Day 21: Boire, Boire, Boire!

Drink drink drink! This was the catchy tune that our witty and funny professor exclaimed to us at the beginning of todays class, which revolved around wine tasting, growing, and more. By far, I learned more about wine in this lesson than any other that we've had yet. We began by discussing wine, it's origins, cultural use, purpose, etc. Then, the professor went into his theory of the "Twelve Commandments"... of wine!
Look
Sniff
Swirl
Smell
Tilt
Prolonged sniff
Sip
Chew
Swallow a little
Spit (or swallow!)
Breathe out
Score
Each of these steps are used to evaluate, appreciate, and analyze a wine. We evaluate and discussed six different wines in class today; two whites, two reds, a rose, and a dessert. It was pretty difficult at first to be able to swirl, slosh, and run the wine across my gums, but it's supposed to give the full character of the wine. It's funny because if you do it correctly, you'll have purple teeth after the tasting! The whites were very dry and had a strong presence of the soil that they were grown in; somewhat rocky, chalky, etc. The reds we had were full of Tannin; the chemical formed from the grape's skin that gives the numbing/burning sensation that one feels when red wine touches their tongue and gums. However, they each delivered quite a nice floral essence. The rose was okay, "Demi-Sec" meaning, semi-sweet. The dessert wine was too sweet for me, because it basically tasted like grape juice with wine mixed in. After the lesson, we headed to lunch and returned for the second part of the lesson which took place at an independent vineyard; a viticulturist who sells directly to customers and not through wholesale. The vineyard was great! We got to walk into the vineyard and see the blue schist, a rock, that was native to the area. The rock gives the wine a specific taste that's typical of the region. I actually learned about blue schist in geology, so it was exciting being able to apply my knowledge here. We toured the winery and then sat down for another tasting. I'm learning real quick that you don't have to drink the entire glass and its okay to spit and throw your wine in the designated bucket!

Day 20: the French Labor System

Today was quite interesting for lesson topics, especially since it involved politics! Our big lesson of the day was titled "the French Labor System", and it's main purpose was to inform the foreign students, like us, about the various aspects of the labor system in France, it's structure, and how it was conceived. First, we learned that many people here in france consider talking about politics to be taboo; many people will know good friends for years and years without ever knowing their political affiliation. Our lecture started with the discussion of the average work week in France. Not long ago, the French government had forbid the general population for working on Sundays. The motivation behind this wasn't for religious purposes (French is a secular-neutral state), but rather with the mindset that if people had more time off, they would have a higher life expectancy and be more productive. However, the recent conservative (liberal, in France) government has slightly changed the law to allow employers to open their doors on Sunday. This lead into the fact that the french have six paid weeks of vacation each and every year, and only work a 35 hour work week. Not long ago, the socialist party lowered the work week from 40 to 35 hours, with the thought process that if people had more free time, they would spend that free time shopping leisurely and thus, boost the economy. However, this severely backfired and now the French have their 35 hour work week that hasn't done the country any good. It produced no beneficial outcomes and resulted in a population that wouldn't allow for an increase in the hourly work week. Its a pickle. Other topics followed, such as the constitutional right to strike, which happens all too often in france. In fact, the city tram in Angers is set to open in over a week for the first time ever. To celebrate the opening, the city is allowing nine days of free travel. However, we found out today that it wont reopening because the workers are already planning a strike! There are even many cases where they hold their bosses hostage and negotiate their release with police... And aren't reprimanded for it even though it's illegal! Not many people are in trade unions, surprisingly, many people use working contracts, the official age of retirement is sixty (which may raise pretty soon), and the present unemployment rate is actually slightly higher than our own in the united states. What I have gathered from the lesson, and concluded, is that the french left have fought endlessly for a labor system that basically benefited employees while keeping their employer's hands tied. Unfortunately, many of the laws regarding the labor system have backfired and produced unwanted externalities. The current government is in the process of slightly reversing these policies, but changing many of these laws outright would be seen as changing the fabric of the lives of many french, who would never go for it.

Day 19: Caves of Saumur

Today began with a brief, two hour lesson on viticulture and the culture of wine making. It was somewhat interesting to hear about the entire process of wine making from start to finish, but surprisingly, I found myself overwhelmed with boredom as the instructor went into great depths about the chemistry (CHEmistry, as he pronounced each and every time) of wine making. After the lesson, we had two hours to scramble to the cafeteria downtown to eat lunch, which consisted of bland noodles, carrots, and a white fish. I usually grab a loaf of bread to eat because it's the only thing that has consistent taste in that cafeteria. We headed back quickly and loaded onto the charter bus to head out to our wine tour at Saumur, a small town that is known for it's Saumur cooperative and industrialized wine production. We arrived at the cooperative in the countryside and immediately began our tour. We began our tour with the newer and more modern part of the facility with modern equipment. It was quite impressive seeing the massive cisterns, holding tanks, presses, and the systematic network that linked them all. It was quite clean and all crafted with stainless steel. After this tour, we headed to the older part of the winery, which was located underground in a complex network of caves. As we entered the caves, I was immediately overwhelmed by the smell of mold and wine. It was quite dark, damp, and cold. It seemed like we took ten flights of stairs down into the caves and arrived at the bottom where various wooden boxes were lined along the cave walls, filled to the top with dusted wine bottles ready to be cleaned and labeled. The tour lasted about two hours, of which we was the entire wine making process from start to finish, "following the grape" the entire way. The caves were equipped with natural cooling for the wine, a bottling room, a processing room, storage room, etc. I was quite impressed because these facilities were very modern and industrialized, unlike many of the other companies we've seen thus far. After the tour, we climbed back up to the wine store on top of the caves. Here, we had quite a long wine tasting and tasted about 15 different wines! I found that my favorite were the oak wines; those wines that are hand picked and aged in oak barrels. The tour was great, and it was probably the best wine tasting I've had yet!

Day 18: Paella

I woke up pretty late this morning because a bunch of us from the group went out last night to a new bar called James Joyce. I was, however, up before Elly and her boyfriend, Sliman. I came to breakfast just in time to meet Claudine coming in the door with arms full of fresh baked goods. She had some sweet bread with chocolate chips baked into it along with a whole bat full of croissants. They were amazing! It was actually the first time I've had croissants since I've been here. They're a bit more flakey and buttery than in the United States. I liked them. After this, we sat down and I studied some of my quiz bowl material while claudine cleaned. We then packed up and got ready to head out to the countryside to visit Claudine's sister. As soon as we got there lunch was ready. It ended up lasting three hours and we went through six courses! We started out with bread and pad-tae, a shot glass with avocado guacamole/tapioca, another with a tomato-type concoction, then we had the main dish paella. It was great! It had chicken, sausage, squid, mussels, and shrimp in it. For dessert, we had a big glass filled with chocolate, cream, pears, and an almond liqueur. After this, we headed out to the garden to pick black current back at the house. It hurt my back pretty bad after bending over for almost an hour in an attempt to pick the berries from the bush, but we ended up with a nice harvest, as Claudine said, so I was pretty please. Claudine told me I was to take some of the jam home to my parents, so that made me pretty excited. We headed back home shortly thereafter and had noodles for dinner. Quite a relaxing day, especially since it was spent in the french countryside.

Day 17: the Market of Angers

Today I was able to sleep in, and it was quite nice. I woke up, got dressed, and headed down for breakfast. I had the usual; French bread, jam, butter, and French-pressed coffee. I was petty excited though because today Dominic would be taking me to the weekly market in the town center of Angers. We headed out with another student and came up to what was once a recognizable area of the city for me, but was now unrecognizable due to the vast amounts of huts and tents set up along the sidewalks and street sides! We came up the bottom side of the market and I immediately became overwhelmed by the mass amounts of food products for sale. Various meats, fish, tapenads, oysters, clams, mussels, horse meat, crabs, cheeses... You name it, they had it! It was awesome! As you walked up to a tent, the seller would usually cut/peel/slice a price of whatever he was selling for you to try. The cheeses, cured meats, fruits, and wide assortment of colorful vegetables were all delicious! After a quick and initial overwhelming of my senses, we met Claudine at a near-by cafe to have a quick coffee. More Americans sat and drank with us, and after this, we headed to another end of the market where merchants sold various antiques. It was so interesting seeing their versions of what we call "antique", as the artisanship in their products are so different from our own at home. Unique, pretty, and embellished to say the least. Unfortunately it began to rain on us, so we headed out to the nearest restaurant we could find...which happened to be Mexican! I ordered a quesadilla with chicken. It was pretty decent, a good effort to make Mexican food, but not the real deal, especially since it was served with a glass of red wine and chocolate ice cream for dessert. But, it was as close as I could get! Tonight we're having dinner and then I'm headed out to Falstaff with the rest of the gang. Somewhat beginning to notice things I miss back at home, like driving, hot weather, pools, friends, Mexican food, etc. But, it is quite nice here!

Day 16: Salt Marshes and Cheese Factory

Today was Friday, and yes, we had a field trip that made it that much better! We met up at ESA around 7:45, which was miserable since everyone was up late the night before. We climbed on the bus and headed out to a cheese factory about an hour outside of town. The factory looked very nice on the outside, not like a small "mom and pop" type operation that we had been seeing in the days before. We walked into what seemed like a mini movie thwarted with a projector and rows of seating. We began our tour with a ten minute movie (in French) translated for us that discussed the beginnings, operations, and products of the cheese factory. Basically, what makes the cheese factory unique is that the factory buys milk daily from local producers and begins the cheese production almost immediately with no preservation or pasteurization of the milk. There are eight different kinds of cheeses that the factory makes from this milk alongside butter and yogurt. We walked upstairs to a unique, flat, room that was encased by windows. Looking down through the various windows, one could see different production rooms where the products were being made. It was quite a site! After this, we headed to the other side of the room where a large table was set up with various samples of their cheese products and glasses of wine. The cheese tasted amazing! However, there was one cheese that smelt like B.O. I wasn't going to let the smell of the cheese stop me from trying a piece because I'm here to experience and taste new things. So I tried it. I'll never try it again. It was horrible, disgusting, and it left my hands smelling filthy. But I tried it and that's all that counts! After this, we headed out to the city of Gerund (I know I didn't spell that correctly); a walled city along the bay in Brittany that is known for it's salt production. We walked throughout the city, which looked similar to Saint Malo, and then headed out to the marshes where we visited a salt cooperative and learned all about salt production. It was quite interesting to see it all done by hand and see each individual have their own salt marsh. There's approximately 300 individuals that own salt marshes in the area and about 200 of those belong to the cooperative. I bought some "Fleur de Sel" or "salt flour" which is the best crop from the salt. It was quite a tiring day, but it was so much fun!

Day 15: Wine Tasting and Taking Notes!

Today began like each and every other class day has begun; beginning with French and starting various lecturers. However, today was quite special! We began the second part of our curriculum; wine and viticulture production. Thus, it would be appropriate to begin the days lesson with a formal introduction to wine, it's history, it's types, and it's Terroir. After the power point, we were able to work with an oil kit called "The Nose of Wine"' which was a kit full of various scented oils (54) used to train wine tasters to be able to identify various flavors in wine. Some were easy to figure out (peach, cedar, apple, banana) but there were others that were more difficult to identify (apricot, pear, butter). It was somewhat frustrating because there many oils that I smelt and knew were familiar, however, I couldn't pinpoint exactly what smell it was! And what better way to end the lesson? To have a wine tasting! Our instructor brought three different bottles of Rouge (red) wine for us to try and discuss. It was quite a treat, and I thoroughly enjoyed the lesson because it seemed that our instructor was truly passionate about wine. I'm hoping that as we go through this next section of our course, I'll be able to learn more, taste more, and be able to identify more different kinds of wines!