Wine!!!

This all happened last week on Tuesday, which wasn't a good day for me. It was my first exam for the first class & I learned that I may have some issues getting a student visa for Portugal. No worries about that...yet, just a few paperwork things...hopefully. Anyways, on top of that I spent this last weekend fighting off a nasty cold, so that kept me from posting when I would have liked. Sorry, I don't think there will be another long pause like that for a good long while.

So one week ago we jumped on a tour bus right after taking our French & EU Law exam. We drove out of sandy pine tree country and soon we were passing by fields that looked like this...

Some of the little towns interspersed with the grapevines looked like poor farming communities--you can see one off in the distance. Not like rural Iowa though. It was more like little slum villages for migrant workers. So when the bus took several awkward turns down narrow lanes towards these buildings I wasn't too surprised that the buildings at the end of the lane, while larger than the village, didn't look too spectacular.

I was wrong! That was not our destination. This is Chateau Giscours...

They weren't really sure how old the building itself was, but wine has been made on this estate since the 1550's. The estate itself has over 750 acres, only a little over three hundred of which is in grape vines. The rest is something like this...

Why might you ask? Well until recently the Giscours was also a sight for polo matches, apparently fairly important ones. The building to the left of the actual Chateau is the visitor center/reception area, but it used to be the stables. Well, at least we know where we stand. Now polo isn't quite as popular...so it is cricket that is played. But that is neither here nor there...on to the wine!!

You already saw the first step, growing the grapes. After they pick the grapes they crush the grapes to get the juice from the berries. Giscours makes a type of read wine called Margaux, I'll tell you more later. At this stage the important part to remember is that they leave the skins and some of the stem material in contact with the juice. This give the juice its red color and drier taste. Red wine has more tannin, which it gets from the skins and stems at this stage of the process. The mix goes into one of these...

It is the primary fermentation vat, where sugars from the grape juice first become alcohol. Giscours has quite a few of them...

They are actually concrete, and they have used them for years and years. In fact, most of those doors lead to vats that are different sizes. They use the same vat for the same kind of grape, in the same way year after year. Consistency being the goal. The inside of the vats are coated on the inside with a protective epoxy resin. Our tour was taking place well after the season for fermentation so we could see the inside...along with the cleaning rags. The coil in the center helps regulate the temperature of the fermentation, another consistency device.

Now it is off to the secondary fermentation...aging. This can be done in barrels...

or in large stainless steel vats...

It is really going to depend on what you want from the wine in terms of flavor. It is obviously going to be easier to regulate the aging in the steel vats, but there is something special about the barrel with your company label on every barrel.

It also helps with giving the tours the right feel. After all, if you were to imagine a French winemaker, would you not imagine the little man in the back wearing the beret?? I think so. However, despite the somewhat romantic ideals of aging wine in barrels, there is the labor issue. As shown here where they are using candlelight to measure the color of the wine at the bottom of the barrel. When it changes they have removed the last bit of useful wine from the barrel. What is left is full of sediment.

Now the bottling. At Giscours they produce roughly 600,000 bottles of wine per year. All of it is bottled up by a machine like this, with every bottle being hand fed into the machine.

The rate per day is about 40,000 bottles over the six hour work day.

Now for the fun part. They make a Margaux wine in Giscours; Margaux is a Bordeaux wine, so unlike most American wines the French blend different kinds of grapes, usually right before bottling. The blend itself is often special to the actual Chateau, but must be within exacting standards laid out by French law. For the Giscours Margaux, the current mix is roughly 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Merlot. We got another wine from the region, called a Haut-Medoc, which is usually around a 50-50 blend of the same grapes. This one actually came from another Chateau owned by the same proprietor of Giscours, a Dutchman.

Here is our tour guide pouring us some wine in the visitor center. Looks quite nice for a former stable doesn't it? The two wines were both very good, as is every other bottle of French wine I have drank thus far ;) The Haut-Medoc almost had a spicy flavor and feeling, while the Margaux was...refreshing, more fruity than other Bordeaux wines, which doesn't take a lot, let me tell you.

A fun trip for me, especially after taking Stewart Burger's Introduction to Beverages at Iowa State University!!

Bordeaux Again

I know, I know, I have been to Bordeaux a lot. In my defense, it is close by, cheap to get to, and it is gorgeous. The first two times in Bordeaux were: 1-me getting accustomed to being in Europe around people who don't speak much English & 2-going with a large group for a specific purpose. This time it was just me with a small group of friends with the simple goal of seeing the sights. I guess you could say I am working my way into this tourist thing slowly. Consider this post my first practice run at being an American tourist abroad.

We got to Bordeaux around 1:30 in the afternoon and walked to the Basilica of St. Michel. If you look in my first post on Bordeaux it is the church with the single bell tower. I wasn't able to get a good pic this time because the sun was in the way :( So instead, we sat and ate lunch in front of a 15th century cathedral, right of the square. It was packed with vendors cleaning up from the morning market. We then walked down the very same street that I walked down in one of my earlier visits, only thanks to Colton, I now know what I was looking at.

Its the Place de la Bourse completed in 1755, pretty much the most famous facade for Bordeaux. You can find all sorts of pics online that come pretty close mine. Across the street is the Miror d'Eau-mirror of water, but instead of reflecting la Bourse it was being used by the residents of Bordeaux to help relieve the heat.

Next we took a little side street, just because it looked cool, but just as we were getting ready to turn around I saw a huge columned building & I had to check it out. Turns out that it was the Grand Theatre of Bordeaux c.1780.

We are actually really lucky. Our little shortcut put us right at the center of one of Bordeaux's most famous squares. We probably wouldn't have found this location except for the shortcut, & we weren't far from the Place des Quinconces.

The Place des Quinconces is a large park laid out over the location of a castle that was built in 1453. The park itself was laid out in 1820 to prevent rebellion.
Here are some of the things we saw:


The fountains on either side of the pillar.

A statue if Montesquieu. Why? Montesquieu is the thinker credited with the idea of "separation of powers." The ideal our founders strongly believed in when they wrote the Constitution. So kind of a big deal for a law student.


The majority of the park is a huge flat area of gravel, which they apparently use for little carnivals, fairs, & I would assume concerts & what not. These planes caught my eye because of their historical value. The first is a Mirage 2000, a famous and widely exported fighter, & the second is a SEPECAT Jaguar, famous for its role in Desert Storm.
We continued down the river looking for the other cathedral you probably saw in my first post.

It is the Cathedral of St. Louis, completed in 1880. I know, it isn't that old, but a the main reason is that this cathedral is actually in a part of Bordeaux that was once a small village called Chatrons. The location was once a monastery, and as the Bordeaux area grew, the monastery became a church, then another church, and finally this beautiful cathedral.
How is this for feeling small....

Here are some photos from inside the cathedral.






This is the cathedral's namesake, St. Louis the 9th. A very pious, if very foolish King of France determined to lead a crusade to take back the holy land. Turns out he actually led two crusades. Problem with one of them was that his army was annihilated and he got captured. He left the port of Damietta, which he actually successfully captured, without making the proper logistical considerations, and his over-eager knights charged into Cairo where they were easily massacred. As for Louis second crusade, usually labeled the 8th Crusade, he was talked into attacking Tunis by his older brother Charles of Anjou. Charles was a very nasty fellow who simply wanted control of the port, and why not allow his brother to do it for him. The siege actually broke because of disease amongst the French troops. Louis himself was amongst the dead.

Guess who!! Now here was a more successful military saint. St. Jeanne d'Arc.

One last thing before I take you away from St. Louis. You see engravings like this one all over the place in France. Train stations, building sides, statutes, & of course churches. They are memorials for WWI. This one reads: "In memory of the children of the parish; died for France." After seeing so many of these little reminders, just in Bordeaux, it is hard not to think about how much more this country suffered in both World Wars.

Now for a more pleasant, though unfortunate story. We wanted to go back to the Cathedral that was closed while we were visiting the ENM. We looked on the map for the name & headed in that direction. Turns out we were heading for the wrong church. Oops. We didn't make it all the way because we realized fairly quickly that we were in the wrong part of town. It is amazing how quickly you can go from packed streets to deserted streets in Bordeaux. All turned out okay though, we found the Public Gardens, & took a leisurely stroll through. Turns out the garden was created in the 1700's.
This pick is for my dad...

I have no idea what the tree on the left is, the leaves look something like a magnolia, but the one on the right is a cypress.

Now for the Cathedral of St. Andre. The ground was consecrated in 1096, by the same Pope who called the first crusade. The building itself is enormous, much bigger than St. Louis. I actually don't have the words to describe what it felt like to stand next to this cathedral, much less inside it. It took over four hundred years to build so I have no idea how old each portion of the church in each of these pictures actually is.



I am pretty sure this is the Royal Door, completed in the early 1200's.
Here is the reason I don't have nearly as many pictures of St. Andre as I do of St. Louis. The cathedral was in use for services...


After St. Andre, we walked three or four blocks down the most packed pedestrian street we had seen thus far. My compatriots wanted ice cream, and I was more than willing to take a breather in this little square.

After a nice rest we got kicked out of our seats by the pizzeria whose chairs we were using. It was just re-opening, for the dinner crowd. So we walked straight back to the train station, through a pretty seedy area I might add, and caught a train with 5 minutes to spare. We were actually planning on taking a different train, but hey, why not? All said and done it was an awesome day to stroll through Bordeaux, we walked over 8 1/2 kilometers. What thrills me about that number is these new shoes we bought for the trip are awesome!! For those of you who don't remember, I have really...really flat feet. To walk that far and not be in pain at the end is a completely new feeling for me. I am just sore, not in pain!! I can't believe it!!! Mom, Dad, go back to that shoe salesman sometime and give him a hug.

We finished the evening on the patio watching the waves, drinking wine & Madeira. Colton even let me try a few puffs of the Cuban he bought. :D

Back to Bordeaux.

Took a day trip back to Bordeaux, only it was a class time visit with the rest of the Arcachon group. This was our destination...



Its the front of the main court house for the Tribunal de Grande Instance, the main court for all the lower cases in France. There is one per department and this is the one for the area around Bordeaux. We got a little history lesson from the president of the appellate court in this courtroom. That's right...its a courtroom.



That's not the judge though. Meet Professor Michael Amado, an avocat in Paris. He is our instructor for French and EU law for a week. I must admit, it is a little strange to be taught by a Frenchman who speaks English with British accent. He is a really nice guy and an awesome lecturer. We are squeezing a ton of information into these four hour days. Odd thing though, in this country they have the right to rest and relaxation. So we get a ten minute break at the end of every hour and half an hour half way through the whole thing. The whole country is like that and it is really starting to irritate me. I want to buy good groceries, but the market with all the freshest food opens after we go to class at 8:30 and closes before we get out at 1:00. Besides that, some of the best shops aren't open all the time, not even when they have the hours listed. I just have to accept the fact that things are open when they are open.

Sorry...vented a little there. Now back to the fun stuff I learned in Bordeaux. If you look at the last picture you can see the massive old style chair. That is where the president of the court sat and told us all about Bordeaux's history. The city was ruled by the English for three centuries and was the second city to be given a parlement by the king. As such they are a little rebellious. That explains the giant painting of Christ behind the judge. Amado said this is very strange to see in a courtroom. France is extremely proud of its republique, the revolution, and their ideals of "libertie, eqalite, fraternite." Having enormous paintings of the emperors Napoleon (see below) and Napoleon III (behind Amado on the wall) with a Christ painting behind the judges really goes against the grain of what French law is all about. Makes for a magnificent room though. Here is a picture of us all, with the president in the center.


I know its huge and a little grainy, but it was taken from a ways off and we were in a bit of a rush. Actually none of these pictures are mine, I forgot my camera, idiot I know, but thanks to Anel and Amy, I was able to salvage a story out of my trip to share with all of you.

Here is the little guy, larger than life.


Remember how I mentioned the old clashing with the new happens a lot. Well check this out...

This is on the other side of the building in picture number one. Each one of those spaceship looking things is a courtroom. They are supposed to symbolize kernels of wheat. I am actually not sure how I feel about it. Right next door is the Ecole Nationel de la Magistrature, which has two old towers built in the mid 15th century and a block away is this beautiful cathedral, so its is radically out of place.



No I mentioned the Ecole Nationel de la Magistrature, its the National Judge School. Its not like the United States, every judge in France entered the judge school and passed the exit exam. A great many of them came direct from their masters, which is just a year long program tacked onto the four years of what we call undergraduate school. When all is said and done, some of these new judges are only 23 or 24, and they are deciding the fate of people. No experience except what they gain in three short years of training. Then they are thrown headfirst into the same cases as judges who have been doing it for years. Its really strange to think about how different our two judicial systems are. For example, prosecutors (procurers) and judges go to the same school and are actually considered to be the same profession. One of the strangest things for me to think about is only the most serious crimes (10 plus years incarceration) get juries, and even then the judges retire with the juries and they all decide. You can go to jail here without ever being judge by your peers. One thing though, all French judges go and spend a night in jail. It just seems...unequal though. I got to step into a courtroom while it was in session,no pictures though, that's forbidden. The three judges sit on a raised platform, and the prosecutor sits on the same platform off to the side, traditionally next to the window. The defendant's avocat pleads from the ground up at the judges. It just seemed odd, especially because the defendant in the case I was watching wasn't even there. He was watching from somewhere else via a camera and although we could see him on a television screen, it just seemed odd. Amado told us that the tv screening only recently was allowed for immigration cases, and all others still have to appear in court. But still...I'll just say I am glad I am from the USA.

The Rest of Arcachon

Arcachon, France: Founded under the rule of Napolean III in 1858, this little town is only about 100 hectares, and has a population of about 10,000. According to the Deputy Mayor, who welcomed us to Arcachon at a nice dinner by the beach, Arcachon grows to about 100,000 people during the vacation months of July & August. I will be gone when that happens, so that's a plus.
We took a little tourist ride around the original part of the town. Lots of huge homes. Apparently, this town was created as a sanitarium for people suffering from tuberculosis. It was only after the rich discovered the climate that the town began to grow. Casinos and what not, but it wasn't until after World War II that the town down by the beach really took off as a tourist magnet.





We also took an afternoon trip out to the largest sand dune in Europe: Dune de Pyla. It was awesome. Long hike to the top though...

It really was a fun time with good friends. An incredible view at the top, if a little windy...

It was also my first glimpse of the primary non-service industry in the Basin de Arcachon, oyster farming...

You can see the dark patches with wooden poles all over the place, those are where les paysans de la mer (the farmers of the sea) ply their trade.