Leaving Dijon

Hello Everyone, unfortunately I will be leaving Dijon tomorrow morning and will be heading for Paris.  I am so sad to be leaving the beautiful country of France on Sunday, but I am so excited to go home to see my family and friends; I miss everyone so much!  I think the things I am looking forward to the most are huge breakfasts, In n Out, and real barbecues.   In France a bbq is considered anything where people gather.  We all thought we were going to have a bbq in the garden, but instead we had pizza, which was very good!  Some things that I am going to miss from France will be, of course, all the people I have met here in the program, the beautiful landscape that surrounds me all the time, having wine with lunch, and all the French cheese and bread.  I will never forget this trip and will always remember how I learned about wine making and culture in the heart of where it all started.  Stay tuned for my last post on Sunday or Monday about my last hurrah in Paris where I hope to go visit the Sacre Coeur and the Opera Garnier.  Good night!

 

We began our journey to the South of France with a trip to a really cute winery in Beaujolais (boo-jhoe-lei) which is in Southern Burgundy.  The landscape was especially beautiful and hilly.  Our tour guide, Pascal, has a vineyard in this region that has been in his family for over 400 years.  

  

 After having dinner (and frog legs, which weren't too bad!) we got ready to head out and ended up seeing some lovely swans again.

The next day we stopped at this tiny little town on a hill called Seguret, which means "secure" because it was very secure during the medieval times against attacks.  I thought that it was very interesting that there was a car with a Massachusetts liscence plate...

This is the view from the top of the city, it was pretty fabulous, you can even see the curvature of the earth.  

Some more tiny streets in the city:

There was a very beautiful view of Seguret from Domaine de la Cabasse where we had some amazing wine and even better food. 

After we went to the winery, we checked out the Roman ruins at Vaison la Romaine.  These ruins were thousands of years old, although much of it was reconstructed.  The photo below shows the House of Apollo, thus named for the head of the god Apollo found there.  It was soooo cool finally seeing Roman ruins in person after studying the Roman Empire in school and seeing them on the History Channel all the time.  

We also saw a 2000 year old Roman bridge in the city.  A few years ago the river was actually up and over the bridge.

The Dentilles in the background, where rock miles under the earth's crust had been pushed up to the surface thousands of years ago.  The rock from far below the earth's surface is an integral part of the soil in the vineyards situated near them.  

The next day we went to Moulin des Barres at Maussane, an oil making place!  Their olive oil was very yummy and I will bringing some home.  It was very interesting to hear all the things the owner had to say about how the trees were very old, some 100 years, and that everyone should have a spoonful of olive oil in the morning for their health.  

A very old and destroyed castle from the medieval ages.  The narrow streets were beautiful, as usual.

There was a very yummy cookie shop in the town by the castle as well.  

The view from the castle.  

I enjoyed walking around the little town just below the Castle and imagined what it must have been like when the whole place was up and running.  Unfortunately we didn't go up into the ruins of the castle because they charged a pretty hefty fee, 7.50 euro which is about $10.75.

The next day we drove to the Mediterranean Sea and on the way we saw this huge castle wall.  Pascal told us that the water would have come just to the front door of the castle during the Medieval times.  

Finally in the Mediterranean Sea!  It was very salty and cold, but I got used to it :)

There were real, live flamingos.

..and white horses! which are called the Carmague and are wild.  Make a wish when you see one!

There were also bulls, that you can see in the arena, where men try to pluck a flower between their horns.  

We went to a winery that was modeled after Roman wineries from thousands of years ago.  They make their wine just as the Romans did, stomping the grapes with their feet and even adding ocean water and herbs when the wine is fermenting.  We   tasted the wine and I was surprised that it wasn't that bad. 

We then got to see Pont du Gard which was a Roman Aqueduct built in 50 AD.  It is a magnificent piece of architecture.  There was also a lot of graffiti on the bridge part, but it was really cool because a lot of it was from the 19th century.  

We had some very yummy fish paste/tartar with tapanade on top, which may sound disgusting but was actually very good.  For dessert we had a really delicious apple tart.  

This is a prehistoric grotto that I had to take a picture of since I have never seen a grotto before and am still not sure what it is exactly...

Our second to last winery that we saw was in Chateauneuf du Pape, which is world famous for the wines that come out of the region.  It used to serve the Pope when he was in Avignon.  The soil is very rocky from the Glacier that swept through here thousands of years ago leaving a moraine in its wake.  

Some beautiful grenache grapes

This machine, which costs as much as many houses in the US or more, is used to sort individual grapes and choose the best ones based on color using scanners and air pressure.  This machine boosts the quality of wine produced and almost guarantees a good vintage.  These were the first machines of their kind that my professor and Pascal had ever seen.  

This is the remaining castle at Chateauneuf du Pape and it was a beautiful sight.  I enjoyed my trip the south of France so much and loved the scenery that surrounded me.  I hope that I can go back sometime.  

Alsace, Germany and the Swiss Alps!

On the first day of the trip to Alsace, Germany and Switzerland we went to a beautiful little town that had been medieval since the 13th century called Riquewihr.  There were still remnants of the mote that had gone around the city and the walls around the city.  Above is one of the streets in the small town.  




This was a really cute macaroon shop where we bought some really yummy treats.  Don't worry, I am bringing some home!  They had flavors like vanilla, pistachio, banana, chocolate and strawberry.  



When we were done tasting wine from Alsace, we crossed the Rhine River into Germany.  The landscape was beautiful, to say the least.  

We saw some swans in the river...






We then walked up to a church that was being rebuilt, as it had been bombed in the Second World War.  We had some great sights of the Rhine and of France right across the way!

I didn't get a picture in a London telephone booth so I thought I would get one in a German booth!

Out first night in Germany we went to a great German bar and watched the Women's World Cup, unfortunately they didn't win :( ... but we still had a great time watching a soccer game in Europe!



Can't go to Germany and not try the beer!  

The next day we went to go see a winery in Germany that was sooo huge! They make millions of bottles a year and although their business was overwhelming, it seemed that they didn't have the love for wine making that we had seen in France and some of the smaller vineyards.  Still, quite a great experience to see how other wineries work.  

Above is a snapshot of their bottling machine.  From the empty bottle to even wrapping the saran wrap around the boxes of bottles of wine, the entire process of bottling, labeling and packaging is entirely done by machinery.  Only a few people were needed to man these machines. 










We then left for the Swiss Alps!! It was cool because Milan was so close!
























We stopped for some coffee before we ascended the mountain. Notice how much everything looks like it has been taken out of The Sound of Music.  Everything was so green and beautiful.  


       




















If you look at the left, lower side of the mountain, you can see a tunnel with grass on top.  This is a part of the road that led up the Alps.  It was probably the safest I felt on the bus going up the mountains...














Notice the small bus on the winding road.  Those turns were very sharp and it was a miracle we made it out alive. 

We stopped half way to the glacier and got some beautiful pictures.  In addition to reminding me of The Sound of Music, the scenery also reminded me of Lake Ireland up in Yosemite when my dad and I went backpacking.  It was incredibly beautiful and surreal to be up in the Swiss Alps.  


The view from where we parked before going to see the Glacier that is the beginning of the Rhone River.  The clouds kept rolling over the mountains and constantly changing shapes.  It was a spectacular view.  

The beautiful glacier! Unfortunately it is melting from global warming, so they put sheets on it to reflect light.  Imagine the glacier about 10 feet higher about 50 years ago.  
































I couldn't rotate this photo...but I still wanted everyone to see how blue the inside of the glacier looked.  We also got to sit inside of the glacier in a cubby hole!  It was amazing to be in a glacier with thousands upon thousands of year old water, and to get a chance to taste it!












The next day we headed out to see the highest vineyard in Europe!  The vines are set on terraces that have been worked since the Roman times and that are very steep!

Trying some Swiss wine that was better than I thought it would be, and even better for being pretty darn cheap!  
















At another Swiss wine tasting with amazing wine and also great cheeses and sausages!
















We ended our trip to Northern France, Germany and Switzerland with a trip Lake Geneva, which seemed like an ocean.  Everything was so amazing and I am still in a little disbelief that I was even there.