village for “La Fete de la St Martin” hmm.  Seeing as he is the namesake of our village - therein lies an opportunity for another cultural experience.  I read it and seemed to understand something about the kids parading through the town with lanterns.  buh…ok.

It was about 6:20 when I read it - and it started at 6:30.  Susan was cooking supper and two kids were in the bath - yet somehow we made it there in time to buy our 2Euro paper lanterns and get ready …for whatever it was that was going to take place.

Eventually some people who looked official (with their safety vests) started the processional  - and lead everyone there (there were probably 150 people or so) through the village.  Down past the school, back up to the main street - and back to the town square.  No explanation as to why we were doing this - what it meant, where the tradition comes from.  (Just follow along, smile & nod….is the name of the game living here it seems).

Our local police were directing the crowd to ensure that everyone was safe. Side Note: if you want a low-risk, low-key, low-stress police job - I’m going to say that Police Municipal de St Martin D’Uriage is about as good as it gets.  The one thing they do every day is direct traffic by the public school when there can be literally DOZENS of parents trying to get out of the parking lot onto the road (fun fact: not only do we not have a traffic light in our town, but neither do probably 3 towns in every direction)

When we got back to the place du village, there was chocolat chaud and pastries for the kids - because, there is nothing better than that right before supper!

The kids thought the whole thing was great. We got home before 8 or so - and the two younger kids went straight from the car to provide  a private mini-parade past Madame Ribo’s window, just to make sure she didn’t miss anything.  Next thing we knew they were over there playing play-doh with her and her grand-daughter.

The strangest thing about all of these kind of experiences - is that the kids just take them in stride, as if they were the most normal thing that could be imagined.

And you thought we had weird kids before we moved here….


Oh yes - one more thing that I really should add: as you can see by what the kids were wearing - it was absolutely freezing out.  Well, actually it was a bit rainy and 10, yes that’s right +10.  I do believe they have softened up a bit in the last few months.

New Chez Nous

Just wanted to get a quick post up (using ‘borrowed’ WiFi) to let everyone know that we are indeed alive, and have in fact moved into our new place.  We still don’t have internet/phone at home (since moving on Oct 25) - but a technician from France Telecom was out on Wednesday - so now there is at least an actual line to our house that is connected to the phone network.  …one step at a time.

Our new place is great - it is working out fantastic to have our landlords as neighbours.  They also take on the role of: french teacher, house-call doctor, and resident dog.  Their dog Zola - is about as good as it gets for having a pet. The kids can go outside and play with her whenever they want. But we don’t feed her, clean up after her  - or have any responsibility for her behaviour….perfect.

Our new place has good bus connections for me to get down into Grenoble to the business school - and the last bit from the bus stop to our house is good for me - 1 km long, 100m up.  It’s only 3min drive to school for the kids - and our street is a dead end so there is not much traffic on it.

This place is truly an answer to prayers - and we feel incredibly blessed to have found it.