It’s our last night in Paris. We’re down in a wine “cave” at O Chateau, being guided though the wine-producing regions of France, taste, by taste. From here we’ll go to dinner at another restaurant on our list. Then it’ll be time to pack, because in the morning we’re taking a train to Dijon.
We started our O Chateau wine-tasting tour of France in the Champagne region. From there we went to the Loire valley, and then south to Bordeaux. Then we headed east to taste Rhône wines, named for the river that runs through the region.
This area is well-suited for growing many types of grapes, the most notable being grenache, syrah, and mourvedre. Much of the vino produced in this region is made from a combination of these three varieties.
Les Rhônes
The Rhône region is in the southeast corner of France. It’s known for having hot summer days, but cool nights. (I can say from personal experience that the mid-day sun there can be INTENSE). The soil is rocky and drains water quickly.
Not too many years ago, some smart guys figured out that the weather and everything else about this region was a lot like the area around Paso Robles, California. They shipped grenache, syrah, and mourvedre vines to the U.S., planted ’em, and started making vino. They blended it and processed it in a way that was similar to how they did it in the Rhône. Pretty soon the Paso Robles guys were making their own Rhône-style wine that was pretty tasty.
Their wines were good, but it took awhile for them to catch on. No one back home knew the Rhône from the Rhine. Eventually, though, Rhône-style wines made in the U.S. really caught on. There are hundreds of wineries around Paso Robles making the stuff now.
Next Stop: Burgundy
Our last wine tasting stop was up north, in the famous wine-producing region of Burgundy. (Or “Bourgogne” in french. The second “g” is silent). We were especially interested now, because the next day, we’d get on a train and head to Bourgogne. We wanted to see for ourselves what all the fuss was about.
One of the main wines made in Burgundy is made from the pinot noir grape variety. When we make the same wine over here, we call it “pinot noir.” When they make it in France, they call it “Burgundy.” That’s how it is for all wines. They name it based on where it’s grown, and we name it based on what goes into it. We’ll come back to this later, I suspect.
But for now, we had our taste of Burgundy at O Chateau. We learned a lot about the place we’d travel to the next day. When our wine excursion was over, we climbed the steps up out of the cave and went outside, back into the fresh air. Our plan was to make a fairly short walk to a restaurant for dinner. We had made a reservation there this morning, while we were on our way to our Seine boat ride.
Perdu in Paris
Getting to the restaurant should have been pretty easy. All we had to do was to find our way back to Place des Victoires, where we were this morning. From there, we’d take a side street, then walk about a block. We had plenty of time, so we casually meandered off in the direction of Place des Victoires.
We got there in no time. It’s funny, though. We hadn’t noticed it before, but the streets coming into Place des Victoires all look kinda the same.
Neither of us was sure about which one to take. We walked around to see if any street names would jog our memories. Sure enough, one of the streets had “Petits Champs”, (“little fields”), in the name. That definitely rang a bell.
We headed down Rue des Petits Champs. The restaurant should be at the end of the block, right on the corner. We walked down one block and looked around. No restaurant. Hmmm….
There was nothing to do but go back to Place des Victoires and try again. The restaurant should be only one block away. We just didn’t know which street to take. There were five more streets to choose from.
We picked another street that seemed like it might have been the one. We walked down one block. No restaurant. Man! OK, now we were getting a little frustrated. We wondered if our memories would have been better if we hadn’t just covered the whole country of France on a wine-tasting tour.
We were essentially lost at this point, so we decided to take another approach. Even though it had to be close by, we’d find a taxi to take us to the restaurant. It was a long walk to the nearest taxi stand, but at least it should be a sure thing.
We found a taxi, got in, and told the driver the name of the restaurant. He took us right back to where we had been – almost. It turns out that the restaurant was not on Rue des Petits Champs, as we had thought. Mais, nonh! It was on Rue Croix des Petits Champs! There were two streets emanating from Place des Victoires with almost exactly the same name. Oy vay!
Anyway, we made it. On time, too. It was a good thing for us that we had had plenty of time to get there. The restaurant turned out to be fantastic. We had great meals, then walked straight back to our apartment without making any detours.
The only thing left to do now was to finish packing. Tomorrow morning we’ll take a taxi to the Paris train station that serves eastern and southern France. Then we’ll take a high-speed train to the town of Dijon, (same as the mustard), in the heart of Burgundy.
Should be fun, eh? We’ll certainly miss hanging out on Rue Montorgueil, but at least now we know how to say it. Sort of. Honh honh!
To be continued…
The featured image at the start of this post is a photo of the Rhône Valley, in southeastern France. Credit: https://therhonediary.wordpress.com
