Salon des vins des Vignerons Independants

Monday, I (Chris) went to the titular Salon, really a tradeshow of small wineries throughout France. I had seen posters in shop windows, then Jonathan forwarded a write-up about it from the NYT travel section. In a small convention space on the edge of Paris, it included (my guess) 600 or so wineries, most represented by the winemaker or a family member. Each winery had an identical maybe 6-foot booth, and most were giving samples of 3-5 of their wines. Yes, samples. Six euros got me in the door, my own wine glass, and free range of the place. I was solo, and not speaking much (ok, any) French I was a bit intimidated to just walk up and start talking wine (thin knowledge base here!) with the makers. But I did dive in, sampling my way up and down the aisles. The pervasive spit buckets were well-used, which was initially kinda disgusting but quickly became necessary! I met several nice vintners, a few of whom spoke a bit of Anglais, and I sampled maybe 30-40 wines. Although a delivery service was set up so one could buy a year's supply, I only bought one of each bottle I liked and carried it home so that I wouldn't overwhelm the apartment. (Betsy had just a couple of days earlier bought a couple cases from friends at work, and the apartment isn't THAT big! Though it does have a cave, hmmm ....) After 2-3 hours and carrying 10 bottles, I headed home on Metro. Oh, almost forgot, I had a foie gras sandwich (!!) to sustain me during a tasting break. If all this sounds tempting to you, there's a bigger version of the same gathering in Paris this November 23-27. Jonathan and Wendy definitely have dibs on the guest room, but we'd love company at the show!

Over the past three days, Marilyn and the boys have gone to see several churches, Pere Lachaise cemetery, flower shops, and generally wandered and had a great time. And last night, Carter and I went with friends to the Paris-St-Germain soccer game - we'll try to post more about that later. 'Til then ...