LifeSlice.

13/10/2024

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR NOSE
La Cité du Vin, Bordeaux.
In stark contrast with the squat, concrete-bunker style WW2 submarine docks hunkered close by, La Cité du Vin, a gleaming, modernist edifice, steel gray with blue and gold stripes, reaches to the sky as a paen to the wines of Bordeaux and the region. The visit includes tastings in the rooftop area with a great view of Bordeaux, rooms with charts identifying grape varieties, and a whole host of other educational and fun areas on four levels.
We rambled around the lower floors and watched videos about the history of wine (narrated by ‘wine’ herself) and the history of Bordeaux wines. A large circular room has couches all around the perimeter, inclined so that one can see a year in the life of a vineyard projected onto the ceiling. In the next room, we watched a montage of clips showing scenes from great movies where wine is featured.
Then we went to the next level, turned a corner, and saw what looked for a second like the brass section of an orchestra for tiny people.
When a label announces that there are ‘notes of’… whatever, it references flavour and aroma. The small ‘trumpets’ in this room help educate the ‘nose’ identify the aromas. Bell jars behind the trumpets contain examples of what one should smell: licorice, old parchment, etc, or show pictures where there is a blend.
So, you stick your nose in the trumpet, squeeze the rubber puffer once, et voila! In the photograph, the fourth trumpet puffs out the blend of the three aromas present in this wine type. I did it for many of the examples and improved my ‘nose’ but fell WAY short of being able to nose out three blends at once.
I must therefore do more homework. Tonight, I’ll work on Pic-Saint-Loup Altitude 140. Apparently, “The Cuvée Altitude 140 highlights grape varieties typical of the region, with notes of ripe red fruits, spices and a touch of garrigue, characteristic of the local terroir.”
Right. Gottit. Pour. Raise glass (by the stem) and…
Santé

11/10/2024

Random Post from Limoux.
Yesterday, I went a little ‘off-piste’ with one of our dinner cheese selections. In and around the village of Selles-sur-Cher, a little way upriver from the Chateau de Chenonceau, there’s an origin-protected goat cheese derived from a 12th-century recipe that includes charcoal as an ingredient. The interior is delightfully creamy; the exterior is dry with a grey-blue strongly flavoured, musty-smelling mould covering its surface An initial surface coating of vegetable-based charcoal ‘encourages’ the mould to grow. Lovely… especially the crusty-outside-mouldy bit.

07/10/2024

I just responded to a friend about hitchhiking in the sixties. It brought back this memory.
I remember being a 'Monsieur-Stop' in the Loire on long weekends. A colleague took me from Kineton in the Midlands, where I was teaching, to Southampton where she was visiting her sister. Then, I would take the Southampton to Cherbourg ferry overnight (as it was then), a (normally) quick hitch-hike to Tours (The Youth Hostel in Tours served wine at dinner back in the day) so I stayed there. Then more thumbs-out lifts to various Chateaux... especially Chenonceau. The night ferry back to Southampton on Sunday. A lift with my colleague back to Kineton on Monday afternoon... back in the class next morning.'
Two years ago, I was back in Chenonceaux with Cynthia and Friends John and Gwenda.
It's still stunning, but its recent history is even more fascinating than its Medici History... I'll get around to telling it...
Meanwhile... my photo of Chateau de Chenonceau 60 years later.

10/09/2024

I'm stoked. Tomorrow, my friend John, and his wife Gwenda arrive at our Limoux home. John and I met on our first day at school when we were five-year-olds. I met Gwenda when he did and was best man at their wedding, just a few days before I came to Canada. Each year, now, they join us for 'Cunning Plan', a travel adventure I plan. This year it's a tourist train in the High Pyrenees, followed by Zaragoza: Aljaferia Palace, Galacho de Juslibol nature reserve and bird sanctuary, Museo Goya, and El Tubo old town (one of the eight best tapas areas in Spain, apparently). Then, apropos great tapas, on to San Sebastian/Donostia, followed by a night in a vineyard residence near the village of St Emilion for grand cru wine tasting. The final stop is Bordeaux: La Cité du Vin, Musée d'Aquitaine and Musée des Beaux-Artes, oh, and an English/French fusion brew-pub called Le Frog et Rosbif, etc, etc, Then home to Limoux for a glass of the original 'Champagne' with friends in La Plaçe de la République. This is the train that starts the adventure.

24/07/2024

Sometimes in the South of France, it’s gourmet, sometimes it’s just really good grub.

Restaurant Berail Bernard in the village of Cépie near Limoux’, Occitanie, adjoins the Butcher’s shop of the same name. At noon, Co-Proprietaire, Marie, closes the shop, takes two steps to the left and opens the restaurant calling “Installez-vous,” as she goes, then magically turns into the sole waitress.
She smiles as we arrive, calls me ‘Monsieur Petit-Déjeuner’-- Café au Lait is for breakfast apparently; a shot of strong black stuff is favoured for jump-starting the afternoon.
No wonder it fills up quickly. The three-course lunch starts with an aperitif, normally a Kir of local white wine and cassis, followed by an all-you-can-eat-buffet entrée. The meat part of the entrée is all made in the butcher’s shop: Foie, blood pudding, cured ham serrano style, pâté de campagne, etc.
For the ‘plat’ that day we had a choice of Paella, Chicken Provençale, Fish, Lamb Liver, or Grilled Pork, all accompanied by a half-litre carafe of red, rosé, or white between two people.
As for dessert… too many choices to remember, but the Baba-au-Rhum was fine… and more than a tad alcoholic. Coffee followed.
All the above, taxes included, for €17 ($25.50 Canadian).
Bon continuation. Salut.

26/04/2024

Okay, so for anyone heading to Northern France this year (May to October) I'm recommending a theme park... a theme park like no other... not a ride to be found... Almost unknown outside Europe. This will tell you why.

We stared at them for a few seconds...two good friends who had just suggested that we should drive 650 kilometers to a small village an hour south of Nantes to visit a theme park: two friends who seem unlikely proponents of Disneyland, and the like.

02/12/2023

Over jet-lag now and already missing the French style of restaurant service. This tongue-in-cheek comparison will resonate more with my Canadian and U.S. Facebook friends... but it's fun anyway. To read head to

Typical, bloody typical! When we ordered a small charcuterie and cheese plate, he failed to yip ‘Great choice’ at us, and when we ordered a couple of glasses of Pic St. Loup (Coteaux de Languedoc) he failed to chirp “Purrrrfect!” He then failed to interrupt our conversation thirty seconds la...