Life on a Vineyard

Cheese, baguettes, butter. All these things tend to associate with the country of France. But perhaps one of the biggest things that the French are known for is their production of fine wines. This past weekend, the UC EAP program took us on a field trip to the Beaujolais region of France. It is well known for it's wine production and looks like the Napa of California. However, there is something about the French air, the French region, and the French people that make it so much more beautiful. Pictures can literally do no justice. The image of the sun setting past the vineyard is a memory that I hope will stayed ingrained into my mind for many years to come.

We headed off to the region at 11:45am on Saturday morning. When we arrived, we were welcomed by the owners of a medium sized vineyard in the region. They fed us for 3.5 hours and gave us an introductory lesson in the wine making process. The lunch was held in a beautiful cave where I suppose they usually put barrels of wine to age in. They also let us try a variety of wines that they produced. I particularly liked the last wine I tried which is the freshest wine available. The yeast is still active and it almost looks like strawberry champagne. It tasted citrusy, sweet, and bubbly. A beautiful combination. However, you can not drink too much or the yeast will activate certain things in your stomach that you may not want to smell. The meal was fantastic too. We started off with 4 types of bread. A rosemary bread, pizza like bread, fig and hazelnut bread, and raisin bread. The raisin was my absolute favorite. It tasted as though they used the same grapes that were used in the wine. We also had a pate which wasn't the best I ever tried but it was tasty nonetheless. It was accompanied by a salad of fresh lettuce and chives grown on the owner's farm and covered in a homemade vinaigrette dressing. The next course consisted of stewed meat and rice. It seems like they killed a cow just to feed us. It was SO much meat. The meat was cooked perfectly texture wise but I believe the seasoning could have been adjusted a bit. In between our main course and dessert, we were served three types of cheese. A hard goat cheese, a soft goat cheese, and a cow cheese. The soft goat was by far the least pungent and probably my favorite. The stronger cheeses are more of an acquired taste. Dessert was the part i enjoyed most. They served us a sugar coated eggy bread and a super buttery chocolate chip cookie like dish. It was accompanied by shortbread cookies and coffee. DELICIOUSNESS :).

After lunch, they showed us how to make bread! They baked each of us one loaf in a super old oven that still uses firewood. It was amazing. During the baking time, I went to run in the vineyard, buy some of their wine, and play with the farm dog. I also went to frolic with a few friends in the vineyard. Overall, it was probably the happiest I have felt since arriving to Lyon. The feeling of peace and joy literally enveloped me as I stared out towards the vineyard.

Other things i did this weekend:
-made apple fritters
-took a walk through random parts of lyon with friends and discovered some cool spots
-exchanged some pretty dumb jokes
-fell into a water ditch and disappeared in the Vineyard for a few minutes. and got surrounded by bugs. BAH

PICTURES FOR YOU: