A Very Swiss 4th
We have had an adventurous past few weeks. For the 4th, instead of staying around post and grilling, we packed up the car and headed down to Switzerland for camping. We stayed at the same campsite (in Lauterbrunnen) we went to last year for Labor Day. This go around, we bought all our camping equipment instead of renting. Now, it’ll be much easier to go camping whenever we want.
Camping was the perfect getaway. I really needed to get away from work for an extra day or two, and Switzerland was perfect for relaxation. The only downside was the heat. I can’t believe it was as hot as it was even in the valley. I don’t know exactly how warm it got, because my cell service does not work outside of Germany, but I’m guessing it was at least in the upper 80s. (Note: Through the magic of the internet, I just found out that the temperatures ranged from 61 to 88 while we were there. Pretty warm for the Alps!)
We drove in Friday evening and even though it is just under a 4 hour drive, we hit the worst Stau (aka traffic jam) that we have even been in. The Autobahn was gridlocked for miles and it lasted about 2 hours. People were getting out of their cars and walking around ON the Autobahn. It was that bad. Needless to say, we ended up arriving at the campsite much later than we had planned. Unfortunately, this meant that we pulled in after dark. Setting up a campsite at night was a first for me. The only light we had was the little LED lantern we had bought. It was extra fun considering we were using a brand new tent, so we weren’t entirely sure of the directions.
After about an hour (maybe a little longer), everything was set up. The process would have been more expedient had we been setting up in the daylight, but c’est la vie. It was very nice to wake up there on Saturday with a full day ahead of us.
I can’t remember what our activities were on each day, so I’ll just break it down in bullets:
- We went on a two hour bike ride with Béni. It was his first time to come along with us on a bike ride, and he did a great job. By the end, he was so tired, and he spent the rest of the day napping.
- We saw a few cliff jumpers while on our bike ride, but we saw disappointingly few cattle. Last year, there were cows everywhere we looked. I wonder where they all were this year.
- We went on a summer luge, called a Rodelbahn, up at Pfingstegg. Picture a long metal slide, and you get to ride along the slide with its twists and turns while sitting on a little luge-like cart. I was such a wimp and held the brake so much that it took me nearly 2 minutes longer to ride it than it took John.
- After riding the luge, we decided to go for a hike. It wasn’t optimal considering we were both wearing flip flops, but I’m glad we did it. We hiked for a little over an hour and saw some breath-taking sights. Our hike took us opposite the face of the Eiger, with views of several large waterfalls. Unfortunately, my foot got stabbed by a loose fencing wire just as we were ending our hike. Luckily, it didn’t draw blood, but it sure did sting!
- We toured Trummelbach falls, which provides the sole drainage for the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau mountains (ie glacial and snow melt as well as rain water). The water has carved it was way through the inside of the mountain, where there are 10 separate places where the water falls lower. We got to tour through it all and thoroughly enjoyed the natural air conditioning. The water flows through there at about 20,000 liters per second. The water flow is incredible!
- We grilled for the 4th of July. However, it took us until the mid-afternoon to realize it was actually the 4th. My watch has to be manually set for the date whenever the month has less than 31 days. We spent the first half of the day thinking it was the 3rd. Oops! So yeah, we grilled for dinner. Unfortunately, it started raining shortly after we got dinner going. While John finished grilling, I worked to move everything inside our tent and set it up for dinner. It was very relaxing to sit inside and listen to the sound of the rain hit the tent.
- We went to Interlaken one day but only ended up staying about an hour. It was dreadfully touristy, and we couldn’t take it. The smaller towns around our campsite were much more charming and enjoyable.
- Our last evening in Switzerland, we had planned to go out to eat. Around 6 o’clock, we headed to a nice hotel in town with Béni . The host or server (not sure which) seemed annoyed that we didn’t have reservations. He sat us at a table that was reserved at 7:30, so we had to be done by then, which is really pushing it and we didn’t want to rush. When our waitress came up, we asked if we could move to a table at the end of the row that wasn’t reserved. She told us that our dog would be in the way there. John told her he wouldn’t and moved us anyway (go John!). She was thoroughly annoyed with us and no one was dog friendly. Come on now, this is a camping/outdoor rec-based town. How can you afford not to be dog friendly? Everyone takes their dogs places here as well as throughout most of Europe. We sat down at the new table and she asked us what we wanted to drink. There was no drink menu (at all – not even sodas) in the food menu, so we asked for a wine list. She dropped one off and not even 60 seconds later, she returned and said “Tell me.” John and I were so insulted. We told her we needed a minute, and when she left, we decided that we weren’t about to pay these people for a nice evening out. We got up and left and ended up eating at the restaurant at our campsite that was much friendlier toward Béni.
- Speaking of the campsite’s restaurant, they have one of those Cow Parade sculptures, and as we walked in, Béni got spooked by the “cow” and his hair stood on end as he growled and barked. Luckily, the other diners on the patio thought it was as funny as we did. Because of his fear of the cow, we ate inside FAR away from the scary cow.
We headed back to Heidelberg on Tuesday morning. As we were packing up, my obligatory camping injury occurred. Our neighbors refused to follow the strict campsite rules of keeping their dog on a leash, and their small dog wandered over to our campsite. Béni was recovering from a pretty uncomfortable blister on one of his paws, so we were trying to keep him resting. I immediately walked over to Béni as I saw the other dog approach, and I grabbed his collar and put one foot on his leash, which was a metal line encased in plastic. Béni got really excited and pulled so hard that the line wrapped around my foot and tightened. I am still healing from the cut, which (sorry for the graphic nature of this statement) was oozing for days. If I put a bandage on it, it would end up ripping the scab off when I changed bandages. Fortunately, it is now well on its way to healing and I no longer walk with a limp.
Add comment July 21, 2010
‘Til Gabriel Blows His Horn
When we first began making plans to transition out of Army life, we had pictured ourselves moving back to San Antonio and both getting jobs. About 6 months ago, that plan changed. John decided he wanted to go back to the University of Texas to finish what he started and earn a degree.
Ladies and gentlemen, I very proudly announce that yesterday, we found out that John has been re-admitted to the University effective next summer! We both screamed and yelled when we found out. It was not a for sure deal that he would get in, and in fact, it took quite a bit of work on John’s part. I am so proud of my husband and look forward to seeing him back on the 40 Acres.
Congratulations, honey! Texas, Texas, Yehaw!
Since we’ll be moving back to Austin instead of San Antonio, I had to refocus my job research. Optimally, I want to work in one of the following fields: urban development, public affairs, education, or hospitality. I know that sounds like a wide range of job fields, but they do have nice overlaps in places. Additionally, I will be able to have a wider job market to look at when I start applying for jobs. Does anyone have any employers they recommend? I know it sounds crazy to think that we’re planning all of this one year in advance, but moving around the world and transitioning to completely new jobs takes quite a bit of planning. Can you believe all our household goods and our car will be packed and shipped in just 7 short months? We can’t either!
Hook’ em!
8 comments July 13, 2010
Plastics Make It Possible
Remember that ad campaign? Apparently it’s still around and now has its own website under the same name.
Last weekend, we watched No Impact Man, a documentary about a man and his family who set out to live without any net impact on the environment for 365 days. I first heard about the documentary on Young House Love, and I’m glad it piqued my interest. It opened my eyes to all the waste we discard every day. Really, why does everything we buy have to be packaged in plastic? Why do we use those crummy produce bags at the grocery store instead of something reusable like this?
This past weekend, we also bought new bins for separating our recycling. We used to half-heartedly recycle, because we were too lazy to find recycling bins that worked for us. Now that we separate out all our plastics/packaging (including aluminum, styrofoam, etc.) and paper, we discovered most of the rest of our trash is compostable. There’s a bin for compost in our trash area downstairs. However, the idea of having a can of nasty rotting food in my kitchen disgusted me – that is until I (somewhat slowly) made the connection that that’s what the kitchen trash is anyway. Because I don’t want to have to scrape out a trash can full of rotting food gunk everytime we take the bin down to the compost, I started researching options and found these bags which are biodegradable and compostable. They are made from cornstarch, vegetable oil and other renewable resources ,and they get good consumer reviews.
Additionally, we are looking into storing our leftovers in glass tupperware-like containers like these, because I don’t like the idea that chemicals are probably seeping into my food from the plastic. And unfortunately, while doing research yesterday, I found reports that canned goods are often contaminated with BPA in much higher levels than what was found a few years ago in Nalgene bottles and other plastics. For more information on that, click here to read an article from Consumer Reports, here for information from the Environmental Working Group, and/or here for an article from NPR.
It is interesting how this whole change in attitude began. I think it started with our car breaking down, so thank you, Nissan, for the manufacturer defect. Ironically, this is the description of the defect according to LemonAuto.com: “The fuel pump terminal on the fuel-sending unit can develop a crack in the plastic molding. this can cause the terminal strip to corrode under some environmental conditions.” So for us, plastics made it possible for our eyes to be opened to change.
As a result of being carless for 22 days (we just got it back on Tuesday), we wound up buying bikes and learning the joy of biking around to dinners and errands nearby. Second, I want to thank whomever dumped too many recylables into our stairwell’s trash bin, which resulted in us getting two bad notices from the community. If we had gotten a third, our stairwell would have been in some trouble. From the looks of the recycling bins this morning, everyone has started to do a much better job with their recycling, including us. If we hadn’t gotten those warnings, we probably would not have gone to get separate recycling bins for our packaging and paper. I also want to thank Young House Love for mentioning No Impact Man. Finally, I want to thank No Impact Man, Colin Beaven, and his family for opening our eyes to all the useless waste we leave behind.
A tangent but still relevant part of the change in our perspective derived from our garden, which originally began because we wanted to beautify our building. Once the project took shape, we ended up planting fruits and vegetables instead of a garden full of flowers. Now you can find us working in our garden several times a day, and for us – John especially – it’s an effective stress reliever as well as a great joy in our day. I guess we never believed that we could grow edible fruit and vegetables on our own. Sure, we could have a token herb plant here or there, but who knew we would have upwards of 30 growing tomatoes on five little ol’ tomato plants or that we would have harvested four delicious strawberries from just two strawberry plants yesterday.
Moving forward, we want to make the following changes permanent, rather than a passing trend:
- separate out all plastic/packaging and paper for recycling
- reduce use of plastic, period
- compost
- use only reusable produce bags
- minimize use of canned goods utilizing liners containing BPA (note: Muir Glen will be switching to metal packaging that doesn’t contain BPA)
- bike to local restaurant/errands
- expand our garden
- buy milk and sodas in glass containers (in Germany you can return these for a deposit refund)
- buy local when possible and use seasonal fruits and vegetables
I would also like to switch to mineral make up. Does anyone have any recommendations?
10 comments July 1, 2010
It’s Grating On Me
Between a week of visiting with family and having a gimp pointer finger, I have neglected our blog. Entschuldigung.
John’s dad, step mom, sisters and brother came to visit while on their whirlwind European vacation. We were thrilled to show them around the area as well as explore some new sights with them. Also, it is pretty awesome that they are visiting during the World Cup. I wish the US did the World Cup like they do in Europe – every restaurant, bar and even some shops pull out the big screen(s) and everyone stops on the street or grabs a seat to watch the games. We had several opportunities to catch games over lunch/dinner with them; unfortunately, they did not have a chance to witness the pandemonium that takes place when Germany scores a goal (stupid Serbia match).
Having now had three sets of overnight guests, we are starting to see the differences in people and their travel styles. Some enjoy the go-go-go, while others prefer to kick back and relax. Some prefer museums, while others want to explore the outdoors. Often, there’s a good mix of all the travel styles, and a person’s travel personality is likely to change depending on their destination.
Take us, for example. If we are going somewhere like London (never been there before), we would want to see Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and perhaps the Globe Theatre, but we would also be scouring teh internets for “local” advice. When we travel, unless it’s a vacation purely to relax (i.e. our honeymoon), our goal is to be able to experience life like the locals. Last May, we went to Paris for the second time and loved every minute of it. We ate at a local bakery each morning, strolled around town, walked around two parks, went to a jazz club in a “cave,” and ate at our favorite restaurant.
Thinking about travel styles has gotten me curious: what is your travel style? Does your style change depending on your destination? What is your primary goal when traveling?
As for my gimp finger, it’s finally starting to heal and no longer induces sharp pain when I move it. Advice: be very careful when grating mozzarella cheese. It’s so soft, your hand might slip on your final “grate” of cheese and result in multiple bloody cuts on your pointer finger.
8 comments June 25, 2010
Bike Wheels Keep on Turnin’
Last Tuesday, John called me about half an hour before the start of his workday to tell me that our car – our one and only vehicle – had broken down. He was stuck on the side of the road and the car wouldn’t run anymore. It turns out a part in the fuel pump is broken. After John did some research at home, we found out that our car, a 2001 Nissan Xterra, had been recalled in 2004 for this very issue. After dealing with Nissan Europe and Nissan North America, we seem to be on the right path toward getting this fixed.
We were finally authorized a rental car that John picked up this morning – hurray! It’s been weird living without a car. John had no way to get to work if he didn’t get a ride from someone else, and we had no way to get to the commissary, because there’s no public transportation that goes out that way.
On Friday, after a few days of mulling it over, we decided to buy bicycles. (Not knowing how long we’d be without a car, we decided this was a good choice. Plus, we were both wanting bikes anyway.) As I mentioned when describing our trip to France, I’m not an expert biker. I’m not even an intermediate level biker. I’m, quite frankly, a novice. I never really had a bike growing and so I didn’t get practice. That said, I was willing to give this bike thing a shot. We ended up finding a great deal at a bike shop that was closing down (just one of many locations for the store). We got our bikes 30% off and were exempt for the 19% VAT, so we ended up saving about 150 Euro or approximately $190 per bike. Good deal, right?
We bought trekking bikes, which is sort of like a cruiser (or what the Germans call a “city bike”). The city bikes have a hand brake and foot brake and only have 7-9 speeds. The trekking bike just has hand brakes (which I prefer), and I think they have at least 12 speeds. As I recall, our bikes have 15 speeds.
This is basically what my bike looks like. (Image taken from preisvergleich.org)
We have already used the bikes a great deal. We rode out once on Friday, two or three times on Saturday, twice on Sunday and I have taken mine to work yesterday and today. John is the real rock star, though. He joined me on all the weekend rides and then ended up riding his bike 10 miles each way to and from work yesterday!
From Friday to Sunday, we logged 18.29 miles on our bikes (29.44 km), which saved us 17.9 miles of driving, $3.48 in gas and $6.38 in parking. We each burned around 1000 calories. The benefits just keep rolling in! If we were to continue at this rate for a year, we’d bike about 951 miles (1531 km), save 931 miles on our car, $181 in gas and $331 in parking. John would burn about 53600 calories, and I would burn about 44500.
I just have one predicament: I had a basket on the front and back of my bike to hold my purse and anything we bought while out. On my way to work this morning, the clips on the front basket broke. Apparently the basket is only capable of holding up to 4 lbs, which isn’t practical for the uses I desire. Does anyone have any experience with bike accessories and have any suggestions, advice, warnings?
8 comments June 15, 2010
Quaint and Quiet: Part Cinq
After a very hot and sunny weekend (it got up to 86 or so both days – no air conditioning either!), I’m ready to wrap up these posts about our anniversary/Memorial Day weekend trip to France.
Saturday night was our four-course dinner. It began with an apéritif in the living area. John and I both tried Kir, a typical Burgundian drink, which is a mix of Aligoté wine and crème de cassis. It was better than I envisioned, but I probably won’t be ordering it again. On the other hand, John thought it was a great apéritif. We moved to the dining room for our entrée, which was gulp escargot. I mulled it over in my head and decided I would take the plate but wouldn’t eat it. (I’m only so adventurous with my food, and this crossed into the realm of not ever going to happen ever.) When Tobias came over to bring me my plate, I end up politely refusing the plate with a “no thank you.” To my surprise, he offered me smoked salmon instead, and I jumped at the offer. In my head, I reasoned that although it’s pink, I’d had it before and it was decent. (For those of you who don’t know, I’m not a big fish person.) I ate my salmon and moved on. Later, I realized that it was ahi tuna that I was thinking about, and I’d just had my first taste of salmon!
Moving on to the main course, plates of roasted duck with orange glaze and potatoes au gratin were served. This was a meal of firsts! In every course so far, including the apéritif, I tried something new. Of course, I’d had oranges and potatoes so far, so you guessed it, I tried duck for the first time. My goodness gracious. I don’t know what’s kept me from eating it my whole life. It was amazing. I like it better than chicken, although that’s not saying too much because I’m kind of going through a phase where I don’t really care for chicken. Anyway, the duck was superb! It was served with a great red Burgundian wine, and for the record, our entrée was served with an equally scrumptious white wine that paired perfectly with the salmon.
After the main course, we were served a cheese course with a selection of four different cheeses. I did not care for two of them, but the other two were awesome. I only caught the name of the most amazing cheese I have ever tasted: Regal de Bourgogne. The cheese tastes like it’s whipped and has a flavor like a lightly sweet natural cheesecake. To make it even better, it’s rolled in raisins, and I understand that some people aren’t big raisin fans, but trust me, it goes really well with the cheese. I want some now! I have no idea where to get it, especially once we get back to the States. Does anyone know of some super awesome French market in Texas? I don’t care if it’s 6 hours away, I will drive there at least a few times a year to get my French food fix.
Rounding out the food courses, we were served a dessert of strawberries drizzled with cream, two strawberries dipped in chocolate and a small bit of a crumble, which tasted something like shortbread. Dessert was accompanied by a cup of coffee, and following dessert, we retired to the living area for a digestif. As I sat down to await my Bailey’s, one of the other couples asked who had tried the escargot. At the smallest suggestion of food, the contents of my stomach threatened to make a quick reversal through my digestive system, so I very quickly excused myself as gracefully as possible. A few minutes later, John came upstairs and found me miserably shuffling between the bed and the toilet. Thankfully I did keep everything down (who likes to vomit?), but I sure did not feel well. Thankfully, once morning came, I felt 100% again.
We enjoyed our breakfast indoors again due to continuing rain. We spent the rest of the morning reading before heading out to explore nearby Vandeness en Auxois, where we stopped at a small English tea shop, Salon de Thé, for lunch and shopping. As we were pulling up to the shop, we saw two little girls saying goodbye to one another and kissing each other’s cheeks in farewell. It was one of the most adorable things I have ever seen.
Salon de Thé
After lunch, we walked along the canals and admired the view of Chateauneuf (literally, new castle) from the base of the hill.
Canal de Bourgogne, c'est magnifique!
One of the many locks used for climbing up and down the Burgundians hills
Cheateauneuf overlooking the canal
One of the many boats waiting to take folks for a leaisurely cruise down the canals
We decided to go up the hill and explore Chateauneuf, while we thought was just a castle but turned out to be another cute little town.
Cheateauneuf with cows in the foreground
I love all the shutters we saw!
A dog laying in a shop door
Cheateauneuf
Remnants from the drawbridge. Neat, right?
How cool is it that you could just put a note on your door that says "I'm at my sister's house." I love it!
*sigh*
A couple of hours later, after taking the long way home, we returned back at the bed and breakfast ready to rent bikes. I had not ridden a bike in about fifteen years, and I never really had a bike of my own, so please don’t mistake me for a competent bike rider. I got so scared (yes, I’m a wimp) before biking that I started shaking. I conquered the flat street and quickly started pedaling up a hill steeper than a teenager’s phone bill. Going up was rough because my leg muscles have apparently turned to mush. We rode for about 2 kilometers and then decided to head back down. Going down was difficult, because I have a fear of going fast and being out of control (remember my skiing incident?). John managed top calm me down, and I ended up enjoying myself immensely. We even rode back and forth in town a few times. We stopped at the castle and then rode to the other end of town, where we contemplated going into their “bar,” but decided against it. We had a wine tasting at our bed and breakfast in an hour and didn’t want to kill our taste buds.
My first bike ride in well over a decade. Wee!!
Look how high up John is!
Arrrrrgh!
Playing during a break from bike riding
Whooooooooa!
The wine tasting was neat, because we got to imagine where the vineyards were due to our tour on Saturday. Also, it was enjoyable to be able to sit down and chat with Tobias (and admire their adorable King Charles spaniels).
With the owners of Cheateau Les Roches, Tobias and Marco and their two sweet puppies.
We wrapped up our evening with a dinner of couscous, cheese and cold cuts and headed to bed, sad to be leaving in the morning but happy to pick up Béni from the kennel. Speaking of, Béni did have a much better kennel experience this time, but he didn’t want to eat when he came home. He seemed to be scared of it, and it took a few days to get him to trust his food bowl again. He’s just a really sensitive dog and is never aggressive. He also asks for lots of hugs from us every day (not joking), and I’m sure he doesn’t get hugs at the kennel. His hugs involve him shoving his head as close to us as he can get and just standing there while we hug, pet and kiss him. It’s quite possibly the most adorable thing ever.
Anyway, I can’t wait until we’re back in Texas and hopefully friends and family will offer to watch him when we go out of town (hint hint). 
So that wraps up our France trip! A tout a l’heure mes amis!
Add comment June 7, 2010
Quaint and Quiet: Part Quatre
I can’t believe that this has turned into a four (plus) part story. I hope I’m not scaring away people from reading, but truth be told, I am writing this as much for our remembrance as for our readers’ knowledge of the Côte-d’Or. I’d like to say that if you stick with us through all the posts that I’d buy you a nice bottle of Burgundian wine, but as it is, we’re already regretting having bought so few. Maybe that means we’ll need to make another trip out there before we leave Deutschland! (Honey, are you reading this? nudge nudge)
I left off with our second vineyard visit, which was in Chassagne-Montrachet. We met with master wine maker Philippe Duvernay of Domaine Coffinet-Duvernay. While doing research for this post, I came across this video on YouTube of Monsieur Duvernay. It was taken in his cellar, which is where we had our tasting. Since I didn’t take any photo/video down there, I was happy to see someone else took care of that for me.
Monsieur Duvernay, Philippe, makes divine wine. We got to taste several 2009 growth wines straight from the barrel, and they were exquisite. I know 2009 is being heralded as an exceptional year for wine, but truly, Philippe’s wines are out of this world. Sadly, we only bought two bottles. Now, John and I both wish we had bought several cases. The bottles we bought were just of his village wine, too!
With Monsieur Duvernay just outside his cellar
After our tasting, we went to a local restaurant. John and I both ordered the paysanne (peasant) salad, which doesn’t sound like much, but the salad was once again a display of how well the French know food. The salad had greens, hard boiled eggs, cheese (not sure what kind – it was white, semi-soft and delicious), pine nuts, pecans, tomatoes and an oily dressing of sorts. Like the Greek salad from Cheateau Les Roches, I could eat this salad until the cows come home.
Speaking of cows, isn’t this little gal cute? I made a habit of talking to all the cows we passed.
Moo!!
Soon, all her buddies wanted to say hello as well. Hi cows!
After lunch, we were supposed to have another visit with a wine maker, but unfortunately, he had just had a heart attack. I really hope that he recovers well and his wife figures out how to manage the vineyard in the meantime. As I mentioned yesterday, these wine makers are primarily farmers, and if they are incapacitated for any reason and cannot tend to their vines, they are in danger of losing the quality they have worked so hard to achieve. Consequently, they can end up losing quite a bit of money.
Because our plans changed, we had a cultural visit to Beaune, where we saw the Hospices de Beaune.
Taken just outside the Hospices
“The Hôtel-Dieu was founded on 4 August 1443, when Burgundy was ruled by Duke Philip the Good (Philippe le Bon). The Hundred Years War had recently been brought to a close [...but there was still a great deal of misery and famine in the area...] The majority of the people of Beaune were declared destitute. Nicolas Rolin, the Duke’s Chancellor, and his wife Guigone de Salins, reacted by deciding to create a hospital and refuge for the poor. The hospital (known as the Hôtel-Dieu) received its first patient on 1st January 1452. Elderly, disabled and sick people, with orphans, women about to give birth and the destitute have all been uninterruptedly welcomed for treatment and refuge, from the Middle Ages until today.” Now, a lot of the place is a museum, but there are still places for people to stay as well.
The ceiling indoors where the beds and altar are located
Some of the old beds. We were told that they would sleep two people per bed.
The roof inside the courtyard is noteworthy. The roofing is made of glazed tile, which influenced many other structures in the Burgundy region. It is neat that the roofing on the sides viewed from outside the hospice are plain, but once you come inside, you’re bathed in color. Apparently, this, along with the nice beds, was supposed to help people relax and be comfortable before they died.
Inside the courtyard
Amazing tiling
Once we finished our quick tour, we hopped back in the car for a long drive around the Côte-de-Nuits, where we saw La Tâche, Romanée-Conti, Clos de Vougeot, and many more. The ones I named specifically are huge in the oenophilic world. Before this weekend, I admit that I had not heard of these names. I guess I can be a wine snob with the best of them now. Robert Parker, here I come!
Just a little extra -- many of the vineyards were labeled rather discreetly like this one (Montrachet)
Rounding out our visit, we passed through and/or by these towns as well: Nuits-Saint-Georges, Vosne-Romanée, Morey-St. Denis and Gevrey-Chambertin. We stopped at a tiny wine shop and bought a bottle of Morey-St. Denis as we wrapped up our day of wine tasting.
If you ever find yourself trying to decide on a wine from Burgundy and have a choice between one with a hyphenated name and one without, my blanket advice is to get the one with the hyphenated name. You may have noticed that many of the towns we passed were hyphenated, and that’s because the town has a Grand Cru vineyard, so they add their town’s Grand Cru name to their town name (ex. St. Denis of the town originally known as Morey).
Add comment June 4, 2010
Quaint and Quiet: Part Trois
After our walk, we settled back in at our bed and breakfast, Chateau Les Roches:
Chateau Les Roches, Mont-Saint-Jean, France
You can read all about the bed and breakfast, see photos in their photo gallery and get a good feel for the place by clicking here to visit their website. I did manage to get a few photos of our room and view as well:
This is a large bathroom by European standards. Notice that there's no shower curtain. The half "shield" there did a great job, though!
The view from our room
Our balcony!
I felt like I was in Pride and Prejudice, at one point during our dinner in the dining room on Saturday evening, the theme song from the Pride and Prejudice movie came on. I smiled, took a long look around the room and enjoyed envisioning myself in the midst of that book/movie.
I’m going to try not to mention every little detail; however, Marco’s (one of the owner’s) cooking deserves at least a paragraph in my retelling of the weekend. He made a fantastic Greek salad for us on Friday night. When I ordered it, I envisioned having to pick out all the olives. Much to my surprise, his Greek salad had zero olives in it. Can we say love? The salad had fresh greens (of course), tomatoes, nuts (I can’t remember what kind), Feta cheese, chive flowers (!) and a light oily dressing. If I could have that salad twice a week for the rest of my life, I’d be thrilled. I will have to continue this discussion of Marco’s cooking in one of the following posts, because our four course dinner later in the weekend deserves more than just a blip in this tale.
When it was time for bed, we got another pleasant surprise – our windows had an exterior metal shade that comes down at night. I have seen these all over Germany, but until this weekend, I had not been in a room that had one. I got so excited that I videoed it for you all.
(Click here to view the video on YouTube. Apparently we don’t have the ability to upload video anymore and WordPress is charging $60/year for that functionality. You have to be kidding me.)
The video doesn’t capture the sensation that you get while standing in the room watching the shade come down. If you just stand and watch it come down, it’s easy to get the sensation that you are slowly going up in an elevator. When all the tiny holes close up, it adds the sensation that you are crossing a floor level (as in when you pass between a light and a dark slit in the elevator door).
Saturday morning we had breakfast on the patio, which was a good choice because it rained the rest of the mornings we were there. We had the most delicious croissants, raspberry and lingonberry jam and honey. There was more to the breakfast, but these were the real highlights for us. The honey was lighter than our normal honey – I wish we knew where to buy some. Along with breakfast, we had fresh squeezed orange juice. Is there any other way to enjoy OJ? Unless your answer involves champagne, I disagree with you. We were also spoiled with fantastic coffee and warmed cream. I wish my breakfast was like that every morning. Unfortunately, breakfast in “real life” means a quick cup of coffee and a cup of yogurt, both usually imbibed while standing up in the kitchen. I then grab a FiberOne bar and race out the door. If you tell me I need to get up earlier, I don’t think we can be friends.
As we were wrapping up our breakfast, Brendan Moore, our wine tour guide, showed up. We hired him to show us around the Côte-de-Beaune and Côte-de-Nuits, both of which are about 45 minutes from Mont-Saint-Jean. We first drove by Savigny-lès-Beaune, which is unique because its vineyards primarily face south, while the rest of the vineyards are primarily eastward-facing. We made our first wine stop in Pernand-Vergelesses, where we stopped to look at some vines. I was not expecting to see such old, thick trunks on the vines, so it was interesting to learn that many of the vines are 30-40 years old. There’s a cycle, of course, so some vines are younger, but I would say that the average vine is 30 years old. The roots go down about 20-22 meters deep and get their nutrients from way down in the soil.
There's a small bunch of grapes about to bloom on this vine
Looking toward Corton
Ah, Bourgogne!
In Burgundy, unlike in Bordeaux, the focus of the wine is on the location in which it was grown (terroir - the “somewhereness” of the wine). It is so specific, that for many of the nicer wines, the label will tell you in which vineyard the wine was grown. In Bordeaux, the focus is on the winemaker and a lot of times, what the wine maker does to the grapes after the harvest is more important. Burgundian wine makers are first and foremost farmers. What they do in the field to tend to their vines is of the utmost importance. Once the grapes are harvested, most of the work is over.
Some other quick notes on different notations you might see on a wine label - Grand Cru and Premier Cru. For Burgundian wine, the term is applied to classified vineyards, with Grand cru being the highest level and Premier cru being the second-highest level, followed by the basic village AOCs. “For Burgundy wines, the terms Premier Cru or 1er Cru are usually kept rather than being translated into English. [...] Grand cru (French for great growth) is a regional wine classification that designates a vineyard known for its favorable reputation in producing wine. Although often used to describe grapes, wine or cognac, the term is not technically a classification of wine quality per se, but is intended to indicate the potential of the vineyard or terroir. It is the highest level of classification of AOC wines from Burgundy.” (taken from Wikipedia)
Back to our tour – we stopped in Pernand-Vergelesses at Domaine Denis to meet with Monsieur Denis. He let us sample about 10-12 of his wines, mainly reds, and they were all quite tasty. We started with an aligoté and progressed on to Village, Premier Cru and Grand Crus. The star, however, was a 1992 half bottle Grand Cru. The nose alone was stunning. It will probably be a long time before I enjoy a taste of an 18-year-old wine again, but I’m looking forward to it! Merci beaucoup, Monsieur Denis!
Following our visit at Domaine Denis, Brendan drove us by Corton-Charlemagne, Aloxe-Corton, Ladoix-Serrigny, Mersault, Puligny-Montrachet, and Chassagne-Montrachet. More on Chassagne-Montrachet later.
P.S. The WordPress spellcheck had a seizure over my spelling in this post. Apparently words like beaucoup, Cru, and Chassagne aren’t English dictionary-friendly. Who knew?
3 comments June 3, 2010
jfowens
osarah
obeni
