weekend in paris

After my internship was over last weekend, we went to Paris for a party themed "Chic et Hot". It was hosted by the brother of a really good friend of Jeremie's. We had a blast, there was lots of champagne, lots of laughing and we had a blast.



This week I had time to relax, sleep and take care of things that I had put off. We had over some friends for dinner this week, which was fun. Jeremie had a bad cold (he's still on antibiotics, but getting better). The weather here has been really odd, it's cold at night where we put on the heat at night, but during the day, it's up to 30 degrees Celsius, so the change in temperature hasn't been easy for Jeremie.
This week, I also had time to re-visit an apartment that Jeremie had visited for me, we are looking at buying a place. It needs work done, so we visited with an engineer, and made an offer, but we are waiting to see if they accept. If so, we will move into a place that doesn't require the rent in heating bills! Oh boy!
Next week, my actual classes start, which I am really excited about. I have class from 8:30 until noon and then 13:00 until 18:00 every day. It should be really interesting and a lot of information.
Much love, Sarah

Chateau Ferran

Since I am now enrolled in a two years masters program in vinification (process of making wine), I am required to spend three weeks observing what goes on at a Chateau. I am the new intern at Chateau Ferran, the one that is in Martillac (GRAVES region).
Today was my first day of taking grape samples, measuring the sugar content of the wine, cleaning the barrels to put the wine in, moving the barrels, stacking them, and of course tasting the wine that has just started to ferment (it's only a week into the process, so it still tastes like grape fruit juice, the really good kind tho). It's tiring work, but rewarding.
I didn't take pictures at work, seemed kind of odd to me, but I did take a lot of notes on what we did!

David left for "pays basque" today, the region that is south of Bordeaux, approaching the boarder of Spain. He will be back the 19th. Until then I am working, trying to figure out if I can give an English lesson here or there, judging from how tired I am after today, I think that I won't be doing many in the next three weeks. :)
Love, Sarah

Arcachon

This past weekend we went to visit the Dunes du Pilat (Pyla), the largest sand dune in Europe. It's quite a climb to the top!





For fun the boys decided that they had to race with the dogs all the way down! They had a blast apparently!






David experienced his first full blown strike, complete with people protesting right in front of our apartment. He had planed to go on a day trip to Toulouse, which I postponed for him to the following day on account of the french behavior.



David with his new "buddies", they follow him around. They almost understand what he tells them in French....



David driving a stick shift! (In a parking lot! nothing crazy...) He did really well.

David visits Normandie

After having traveled through Germany and Switzerland, David came back to see me and Jeremie in Bordeaux. We left for Normandie after David doing some laundry and enjoying a little bit of Bordeaux wine, of course.
The first photo is us in the train to Normandie (with our faithful companions).



On our first walk around David was shocked to see Puja almost get killed by the neighbors horse, but she did live, she was chasing a rabbit through the pasture, which scared the horse I guess.

I didn't quite realize that in September it is not as warm in Normandie, so we borrowed some warm clothing from stuff that is there. David really enjoyed meeting all of Jeremie's family, even though we had to translate everything.
Pepe or Jermeie's grandfather really liked his bottle of Angeli that my dad had sent as a gift. He opened it right away saying that at least it can't stick to his bridge piece like the sees candy that I had given him! Jeremie's aunt and uncle absolutely loved the sees that we gave them, along with Jeremie's cousin and their daughter Noah (who is 15 months old).

The photo below is of a light show held at the cathedral of Bayeux (where there are the famous tapestries). The light show was interesting because they light the inside so you can actually see from the exterior the stained glass.



We also went to visit Omaha beach, where despite the wind and freezing cold water people were actually using the old "tractor" to get their jet skies to the ocean. We thought it was interesting, so we took a photo.



David holding his new best friend, Kajol, who has decided that David is her favorite person, she follows him all around now.

A photo of me and David in front of a memorial on Omaha beach.



In other news, I was accepted this year to do a masters degree (lasts two years) in Oenologie. I am really excited, the degree is actually called the "Diplome Nationale d'Oenologie". It's a national diploma for France, and when you graduate you are considered as a really desirable employee to work making wine at a chateau. The first month I am an intern at a chateau and then I have classes that start on October 8th.
Much love, Sarah

A visit from a friend

This past week I had a friend, Jesse from UCD that was here visiting me. He actually is keeping a blog like I am about his three weeks tour in Europe. I am adding a link to his blog because it is in a way about me and Jeremie. I will post some other pictures to go along with it.

http://3countries3weeks.blogspot.com

Here is a picture of Jesse and me at Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte.



Jeremie and me at Smith HLF.



Jeremie in the cellar of SHLF.



We took Jesse out to a dinner at a favorite of any French person. It's a restaurant that is odd in the sense that they only have one option, but people line up because it is always the same, and always good. It is called L'Entrecote, named for a cut of beef that is tender, a center fillet. They have a "secret sauce" that they put on the steak that the French just adore. We ended up taking a friend of Jeremie and mine with us, she was REALLY excited about going, because there is always a line, and when I say always I mean every day, rain or shine.



This is a different chateau we visited and tasted at, it's a much smaller production as well as being lesser well known, but it is also a "grand cru" from the graves region, but they make really really good wine.




Next we have David, who will next week in Bordeaux, if he isn't having too much fun traveling around. He sent me an email today that he might extend! Which is great! Much love to all.

Champagne region anyone?

Since David and I have spent a fair amount of time in Paris, I wanted to do something really cool. My choice was tasting champagne. It worked out well because friends of mine and Jeremie just had their first baby girl, named Beatrice. She was born 8 days ago. We were the first friends to see her. We started off the morning seeing the famous Cathedral with its wonderful stained glass windows, which did not come out very well in pictures....



After we headed to the first place to taste at GH Mumm, the real Mumm as the french would tell you....


They store all the Champagne in caves that are about 14 meters underground, it was very refreshing but very dark. This picture has racks of champagne bottles which are angled downward to make the sediment fall to the neck and then they perform the corking procedure to get all the rest of the sediment out, only 5% of Mumms total is done by hand.






The picture of what we got to taste at the tasting afterwards. It was wonderful, David said that he could drink LOTS of this one.... hehe



After we tried to take a tour of Veuve, but you had to reserve two weeks in advance, which we had not done, but we still got to take a peak and see everything yellow!




Tomorrow David leaves for Berlin, a short 8 hour train ride from Paris for his adventures, I am going back to Bordeaux tomorrow evening with Jeremie.
All in all Reims rated a 5 star with the three of us, we are contemplating when we can go back next to see MORE!
Love to all

And David has arrived!

So today I went to CDG to pick up David from the airport. We all went back to Asnieres sur Seine, where Jeremie's grandfathers apartment is and had a relaxing lunch. Jeremie's grandfather Rene, is currently at his country house, so its just us three here. David and I went walking around Paris this afternoon to get some air, we missed the train to go to Giverny, and it started to rain a little, so wasn't exactly the best moment to go. We headed back to the apartment to get Jeremie and have some coffee before going out to an early dinner. We went to a French brasserie right across from the "Bourse" or stock exchange. Built in 1808, it was quite a nice building.
Tomorrow we are off for a day of exploring the Champagne region, which is 45 minutes by train. Much love to all, David, Sarah and Jeremie