The French Journal

TFJ Round-up: Forbidden video, Messiaen, and angst

Odds, ends:

• The video I can't show you. The attempt at a provocative header is extremely misleading on my part. The material isn't lascivious; I can't show it because there's no embedding info. From The Times (London), it's called "Secret Champagne," and it tours the region while explaining, more or less, that you're better off drinking the stuff in France than in the U.K. The deadpan narrator amuses me.
• A year of Messiaen around. The 100th anniversary of French composer Olivier Messiaen's birth will be celebrated this year, and the NY Times has appreciation. Le mari likes him; me, the philistine, am less enamored. Too much cacophony. Here's a short profile:

• Blogger angst. Not French, but lately I've been looking into an abyss, partly because of an article in yesterday's NYT about the hazards of blogging: long hours, low pay, and unhealthy results (particularly for writers of a certain age). More on my spiritual crisis coming up someday.

Weekend wine truc #1: More Champagne!

The big news in the French wine world today is that French regulators have agreed to expand the regions which can produce Champagne (AFP). Since Champagne is one wine that is in increasing demand, this news has major economic impact: "'If your vines fall on the wrong side of the divide, they will be worth 5,000 euros a hectare,' said Gilles Flutet, who is in charge of demarcation at INAO. 'On the other side they will be worth a million euros.'" That's for landowners; for the rest of us, more Champagne!

You can also read an earlier post on this subject.

The not unqualified pleasures of andouillettes

When we visited Troyes last year, eating an andouillette -- a type of sausage that's a local specialty -- was practically mandatory. At an unpretentious, friendly place called La Fille de le Potager, recommended by our hôtelier, I happily ingested my AAAAA serving, the highest grade, covered with a sauce Chaource. Le mari, however, left a good portion of his on the plate. This dish is made from all kinds of pig parts, and it's not to everyone's taste (or nose).

The Times (U.K.) -- which is rich with France articles this week -- has an appreciation of what it calls the "smelly Champagne sausage." The article has a history of andouillettes -- which have been around since 875, a fact that its detractors will not find hard to believe -- and visits some producers where many organs go into the grinder. Along the way, there are some side appreciations of the town of Troyes, which remains a fond memory for me, and even for le mari, despite the sausages in his case.

Subject for a future post: how being a Francophile leads me to eat things that remind me of circumstances surrounding a schoolyard dare.

NYT#2 & Spirits#1: More Champagne, please

To start a round of New Year's celebrations, another article from the NY Times tells of efforts to increase the number of areas to be designated in the Champagne A.O.C. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, even though many wine producers are facing economic pressures, Champagne is one drink which is not suffering; there's even a prediction of a shortage. A proposed solution is to include more of the surrounding vineyards as ones which could officially use "Champagne" as a name for their product. Given the probable economic benefits, this process has set off an intense round of politicking in nearby communities. Recommendations from a committee on the potential expansion, based on "Champagne’s history, geography, geology, agronomy and an obscure field called phytosociology, the study of plant communities," are being formulated, but there will be a further round of approvals necessary for the increased acreage to be blessed, and it's unlikely that the first vintages from the new land will be available before 2015.

There's a story on France 2's 8:00 PM newscast of December 27, 2007, which you can check out, while it lasts. (Tried to get a better link, but failed, alas.)

From Boston, a taste of Champagne (and then to Colmar)

Greetings from Boston, home of the World Champion Red Sox baseball team! It's appropriate on this celebratory morning to start off with Champagne, and thanks to the Deseret Morning News and the AP, we can indulge ourselves with some of the best, like Tattinger and Veuve Cliquot. The article tells about new high speed trains which can whisk you from Paris to Reims in under an hour, and then onto the charming town of Colmar (three hours from Paris, down from five).

Reims, one of the Champagne centers of France, has a mix of the carnal and the divine, as you can tour the cellars, recycled from chalk mines, where the bubbly is stored, and then go above ground to view the glories of its cathedral. (Damaged in World War I, the church windows were repaired by artist Marc Chagall, whose "hallmark dreamy, curling figures never looked so ethereal as in this holy site.") Then, typically Alsatian, Colmar is a "picture-perfect" combo of France and Germany, with old town squares and a canal that evokes thoughts of Venice. The favored brew there is beer, no doubt, or maybe a good Riesling. So raise a glass, if you will, with the solemn toast, "Go Sox!"

As for me, I have to get in line now to buy a red tee shirt with "World Champions" written on it. It's an illness that arises in times like these.

A cemetery amid the battlefields of World War I

Like many Americans, I have been to the American cemetery in Normandy to pay respects to my compatriots who died during World War II. On the sunny day of my visit last year, many other French and American visitors were there as well. In a long article, The New York Times points out that more American soldiers are buried in the Meuse-Argonne cemetery, in the northeast area of the country, where many bloody battles of World War I were fought, including one on the site of the cemetery itself. Less well known than its Normandy counterpart, it is the largest American cemetery in Europe.

The article offers many "painful" details. Often, combat was hand-to-hand; soldiers frequently used shovels instead of bayonets in their fights, finding them to be more effective weapons. Many of the nearby towns were leveled by German, American, or French forces; now rebuilt, they "look much the way they did in the golden summer of 1914 (prior to the war). Yet it's hard to believe that these replicas feel the same. Perhaps it was my imagination, but even in fine spring weather, I sensed a pervasive melancholy clinging like fog to the tidy streets and garden plots."

Read the article, if you can. It's a sad, enlightening trip to an overlooked part of recent history. The cemetery's official site has information and booklets for downloading, and there's a two-minute video tour of the grounds.

Lodging Trucs: Hotels, Errol Flynn, and more

There are a number of odds and ends about lodgings:

• The Washington Post has a good long feature about the advantages of staying in the French equivalents of Bed and Breakfasts. It's not a guidebook listing; rather, the article is descriptive, and appreciative of the opportunity to enjoy the company of "real" French citizens.
• The Sydney Morning Herald visits the Hotel Bonaparte, not far from the Arc de Triumphe, where movie star Errol Flynn use to party in his heyday.
• The Toronto Globe and Mail reviews the newly renovated Hôtel des Académies et des Arts, not far from the Jardin des Luxembourg. The verdict: "Fashionable, comfortable rooms that make the most of limited square footage." Starting price is $300.
• The Independent (U.K.) heads to a hotel in the Midi-Pyrénées which has been converted from an observatory. The Pic du Midi is remote, on a mountaintop, you can watch the stars...and eat pretty good, too. The hotel site has stunning shots of the location, a virtual tour, and live scans of the sky from the still-working telescope.

Three for the TGV: Reims, Metz, Strasbourg

Metz

Anthony Peregrine, The U.K. Telegraph's sly ex-pat, explores the possibilities for excursions that have opened up thanks to the TGV's new high speed trains. In the kind of travel article about France that I love (because it goes somewhere other than the usual spots), Peregrine offers his advice on three cities:

• Reims, which was damaged considerably in WWI, but which still has its dazzling cathedral and links to the champagne trade.
• Metz, in Lorraine, proudly retaining its German heritage and managing to use mirabelle plums in a million different ways.
• Strasbourg, much more than the seat of the EU, with a "formidable identity born not only of suffering but also of medieval democracy and independence, trading wealth from the Rhine, humanism, Reform, beer, wine and pickled cabbage. "

Any town that inspires using "humanism" and "pickled cabbage" in the same sentence is okay by me.

A French Journal Moment of Zen, courtesy of John McPhee and The NYer

This week's New Yorker has a long article by John McPhee about the chalk line which extends into the Champagne-Ardenne region, where I'll be tomorrow. Entitled "Season on the Chalk," the article is not available on-line. I'll be reading it in full while waiting for my plane. Here, for your quiet contemplation, is a passage I found:

"This is a region of three hundred and twenty-three villages, spread mainly around the flaring skirts of the Montagne de Reims and below its dense upland forests. Verzy, Verzenay, Mailly-Champagne, Mutigny, Ay, Hautvillers, Chatillon-sur-Marne -- each village is, among other things, a cru. Forty-four villages are premiers crus. Seventeen are grand crus. A couple of highways run past the villages, and small paved roads among them, but the lanes that traverse and connect the vineyards are for the most part little more than two ruts of scraped-off chalk. Small ruts in the steeper slopes among the vines expose above the chalk the sands, clays, and marls of younger age that have washed down off the mountain and veneered the chalk, resulting in what is looked upon as elixir soil for the signature wine of this province. Upon in the vineyards over Ay, a Sunday afternoon in steady rain, the green vines glisten, while water on the chalk roads runs like milk. You car goes up to its hubcaps in milk." 

Christmas Meals in France

Fellow blogster Alain at French Virtual Cafe has written a wonderful entry about Christmas meals and culinary traditions in France. There are notes on feasts in Alsace, Brittany, Provence (extensive), his family meals in Reims in Champagne-Ardenne, and other national and local options -- and he even makes wine recommendations. Since Alain shares the blog with his son, to whom the entry is addressed, the facts are blanketed in the warmth of Alain's memories of French Christmases past. And be sure to check out some of the other entries: Alain is a oenophile and generous with his expertise, and one post will tell you everything you always wanted to know about Camembert. So Joyeux Noel and bon appetit!