Today we went on our boat ride on the Seine. That was fun. Then we had lunch at a little restaurant near city hall, and now we’re going to walk back to the apartment. Our plan is to get back to the apartment, then take it easy for awhile. Tonight we’re going wine tasting at a place called O Chateau. Should be interesting!
Le Marais
To get back to the apartment, we pass through a neighborhood known as “Le Marais.” (“Mar-RAY”). “Marais” means “swamp. This area is called the Marais because it used to be swampland.
The Marais is a wild part of Paris where you’re likely to see anything. There are lots of unique little shops, and lots of unique-looking people walking around. People from different ethnic backgrounds and social persuasions live in this area. It’s impossible to be bored walking through the Marais.
Leaving the Marais, we passed the Pompidou Museum of Modern Art, which is a piece of modern art itself. It’s a wild-looking building. It looks as if, when construction had almost been completed, someone realized they forgot to put in the plumbing and ventilation systems. Then they just added them to the outside and made the best of it. It’s kind of neat, actually.
Pretty soon we were back in our own neighborhood, Montorgueil. By now the sights there were familiar to us: the cafés and boulangeries, the two produce vendors directly across from each other.
The guys at the fish mongers were standing out front, telling us which fish are the freshest . They were handing out samples at the two fromageries, (cheese shops). The boucherie, (butcher shop) windows were full of meaty delights. This neighborhood has been great. Too bad we have to leave tomorrow.
Wine Tasting at O Chateau
We weren’t quite ready to go, though. Later that afternoon, we went to our scheduled appointment for a wine tasting session at O Chateau. It took us about ten minutes to walk there. A few other couples were already there, waiting for things to get going. Everyone was nice. And why not? They were all on vacation in Paris, like us, and about to drink a bunch of vino!
A French fellow came in, introduced himself, and took us down into a cellar. They’d turned it into a nice “cave” for sipping vino. (“Cave”, which rhymes with “lav” as in “lava”, is their word for wine cellar. This is no coincidence, since the French store a huge amount of wine in real caves).
The underground room at O Chateau was nicely decorated. The walls appeared to be made of old stone. They used indirect lighting to good effect. A massive wooden table dominated the room. It was maybe twenty feet long and it looked like it weighed a ton. There were lots of clean wine glasses, ready for use.
There was a big map of France at one end of the room. Our guide would refer to it as we worked our way around the wine regions of the country.
It’s always nice to start with champagne, so we started our tour in the region of Champagne. We had a few sips of some tasty champagne while our guide explained what makes champagne different than vino.
From Champagne, we went to the Loire Valley, located just south of Paris. This area is most well-known for its white wines. We tasted a sample while our guide told us about growing grapes and making wine in the Loire Valley. Our next stop was due south from the Loire, all the way down to Bordeaux. Now we’d get into some red wines.
The French have a LOT of rules about how various wines can be made, what can go into them, etc. For example, to legally call a bottle of Bordeaux, “Bordeaux”, it can only be made from a combination of six particular types of grapes. They usually use just three of the six. When you drink a glass of red Bordeaux, chances are it was made from only Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot.
Cheese Plate, Please!
I almost forgot to mention that we had ordered a cheese plate to have with our wine tasting. With each wine we tasted, our guide advised us which cheese to try with it. There aren’t any hard and fast rules for this sort of thing, but there’s no doubt that certain things go together as if they were made for each other.
Cheeses that are soft, gooey that haven’t been aged tend to go well with wines that also haven’t been aged. These wines tend to be crisp, and might even have a little zing to them. Camembert cheese goes very well with champagne, for example.
Red wines Bordeaux wines are usually rich, full-bodied, and complex. They have to be aged to get that way. They tend to go well with cheeses that have been aged, too. Maybe an aged gouda or an aged cheddar. Mmmmm. Sounds good, eh? I’m getting hungry right now.
This wine and food pairing business isn’t complicated. We already know about pairings that go together well. How about bacon and eggs? Peanut butter and jelly? I’d say those go together pretty well! I think the combination of peanut butter and jelly is better than either one on its own. The same goes for the cheeses and wines we’d been tasting.
I don’t remember which cheeses we had, but they were all excellent. We really enjoyed tasting the different ones with the different wines. And since we were in Paris, there had to be fresh bread on the table, too. We were all having a really good time, and we had only reached Bordeaux!
To be continued…
Photo Credit: Cheese and Charcuterie at O Chateau: https://mmapron.com/2012/06/22/postcard-from-paris-3/
