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Published: February 22nd 2007
Mmmm....... Lollies!
Yes, there are lollies in heaven too!Last weekend my Civilisation Française class went on an excursion with our nutty professor (nutty in a good way!) to 'Le Salon de Viticulture'; a big travelling wine exhibition that tours most of France displaying the latest wines from vineyards all around the country. Now that's my kind of school excursion! And Laura decided to tag along too even though she's not in my class, but my teacher's so loopy he'd never notice!
I wasn't really sure what to expect, but when I saw that it was twice as big as any hall I'd ever seen and jam-packed with wine stalls from all over the country I went weak at the knees. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven! I also realised that here was my chance to find a decent French white - so far I hadn't found any, but I'd also been doing my wine shopping in cheap German supermarkets so my experiences hadn't really been credible.
It took a couple of minutes of stupefied staring and taking in the enormity of the place before we could fathom where to begin, but once we got started oh, we didn't stop! I genuinely enjoyed chatting to the
This is Heaven, people!
It may not look like much, but trust me, heaven will look like this - rows and rows of wine tasting booths as far as the eye can see!! stall holders about their day and their favourite wines etc; they'd ask where we were from and they'd get so excited to meet Australians that they topped up our wines and invited us to stay and try more of their favourites. It was fabulous!
It's funny because in Paris I was only ever asked if I was English, but here I'm always being asked if I'm German; clearly it's the most common 'foreign' here being right on the border of the two countries (many French haven't had enough experience with the Australian accent to pick it straight away). These wine sellers were acting like Australia is so far away, well it is I guess, but they act like it's so far away it’s almost as if they wonder how we managed to get here - like we're aliens or something!
We had such a great time and met so many fantastic people. And very generous with their wine even after they knew we were students. And no, we weren't complete cheapskates, we actually did buy a couple of bottles of wine. (Mum & Nicole, I bought one bottle that's so amazing I'm going to save it until you
visit, and we can buy really decadent cheese from a shop downstairs called La Cloche Fromage to go with it!)
But, unfortunately my search for a nice, French, dry white continues. Their red wine is amazing, even for 0.75€ it's not too bad, but the white wine....... no. Not good. I did buy a half decent (emphasis on
half) white at the show but I hate to say it Frenchies, nothing you've shown me so far even compares to a Sauvignon Blanc from Australia's Margaret River or New Zealand! But don't worry, I'll keep looking.... 😊
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Maa
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Looking forward to that wine
Some kind of student excursion that was!! I am really looking forward to that wine - if you manage not to drink it before then!