After a few days in Paris, they headed to Burgundy and I met them there for the weekend. I haven't spent much time outside of Paris, so it was nice to see a bit more of the country.
We spent Saturday biking amongst the vineyards and small towns.
We did a wine tasting in a tiny little town on our bike route. A sign outside a house indicated that wine tasting was available. An older gentleman opened the front door and seemed surprised to see us, but invited us in for a tasting. We essentially sat at his dining room table while a man in his underwear washed the grape presser in the back. We tasted a couple wines and he told us (in French) about his wine. We got the gist of it. Afterwards, we got a tour of the grape presser. It was probably the most authentic wine tasting I'll ever have. Most French wineries are small, selling around 75,000 bottles a year (with the obvious exception of the Champagne region, which is looked down upon for its un-French marketing and commercialism). Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures. We were in someone's house and the French can be touchy about pictures. I learned this after getting reamed for taking a picture in a Paris bakery. Of bread. But I digress...
On day two in Burgundy, we went to a nearby town for market day and unsuccessfully searched for a canal (I'm told the canal was later found). We visited a medieval castle (that turned out to be more of a 19th Century castle).
I was mildly obsessed with this gorgeous red ivy.
We drove around the country side and did another wine tasting. We learned that wine tasting in France is just that-- a quick taste and then you're encouraged to dump your wine and move on to the next one. No lingering and looking at the scenery. This means you have the equivalent of two glasses of wine in about 15 minutes.
I headed back to Paris for work on Sunday evening. My parents headed to Provence... which will be featured in the next blog post. It's dinner time.
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