- Alcohol has little or no taboo. Ex #1. At the Italian university, which is run by the Catholic Church, there is wine on tap in the cafeteria. Ex #2. At the Changins campus, the vending machine sells Heinekens.
- After your football (soccer) team wins a match (game), you are allowed to honk your car horn for an hour, but after that it is illegal.
- Eggs and milk are not refrigerated in the supermarket.
- Everyone eats French fries, or pomme frittes. Everywhere. To an alarming extent.
- Horse meat is actually quite tasty when cooked properly. Not sure how I feel about this one, but I'll roll with it for now.
- You can bring your dog on public transporation, but you have to buy them a half fare ticket, as if it were your child.
- Ordering a latte at a coffee shop gets you a curious look and a cup of steamed milk.
- Scooters in Switzerland are very quiet, but extremely loud in Italy (4 stroke vs. 2 stroke).
- Bus drivers can get a big bus through almost any small, medieval city, unless the road construction guy gives you the thumbs down when your round the corner.
- Everything in the super market comes in little tiny packages.
- In restaurants, a beer is usually cheaper than a Coke.
- In restaurants, its nearly impossible to get a glass of tap water, and the beer is still cheaper.
- There are a lot of really expensive cars in Switzerland: Ferrari Enzo, Porsche Carrera GT, and Bugatti Veyron were all seen within one mile of eachother, and there was a Lamborghini used as a daily driver that we frequently saw in Ouchy.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Europe - The Little Things
Here is a list of small things that I noticed during the month spent in Switzerland/France/Italy:
Monday, July 14, 2008
Bastille Day
Monday 7.14.2008
The setting sun was absolutely beautiful this night.
The Evian sprin, where people were filling up lots of water bottles.
Mark shooting bottle rocket - action shot
Big fireworks show
Today is Bastille Day in France, a major holiday that celebrates the beginning of the overthrow of the French monarchy. We had three lectures in the morning session:
André Lehman from Solutech, who displayed a machine that charts the progress of a fermentation by differential air pressure through tubes of different lengths. Pretty interesting, but they are coming out with an improved model soon.
Mark Welch from Cal Poly gave a talk on sustainable winegrowing in California. He also talked about IPM (Integrated Pest Managment) in California. This takes into account the life cycles of the pests, and coordinates the treatment plans accordingly.
Ken Fugelsang from Fresno State then gave a really good talk on Brettanomyces, an organism that lives in barrels and wine (after fermentation). Brett was isolated originally from British beer, a fact that our Dr. Thornton failed to mention.
We then went to Ouchy, where we got on a boat and headed to Evian, France. Yes, the home of the water. We can honestly say we've seen & tasted water from the source of Evian water!
The setting sun was absolutely beautiful this night.The Evian sprin, where people were filling up lots of water bottles.There were a lot of booths set up along the waterfront, and we enjoyed some really good kabobs. They sell fireworks, and Pierre bought the largest firecracker I have ever seen. There was a nice fireworks show that night, and we caught the boat back across the lake to Ouchy and caugth the last bus home. Great night.
Mark shooting bottle rocket - action shot Big fireworks showSunday, July 13, 2008
A Day in mARTigny
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Mark and I decide to take a trip to both Neuchatel and Martigny today. We chose Neuchatel because of its proximity to a lake and the fact that you got to ride the "tipping" train there; we selected Martigny because it seemed appealing as an artsy town. We wanted to go to the art gallery that had a large sculpture garden and in particular, a Nikki de St. Phalle sculpture.
As luck would have it (as well as a little bad timing) we missed the train to Neuchatel by about 2 minutes. So we went to Martigny first instead. We were still flying from the excitement of our day yesterday and were hoping to have as much fun. At the train station we took a few minutes to get our bearings and then set off for the museum. Immediately it became clear that the museum would be easy to find--we found fliers/posters for it everywhere! To see their website, check out: http://www.gianadda.ch/wq_pages/en/expositions/
Mark and I perused the exhibits-we weren't too fond of the paintings by Balthus, but we enjoyed the da Vinci exhibits and the sculpture garden--sadly only one Nikki de St. Phalle, but I've included pictures!
After leaving the Gianadda museum, we went to visit the St. Bernard museum. Todd would have enjoyed this museum--you got to pet the dogs! They had at least 6-8 at the museum, and started taking them for walks as we were leaving.
The rest of our afternoon was okay--we took a walk out to the castle--not all the way, but part of the way. Then we paid $4 Swiss francs to take a bus tour of the city--not our favorite part of the trip--but we ended on a positive note, had a great lunch and headed back to the train station to head out to Neuchatel.
Mark enjoyed the tipping train! We didn't end up having dinner in Neuchatel--it was just too rainy, but we did purchase some beautiful cheeses and meats with fresh bread to have a nice dinner in our room while we did laundry. Quiet Sunday night:)Lucerne –Transportation Museum
7.12.2008
Today we decided to forgo the Italy trip due to the rain forecast for the entire weekend. We got on the train and headed to Luzern, about 2 ½ hours away. It is an amazingly beautiful city, with a nice mix of old and new buildings built around a lake in a valley. I dragged Kathe to the Transportation Museum, which ended up being a ton of fun and we spent 4 hours looking around.
They have a very impressive train museum, from very old trains to modern trains. We were able to see the angled trains that are used on the very steep tracks, like the trip up to Mt. Pilatus. We were going to take this train to the summit, but it was blanketed by clouds and the views would have been pretty slim.
We then moved to the Peter Sauber exhibit, which I was really excited about Peter Sauber is a Swiss race car designer, who fielded his own team for several years in Formula One. Several cars were on display, including a very recent mode. These cars have gotten extremely aerodynamic in the past few years, to an amazing extent. I drove on a very elaborate video game cockpit, which was a lot of fun. I passed Mark Weber on the Monaco track (meh).
We headed through the motorcycle and bicycle section, and then went outside where we took part in the world’s most exciting museum exhibit: we got in a head on collision. Two Mini Coopers were rammed together at 13 km/h after we were seatbelted into the cars. No helmet or liability waiver was needed. Life is exciting outside of California. The corrected video is below.
We realized that the museum is much larger than we anticipated, as we headed into the airplane, helicopter, boat, cable car, and tunnel boring sections of the museum. They also have a giant map of Switzerland that you can walk across, and zoom in on areas of interest. I found the dormitory buildings where we are staying in Lausanne. There were games for kids to play, as well as magnifying glasses and a GPS locating type device. Pretty cool stuff.
On our walk back to the main part of the city, we walked by the ampitheater and there was a very good band playing. Lots of people were on hand to listen, despite the pouring rain. We headed up to see something called the Lion, which was very beautiful, and stumbled across a glacier park. Really neat stuff, that was uncovered when a guy was building a wine cellar…now a national park. There was interesting information about global warming and carbon emissions, and then we found the hall of mirrors. The hall of mirrors was moved to this location…glaciers and a hall of mirrors seems like a great combination? This was really fun, and I did suffer some disorientation: I ran into myself once, and turned a corner to find me looking back at me, which was pretty creepy. They have a big tower we climbed up to see the city, and there were more fun mirrors.
We then headed over the covered bridge, which was really cool. We topped off the night with a really nice, but expensive, fondue dinner, and then headed home on the train.
Today we decided to forgo the Italy trip due to the rain forecast for the entire weekend. We got on the train and headed to Luzern, about 2 ½ hours away. It is an amazingly beautiful city, with a nice mix of old and new buildings built around a lake in a valley. I dragged Kathe to the Transportation Museum, which ended up being a ton of fun and we spent 4 hours looking around.
They have a very impressive train museum, from very old trains to modern trains. We were able to see the angled trains that are used on the very steep tracks, like the trip up to Mt. Pilatus. We were going to take this train to the summit, but it was blanketed by clouds and the views would have been pretty slim.
We then moved to the Peter Sauber exhibit, which I was really excited about Peter Sauber is a Swiss race car designer, who fielded his own team for several years in Formula One. Several cars were on display, including a very recent mode. These cars have gotten extremely aerodynamic in the past few years, to an amazing extent. I drove on a very elaborate video game cockpit, which was a lot of fun. I passed Mark Weber on the Monaco track (meh).
We headed through the motorcycle and bicycle section, and then went outside where we took part in the world’s most exciting museum exhibit: we got in a head on collision. Two Mini Coopers were rammed together at 13 km/h after we were seatbelted into the cars. No helmet or liability waiver was needed. Life is exciting outside of California. The corrected video is below.
We realized that the museum is much larger than we anticipated, as we headed into the airplane, helicopter, boat, cable car, and tunnel boring sections of the museum. They also have a giant map of Switzerland that you can walk across, and zoom in on areas of interest. I found the dormitory buildings where we are staying in Lausanne. There were games for kids to play, as well as magnifying glasses and a GPS locating type device. Pretty cool stuff.
On our walk back to the main part of the city, we walked by the ampitheater and there was a very good band playing. Lots of people were on hand to listen, despite the pouring rain. We headed up to see something called the Lion, which was very beautiful, and stumbled across a glacier park. Really neat stuff, that was uncovered when a guy was building a wine cellar…now a national park. There was interesting information about global warming and carbon emissions, and then we found the hall of mirrors. The hall of mirrors was moved to this location…glaciers and a hall of mirrors seems like a great combination? This was really fun, and I did suffer some disorientation: I ran into myself once, and turned a corner to find me looking back at me, which was pretty creepy. They have a big tower we climbed up to see the city, and there were more fun mirrors.
We then headed over the covered bridge, which was really cool. We topped off the night with a really nice, but expensive, fondue dinner, and then headed home on the train.
Chateau Thivin Visit
7.11.2008
Today we headed to the Beaujolais region to visit the family winery of an alumni from the Changins campus, at Chateau Thivin, in the Mt. Brouilly sub-appelation. We got a tour of their vineyard, which was much further along than any others we had seen. The area is warmer and dryer, and you could see that the vines were slightly stressed from water shortage. More on that later.
They have a wonderful old world cave where they store wine in barrels. The mold growing on the walls was pretty scary. They had several old basket presses on display.
Their fermentation area was one of the more unique I have ever seen. The grapes are dropped down through hatch covers in the floor, and into either concrete or stainless fermenters. Winemaking in Beaujolais often uses the some form of the carbonic maceration technique (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbonic_maceration) to enhance the fruity characteristics in their wines.
Once the wine had finished fermenting the available sugar, the bottom door is opened and the must is allowed to drop down into the press, which is mounted on rails, in a very efficient design.
We then headed to the tasting room to taste through the wines, and they hosted us for a very nice lunch, where every table got a bottle of every wine they make. Wow. The menu consisted of pork and sausages that had been cooked for 4 hours in a kettle containing last falls pomace (grape skins and stems). Very flavorful and a nice meal. A local musician came in to provide fantastic entertainment, albeit in French. We also enjoyed a very nice cheese plate, and a wonderful desert. Wow.
We then made a stop by their office to purchase some wine, during which time the skies opened up and it absolutely started raining cats and dogs. Lots of very wet people on the bus, and most people took a nice nap on the bus ride back to Lausanne.
Today we headed to the Beaujolais region to visit the family winery of an alumni from the Changins campus, at Chateau Thivin, in the Mt. Brouilly sub-appelation. We got a tour of their vineyard, which was much further along than any others we had seen. The area is warmer and dryer, and you could see that the vines were slightly stressed from water shortage. More on that later.
They have a wonderful old world cave where they store wine in barrels. The mold growing on the walls was pretty scary. They had several old basket presses on display.
Their fermentation area was one of the more unique I have ever seen. The grapes are dropped down through hatch covers in the floor, and into either concrete or stainless fermenters. Winemaking in Beaujolais often uses the some form of the carbonic maceration technique (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbonic_maceration) to enhance the fruity characteristics in their wines.
Once the wine had finished fermenting the available sugar, the bottom door is opened and the must is allowed to drop down into the press, which is mounted on rails, in a very efficient design.
We then headed to the tasting room to taste through the wines, and they hosted us for a very nice lunch, where every table got a bottle of every wine they make. Wow. The menu consisted of pork and sausages that had been cooked for 4 hours in a kettle containing last falls pomace (grape skins and stems). Very flavorful and a nice meal. A local musician came in to provide fantastic entertainment, albeit in French. We also enjoyed a very nice cheese plate, and a wonderful desert. Wow.
We then made a stop by their office to purchase some wine, during which time the skies opened up and it absolutely started raining cats and dogs. Lots of very wet people on the bus, and most people took a nice nap on the bus ride back to Lausanne.
Visit to Beaune
Thursday 7.10.2008
We had an interesting lecture this morning from a Swiss professor who was working to profile wines based on a matrix of acid/tannic and structure/soft. I’m not sure that these classification systems work outside of a spider plot, but always interesting to see these experiments. We tried a nice Chablis out of the gate, which was so nice because we did not get to try any Chablis in the region. I was pretty close to his data points for most wines, but thought very differently about many of the wines. Go figure. We then drove back to Dijon for lunch.
We went to Ikea with Nicole and Andrew, for lunch and looking around. They have more that just Swedish meatballs, and it was actually a quite nice lunch for a very good price, relatively speaking.
After lunch, we took the scenic route to the city of Beaune. It is a very touristy area, but we had fun. Toured another church, and found an incredible bookstore/wine shop that carried a tremendous selection of books about wine. Wow. Unfortunately, almost all were in French and all were very expensive. The wine shop had a few bottles of Domaine le Romaine Contee, topping out at 5,900 Euros. Wow. Maybe we will buy this to drink at the hostel tonight.
We had a pretty good dinner with Jeremiah, although the glasses of Chablis we ordered were corked. It’s a double edged sword to know about wine sometimes. A lot of the group went to a karaoke bar that night, but we were pretty tired and went back to the hostel. We started to try and plan a trip to a really neat lake in the Piedemonte region of northern Italy for this weekend. Will be challenging, but we’re going to give it a shot.
We had an interesting lecture this morning from a Swiss professor who was working to profile wines based on a matrix of acid/tannic and structure/soft. I’m not sure that these classification systems work outside of a spider plot, but always interesting to see these experiments. We tried a nice Chablis out of the gate, which was so nice because we did not get to try any Chablis in the region. I was pretty close to his data points for most wines, but thought very differently about many of the wines. Go figure. We then drove back to Dijon for lunch.
We went to Ikea with Nicole and Andrew, for lunch and looking around. They have more that just Swedish meatballs, and it was actually a quite nice lunch for a very good price, relatively speaking.
After lunch, we took the scenic route to the city of Beaune. It is a very touristy area, but we had fun. Toured another church, and found an incredible bookstore/wine shop that carried a tremendous selection of books about wine. Wow. Unfortunately, almost all were in French and all were very expensive. The wine shop had a few bottles of Domaine le Romaine Contee, topping out at 5,900 Euros. Wow. Maybe we will buy this to drink at the hostel tonight.
We had a pretty good dinner with Jeremiah, although the glasses of Chablis we ordered were corked. It’s a double edged sword to know about wine sometimes. A lot of the group went to a karaoke bar that night, but we were pretty tired and went back to the hostel. We started to try and plan a trip to a really neat lake in the Piedemonte region of northern Italy for this weekend. Will be challenging, but we’re going to give it a shot.
Chablis
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Today we headed to the Chablis region and had a very interesting talk from a viticultural consultant about the soils of Chablis, and the underlying geology. Best talk of the trip thus far, in my opinion. There are several layers of soil profiles surrounding Paris, and they appear in concentric rings.
Chablis is famous for producing Chardonnay wines with minerality and crisp acidity. This is said to come from the underlying limestone soil, that created calcareous soils. Basically, clay with big limestone rocks, and 30 cm deep you hit a pure limestone layer. The limestone layer will be either solid, or fairly crumbly.
A long time ago, this area was a sea that rose and subsided several times. The solid pieces were deeper water, and the crumbly layers were the shoreline areas. The resulting wine from the land over the solid bits will have higher minerality, and be tighter. The wine over the crumbly soil will be more open and fruity. Best description of soil and resulting wine I have heard, and I think the wines from this region are the best expression of the effect of terroir.
There is a big problem of spring frost in this area, and there are different means to protect the young shoots in April. A common and inexpensive means is sprinklers, but we saw a new method that was pretty extreme. They put a resistant wire along the bottom trellis wire, and then run current through the wire to provide heat. Wow. The obvious question was cost, which is about 25,000 Euros/hectare (~$16k/acre at 1euro=$1.60) just for the materials. Additional cost for installation and running the electricity to the vineyard make this an expensive proposition. This will provide either 10watts/meter or 20w/m in a pulse type application. I’m not sure exactly how much heat that provides, but it seems like it might protect the young shoots. He did point out that if a freeze hit in May, they shoots would be too far away from the heating element. Very interesting, and another example of how much money they put into the vineyards here.
I still can’t reconcile the vineyard costs here with the relatively low prices, compared to California wines. Once an accountant, always an accountant I guess…
We saw more interesting things in the vineyard as well. The pruning system in Chablis is unique, where they have a successive cane pruning system. We also saw a helicopter spraying a nearby field, and some unique over the row tractors. These are really neat tractors that straddle the trellis, and can handle slopes pretty well. Neat stuff. There was also a fair amount of lime induced iron chlorosis, which is an iron deficiency caused by heavy rainfall in lime soils. The rain messes up the ion gradient that the root has created, and the plant cannot take up iron. It will recover. We saw a lot of this in Switzerland.
We then visited Domaine Borgnat, where one of the Summer University’s coordinators has ties. They have a very old cave and winery, that is essentially a castle. It has been in that family for countless generations. They treated us to an incredible spread at lunch, that included all of the wines they make. Wow. Crémant (a sparkling wine), Aligoté, Rosé (really Pinot Gris made like a red wine, not a white wine), two Pinot Noirs, and a third that includes an ancient variety César. Then an almond flavored liqueur and a grappa, but I had to pass on this round. The sausage at lunch was quite interesting, and to put it lightly, “gamey”. Always good to try something new, but this one was not in my ballpark.
Instead of a nap, we then headed to a cooperative Crémant producer that is located in a giant cave, about 10 acres underground. It was a former limestone quarry, then a mushroom farm. Incredible place, albeit really moldy and wet. There were several sculptures put into the walls by local artists. Annual production of 3 million bottles, with an average of three years in the cave. So, about 9 million bottles in the cave. Wow.
We tried the wines, and they were alright. Not really my cup of tea. But Kathe & I tried a kir, which is white wine with Crème de Casis. Now we’re talking. We had to escape the mold smell, so we went out and took some neat pictures with our new friends Andrew & Nicole from Cal Poly.
We went to dinner with them that night, and had a really nice spread, including a Sicilian Chardonnay blend that was quite nice.
There is a big problem of spring frost in this area, and there are different means to protect the young shoots in April. A common and inexpensive means is sprinklers, but we saw a new method that was pretty extreme. They put a resistant wire along the bottom trellis wire, and then run current through the wire to provide heat. Wow. The obvious question was cost, which is about 25,000 Euros/hectare (~$16k/acre at 1euro=$1.60) just for the materials. Additional cost for installation and running the electricity to the vineyard make this an expensive proposition. This will provide either 10watts/meter or 20w/m in a pulse type application. I’m not sure exactly how much heat that provides, but it seems like it might protect the young shoots. He did point out that if a freeze hit in May, they shoots would be too far away from the heating element. Very interesting, and another example of how much money they put into the vineyards here.
I still can’t reconcile the vineyard costs here with the relatively low prices, compared to California wines. Once an accountant, always an accountant I guess…We saw more interesting things in the vineyard as well. The pruning system in Chablis is unique, where they have a successive cane pruning system. We also saw a helicopter spraying a nearby field, and some unique over the row tractors. These are really neat tractors that straddle the trellis, and can handle slopes pretty well. Neat stuff. There was also a fair amount of lime induced iron chlorosis, which is an iron deficiency caused by heavy rainfall in lime soils. The rain messes up the ion gradient that the root has created, and the plant cannot take up iron. It will recover. We saw a lot of this in Switzerland.
We then visited Domaine Borgnat, where one of the Summer University’s coordinators has ties. They have a very old cave and winery, that is essentially a castle. It has been in that family for countless generations. They treated us to an incredible spread at lunch, that included all of the wines they make. Wow. Crémant (a sparkling wine), Aligoté, Rosé (really Pinot Gris made like a red wine, not a white wine), two Pinot Noirs, and a third that includes an ancient variety César. Then an almond flavored liqueur and a grappa, but I had to pass on this round. The sausage at lunch was quite interesting, and to put it lightly, “gamey”. Always good to try something new, but this one was not in my ballpark.
Instead of a nap, we then headed to a cooperative Crémant producer that is located in a giant cave, about 10 acres underground. It was a former limestone quarry, then a mushroom farm. Incredible place, albeit really moldy and wet. There were several sculptures put into the walls by local artists. Annual production of 3 million bottles, with an average of three years in the cave. So, about 9 million bottles in the cave. Wow.
We tried the wines, and they were alright. Not really my cup of tea. But Kathe & I tried a kir, which is white wine with Crème de Casis. Now we’re talking. We had to escape the mold smell, so we went out and took some neat pictures with our new friends Andrew & Nicole from Cal Poly.
We went to dinner with them that night, and had a really nice spread, including a Sicilian Chardonnay blend that was quite nice.
Wine Tasting in Hautes Cotes de Nuit
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
This morning we headed out to the Dijon business school where we had a presentation from Gerrie Richie on different cultural practices used in the vineyard. Afterwards, Mark and I decided to have lunch in Dijon with Nicole and Andrew. We found a kebab shop—France’s equivalent to McDonalds it would seem, and had a great lunch of sandwiches and drinks. My first french fries in France. From there we headed back to the hotel, where we had a little time to rest before our next adventure.
This afternoon we visited Domaine Bernard Hudlot, in the Hautes Cotes de Nuit, Villard-Fontaine. The man that greeted us had a similar persona to the owner of Casse Basse. Friendly and welcoming, he was very proud of his wines and allowed us to try both the older and newer versions of his Chardonnay and Pinot Noirs. We tried a 2002 Chard, a 1996 Chard, a 1997 and 1987 Pinot Noir, and a young 2004 Gamay. We had a great time visiting his winery.
We learned that he has almost 800,000 bottles—and a lot of mold. Still trying to figure out why these wineries don’t clean better. We had to walk single file down the stairs into the cellar to avoid the mold. I’m also trying to avoid a “mold cold.” Ah well, it’s easy to overlook when the wines taste good. We enjoyed the younger Chardonnay and the older Pinot Noir. All of the younger Burgundies were just too oaky—too hard to approach. They definitely need time in the bottle. Our host recommends at least 20 years. I think he knew what he was talking about.
After our tasting, several students bought wine. They were incredibly reasonable for their quality.
This evening we were bussed to Dijon city-center again. Mark and I decided to head out on our own to try something new and less expensive for dinner. Nicole and Andrew headed back to the same restaurant we ate at Monday. We probably should have joined them. We had a cheaper dinner, but the quality was on par with the price. Lesson learned. We walked home—desperate for some exercise. It was a pleasant walk as we passed a nice coffee shop, and got to get a feel for the area surrounding Dijon’s city center.
Back at the hotel we made an early night of it—catching up with our blog and downloading some Simpson’s on the computer. (I think Mark misses the TV.)
This morning we headed out to the Dijon business school where we had a presentation from Gerrie Richie on different cultural practices used in the vineyard. Afterwards, Mark and I decided to have lunch in Dijon with Nicole and Andrew. We found a kebab shop—France’s equivalent to McDonalds it would seem, and had a great lunch of sandwiches and drinks. My first french fries in France. From there we headed back to the hotel, where we had a little time to rest before our next adventure.
This afternoon we visited Domaine Bernard Hudlot, in the Hautes Cotes de Nuit, Villard-Fontaine. The man that greeted us had a similar persona to the owner of Casse Basse. Friendly and welcoming, he was very proud of his wines and allowed us to try both the older and newer versions of his Chardonnay and Pinot Noirs. We tried a 2002 Chard, a 1996 Chard, a 1997 and 1987 Pinot Noir, and a young 2004 Gamay. We had a great time visiting his winery.
We learned that he has almost 800,000 bottles—and a lot of mold. Still trying to figure out why these wineries don’t clean better. We had to walk single file down the stairs into the cellar to avoid the mold. I’m also trying to avoid a “mold cold.” Ah well, it’s easy to overlook when the wines taste good. We enjoyed the younger Chardonnay and the older Pinot Noir. All of the younger Burgundies were just too oaky—too hard to approach. They definitely need time in the bottle. Our host recommends at least 20 years. I think he knew what he was talking about.
After our tasting, several students bought wine. They were incredibly reasonable for their quality.
This evening we were bussed to Dijon city-center again. Mark and I decided to head out on our own to try something new and less expensive for dinner. Nicole and Andrew headed back to the same restaurant we ate at Monday. We probably should have joined them. We had a cheaper dinner, but the quality was on par with the price. Lesson learned. We walked home—desperate for some exercise. It was a pleasant walk as we passed a nice coffee shop, and got to get a feel for the area surrounding Dijon’s city center.
Back at the hotel we made an early night of it—catching up with our blog and downloading some Simpson’s on the computer. (I think Mark misses the TV.)
Traveling to Burgundy—Dijon, France
Monday, July 7, 2008
Today we get an early start and travel to France through the Jura Mountains. Like all of the other trips we’ve taken through Switzerland, it is beautiful. Different from all the others, it’s not a long drive—yeah! Each time we’ve traveled into a new country we’re amazed at how the architecture changes. This part of France is really pretty. Once in Dijon we check into our hostel—pretty nice, but it feels like we’re staying on a cruise ship—only no cool towel animals to greet you. Ah well, at least we have internet service!
At our hotel we have about 45 minutes to get settled and have lunch.
We head out after lunch for the barrel maker Francois Freres in Saint Romain, Beaune. This is the first cooperage facility that we’ve visited on this trip, and everyone has a good time. Apparently these folks aren’t worried about OSHA showing up on their doorstep because we were allowed to walk around without hard hats. The barrels they made were beautiful, and the whole facility smelled like sweet oak. We learned that their facility will hold up to $1billion in inventory that will produce approximately 1 million barrels. Amazing. Its interesting to learn that while many of the procedures of barrel-making are mechanized, the barrels are still put together by hand, and the quality standards are very high.
These are the photos of oak used to make barrels, and different steps in the process.
Once our tour is over, we head back to Dijon. We have several hours free in the city before we get on the bus and head back to our hostel for the night. Andrew and Nicole join us as we head into the city. We decide to walk to Notre Dame (not the big one) and see what it looks like. It’s another beautiful cathedral, but very different from the one in Siena.
Photos of Notre Dame--the gargoyles were quite impressive!
For dinner, we find a restaurant with an outdoor patio and enjoy a fantastic meal of pasta and pizza and Pinot Noir. It’s a great evening. Along the way we pick up a bottle of wine to enjoy later.
Lazy, Rainy Sunday
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Well, despite our best intentions, we are too tired to get up early today. Mark thinks he may be coming down with a cold, and it’s raining outside. In other words, it’s a perfect day to be lazy. We finally get ourselves moving by 9am and drag Lauren out for breakfast, a trip to the farmer’s market and the Migros for some groceries. We really enjoy ourselves—the Crepe restaurant we selected was expensive, but the crepes were amazing.
Today is laundry day! Despite our desires to be jet-setters, we still need to do laundry!
Well, despite our best intentions, we are too tired to get up early today. Mark thinks he may be coming down with a cold, and it’s raining outside. In other words, it’s a perfect day to be lazy. We finally get ourselves moving by 9am and drag Lauren out for breakfast, a trip to the farmer’s market and the Migros for some groceries. We really enjoy ourselves—the Crepe restaurant we selected was expensive, but the crepes were amazing.
Savory Crepe
Farmer's Market in Ouchy
Today is laundry day! Despite our desires to be jet-setters, we still need to do laundry!
Large Stone Sculpture in Montreux
Mark and I rest for a bit and then decide we’ve hung out long enough and head out to Montreux to see what’s happening at the Jazz festival, their 42nd annual. It’s still raining, but we don’t care—the train ride was beautiful and so is Montreux. We look around, do some browsing through the different vendor carts set up, and look for the free Jazz that should be playing outside. We find eventually and are fortunate to hear the USA big band from Texas. They’re really good. After awhile it starts pouring and we decide to head inside to the Jazz club. Unfortunately no band will be playing while we’re in town, but we decide to have a glass of wine and relax for a bit. A great end to a fun, relaxing day.
Kathe's new car--a SMART car:)
Mark and a Jazz Legend
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