Another week among the French

So to follow up that extremely sappy post I have another update on things that have occurred in my time since my last post. Just to let you all know, things have gotten really hectic here as our professors have started to assign us homework and all of us have begun to really get close so we are trying to savor the last few days we have left with each other!

So for the first weekend that I missed in a blog post, June 15^th and 16^th, we took a weekend in Barcelona, Spain and man was it beautiful! If you have been following my Facebook and Twitter feed you may have seen that I had the true Barcelona experience with my phone being pick-pocketed from me and one of my buds here. But in all honesty, if I had to do it all again, including phone being pick-pocketed, I would do it all again! We spent some quality time on the beach, went to Sagrada Familia (the huge cathedral that is still under construction, for pictures about its beauty please see Facebook as motivation to see it for yourself as neither words nor pictures do it justice), Park Guell (a park designed by Gaudi) and went to some Barcelona disco-tecas. It was also really cool because, if you couldn’t tell by my previous blogs I am really struggling with my French. Spain allowed me to use the one other language I know more about, SPANISH! I don’t know what it was, but I felt so much more comfortable while in Spain about everything. Even though I didn’t have to use it all that much, I think just the knowledge that I could communicate somewhat decently with the locals here just put me at ease. We also got to try some authentic Spanish food. Tapas, appetizers basically, were basically delicious. My group had chorizo sausage (a spicy sausage), artichokes, spicy potato and another type of cooked pork. After tapas we had paella, a hearty rice and seafood dish. It is cooked with a huge amount of flavor and had prawns, mussels, clams, and squid! It was absolutely incredible.

Grace and I found another Wildcat while in Barcelona! Andrew Vogliardo actually went to Camp Tekakwitha, a Catholic church camp the same time I did and Grace's big sister in her sorority knows his pretty well. Crazy how small a world it is!

That next Monday our class was split up between the “viticulture option” and the “agriculture/food option”. This meant that we began our first classes on everything wine. This included wine making, vine growing, how to harvest, when to harvest and our first wine tastings. We started with a very acidic white that they said was a very easy wine to taste. Which was fine by me since I am so new! I have progressed to a point where I can pick out certain smells and can taste certain things when people point them out to me. But for the most part I am still at the I like it or don’t like it stage. But I am learning more everyday and am loving it!

French has also begun to pick up, and by pick up I mean homework… They have started to assign us little pieces of homework that for someone like me who is totally inept at this language I take forever to get it done! The neat thing is that very often they pair us with older students when we go on excursions to practically use our French that we have learned so we don’t get as flustered. My personal opinion as well, I don’t find French an attractive language. You use your throat in a bunch of sounds that I think sounds gross and very often I think it just sounds like someone trying to cough up a lougie. The letter “r” in particular tends to get me since it needs more of a throaty sound and in English and Spanish, the sounds come from the tip of your tongue instead.

We have each learned about where we will stay for our internships and I could not be more excited right now for my month to live with a host family. I have been placed with the Fevre family in Yonne district of Bourgogne, or in English, BURGUNDY! In fact I am the only person in the program to be placed in that area and one of the program assistants was just telling me that I actually have the longest train ride, 7 hours, to get there. I am super excited and even though I don’t have very much information I hopefully will be able to still keep in contact through internet! Here is what I do know though. It is a mom and dad, not sure on kids, not sure on other “trainees”, and not sure what exactly I will be doing. For my activities is simply says Vine and Wine so that is positive!

After finding out our internships, the next day we took a visit to the Purpan experimental farm. This farm is a run by the students of the school, just as many universities do, but this one had a twist. The milking machines are fully automatic, and when I say automatic, I mean completely. No human necessary. Cows come in on their own when they think they are ready to be milked and a machine laser senses each teat to clean it and then attach cups to begin to milk the cow. Each cow wears a collar to ID it in the computer system so the data about quality and quantity of milk is recorded. It is a super advanced system and for just a school dairy I was blown away. They get an avg. of about 2.8 milkings per day per cow and is an improvement from their previous facilities which was a more hands on milking machine.

Here is the machine using lasers to find the teat to attach the cup so milking can happen. It is a fully automated process and was really neat to watch.

On Thursday we went to Abbaye de Fontfroide, a closed monastery that used to produce wine. It is now more of a tourist sight that anything else and was architecturally pretty cool. After that we visited Chateau L’Hospitalet. Folks I don’t know how else to say it but I am in love. This vineyard and winery is located 5 km, or 3 miles for my Americans, away from the Mediterranean and is absolutely beautiful in weather and scenery. While there we learned a little about grafting and the importance of it with grape vines. In Europe, France especially a disease went through that killed close to 85% of all vines roots, Phylloxera. This caused the need for a resistant vine to be planted. American root-stock was used in all of France as it was resistant to the disease and then the desired European grape was grafted onto it. However, at this vineyard, some of the current vines in production were unwanted as they were not the best suited for the climate and the new owners did not like them. So, to solve this problem the new type of grape is grafted onto the old vine and once it has taken hold sufficiently the old one is completely taken away. What is cool is that since the root-stock and now the main branch of the tree are old, the new vine will grown grapes that taste as though they came from a very much older vine. It was a super cool process that required a lot of science and I thought was very interesting. We also got to taste wines at each. My favorites for the day definitely came from the chateau. This was including a really cool wine that was vintage 2010. What made that year so special is that there was a wildfire that came down among the hills towards the vines. Vines naturally tend to stop wildfires so they were never harmed. However, the flavor of the grapes through the smoked out vines was very unique and made for a very interesting wine. The cork itself actually smelt like burnt charcoal and smell and taste had a very distinct smokiness to the them. A very neat wine tasting experience to say the least.

So if you look really closely you might be able to see what I am talking about. The bottom bulge is the original graft onto the root stock. The rest of the plant is the vine that can still produce grapes if the owner wanted it too but chooses not to. The white tape and little bud are the new grape that the owner wants instead of the old plant.

In my travels as well there has been a super common theme I have noticed in scenery. While France continues to astound me in terms of beauty, they seem to plant vines for grapes here like Iowa farmers plant corn. Literally it is everywhere!!!

The next day we went to a French gastronomy workshop. This meant that we were cooking our own food for class with a trained professional French chef who was an expert at what we were doing! On the menu was an incredible meal that even though it was prepared by the amateurs turned out really great!

-For the first course it was Crostinis de Foie Gras. Or in laymans terms, bruchetta with foie gras, ham and veggies (tomato, zuchinni etc.). It was shared on the plate with a bed of salad with a simple dressing of olive oil and balsamic.

-Next was the “plat principal” or main course. It was Pastis de Confit de Canard. In other words was actually duck meat that had been stewed with potatoes, red peppers, onion and garlic actually in a stew. Broth was drained and then the solid matter was put into pastry dough that was super thin. It also had some lettuce and herbs next to it which was fun trying to pair with it.

-Finally was the Soufflé Glacé au Gaillac Doux. A frozen mousse with Sweet White Wine. This was the dish I helped make and it was absolutely incredible. It was sweet and yet had a nice crunch from the almond cookie we baked. Just overall a very satisfying dessert. The orange is from diced apricot, the plate is cocoa dusted and has three stripes of strawberry syrup.

This was all helped by the wine we had paired with each meal. The owner of Mas Pignou vineyards in the Gaillac appellation brought with him 4 wines that were some of the best yet in my opinion and walked us through pairing wines together.

Afterwards we visited his vineyard and learned a lot about the wine making process for his different types he made. I was very impressed with his wine and loved tasting it!

Later that day Cathy, Margeaux and myself made our way down to the train station to get aboard the train that would take us to our free weekend destination, Marseilles. Marseilles is a costal city in France and is the hometown of one of my French roommates, Anne. She offered to let us stay with her family there and let me tell you it was well worth it.

Before arriving with Anne I was starting to get wet feet about interning abroad thing. I knew it would be a neat experience living with a host family and that I would learn so much, but in all honesty I was ready to come home after the time at the university was done. Yes Mom and Dad, Nathan Laudan got homesick. Normally this doesn’t happen to me, since I am always trying to be a live in the moment, appreciate where you are kind of guy. But I don’t know, this time I was super nervous about living with a family I didn’t (and still don’t) know much info on with very minimal knowledge about what I will be doing. After living with a family for a weekend however, I think I am going to be okay. It was one of the best experiences I have had so far here in France and I wouldn’t give it back for anything. I still miss not being able to see everyone at home and I miss not being able to drive 2 hours and see almost everyone back at home, but I think I can do 1 more month here before getting too homesick again!

So back to Marseilles, Marseilles is a off the coast of France in a more southern part that is know for the wonderful weather. This weather was there in full for us as there was a beautiful breeze, not a cloud in the sky, and lots of beach to lay on! We arrived at around midnight that night and waited with Anne and her dad for Pierre, her boyfriend. After that we took a nighttime tour of Marseilles with an incredible view from a top of a hill that overlooked the whole city.

The next morning was a very relaxed morning. Us 3 Americans got up at around nine and were still the earliest to rise, which was fine by us as it meant a little more time to keep on sleeping! After a breakfast with the family we headed down to the beach for a little ocean time. I am still trying to get used to the concept of salt water and have still not mastered the concept of not rubbing my eyes while in the water. But other than that everything was beautiful and even got a hamburger at the beach concession stand!

The "Marseilles Crew" Margeaux, Nathan and Cathy! 

Also, just so everyone knows, beaches in Europe tend to be very similar. At both the beach in Barcelona and Marseilles these sights were found

-old men in speedos

-naked children running around

-topless women, all ages

-fellow Americans who too were uncomfortable with the 3 mentioned above

After the beach we took the bus to Vieux Port, the place where all the sailboats are kept and walked around the place. We looked in a bunch of shops and had some gelato while we were at it. We took the metro back to the apartment of Anne’s and showered and got ready for dinner. The metro’s in Marseilles are actually really cool as each line has different colored lights so that way the passengers know what line they are on, just in case they were confused.

Here is a view of Vieux Port. It has tons of sailboats inside and was so incredibly cool!

Dinner that night was absolutely delicious. First, a pork tenderloin with roasted onions on top that was super tender. For the side dish a chard casserole with lots of cheese melted on top. I had never had chard before and I still am not sure I could describe its taste and flavor accurately except for different. After the main course we had cheese, bread and wine of course before dessert. Anne’s family however through in a little twist and had salad with a dressing of oil and balsamic. But this balsamic was different! It reminded me of the Dijon mustard we keep having here on sandwiches on our picnic outings. Anyways it was delicious and I would have it again and again! After that we had dessert, which was pastries and Magnum chocolate bars. If you haven’t ever had Magnum chocolate bars run to the nearest convenience store, grocery store or Wal-Mart and get you a box now. Your life will never be the same.

The next day Anne’s father took us on a personal tour of the city. Even though he spoke very limited English it was awesome day. We were even able to make jokes along the way even with the huge language barrier. He took us to see Notre Dame de la Garde, once again another beautiful church inside another beautiful city. It was on top of a huge hill as well that allowed us to the see the whole city and the Mediterranean in a very different view. After that he took us the other side of Vieux Port, the side with a museum, an old fort and a place for cruise ships to come in. All of these we saw in our time walking around with Anne’s dad. After walking around sufficiently we ate lunch back at the apartment before departing for the weekend. Lunch consisted of, once again, incredible food. We had veal with a sauce made from cooked onions, mushrooms and garlic, fresh steamed green beans and hash browns cooked with olive oil. All of it so good again.

After lunch they took us back to the train station where we said our goodbye’s, including doing the French kissing thing and off we went!

It has been an awesome ride folks and I cannot wait to see all of you again once I get back to the U.S. Have wonderful summers and hope to see you all soon!

“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.”- Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky