Champagne, Lorna, Waterlilies, and Mimes

This past Tuesday, Andrea, a friend Kitsy from wine class, and I all took a visit to Epernay and Reims, in the famous Champagne region in France. For those of you who don’t know, to officially receive an appellation of controlled origin as a “Champagne”, your sparkling wine must be made in a very particular manner, and all of the grapes must come from this region. So as good as that Italian Prosecco is from Trader Joe’s, technically speaking, it’s only a “sparkling wine”.

So, we woke up early and met at the train station in the wee hours of the morning (though there are worse things I’ve gotten up at 7:15 AM for), and headed off, first to Epernay and then to Reims. Epernay is a charming town with a town square, lovely park, and is the spot where the pope Dom Perignon discovered “stars in his wine”. It is also the town which houses Moet et Chandon, where the three of us took an exciting tour. We got to go to through the cellars and look at some fine sparkling champagnes mid-production, after which we tasted two AMAZING glasses of fine Champagne. Thanks to wine class, the three of us were able to articulate what was so great about them too; they were very crisp (which we could see in the precise vertical movements of the bubbles), not too sweet, and had a good combination of grapes.

Next: wonderful lunch with of course more Champagne! Then we were off to Reims to visit the house of Mumm. Along the way, we got a little lost, but the Provincials (people from the provinces of France) were so charming and helpful.

Finally, we arrived at Mumms and joined a tour group of about 30-40 people (as opposed to our group of 7 total at Moet) who were mostly American (as opposed to Australian and Dutch). The Mumms tour was a lot more fabricated; there were little story books in the cellars, display bottles, etc. along the way—suggesting these cellars were set up for viewing as much as they were for production—not the case at Moet. Finally, we tasted our two glasses, a vintage and the “red ribbon” Mumms, and decided that we all preferred the Moet Champagnes.

We were glad to have visited the Mumm house though because firstly it made our experience at Moet seem more authentic by contrast, secondly, the Champagne we had was still VERY GOOD, and lastly, Reims is an ADORABLE little town that we got to walk around in after.

All in all, it was an incredibly FABULOUS day—a once in a lifetime experience!

The next day, I met up with Lorna Khoo—the president of Chi O when I joined and a really cool, down to earth, and intelligent Berkeley grad. Lorna and I began our day picnicking at Monceau, then took a visit to Sacre Coeur and Monmartre, after which we ended up at an exhibit called Dali at Work. It was a nice follow-up to the Dali exhibit I saw in Prague, and included some of his pieces that were more “project”-y, and sculptures based on his paintings. Dali had a twisted mind and it was interesting to get a bit of a peek into it.

Next, we grabbed some gelato outside of the Pompidou museum, and headed off to St. Chappelle—the chapel from the 13th century (!!!) with some of the world’s most stunning stained glass. I had visited this chapel when I came to Paris before, and it was WONDERFUL to see again; the stained glass was seriously beautiful. Finally, we saw some relics in Notre Dam, and ended up at Shakespeare and Company—a REALLY cool independent bookstore/historical site, a favorite of many in Paris.

We then parted ways until the next day, when we met up closer to Lorna’s residence and headed off to Pere Lachaise cemetery. I had been to this cemetery once before, but it was a totally different experience this time, owing first to the bad weather, and second to the fact that we took a totally different route than I had the last time. We did hit up the favorite graves (i.e. Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison), but we also saw Chopin, and many sad and haunting memorials for those who passed away at concentration camps. These were beautiful sculptures with poetic inscriptions, reminding us: “N’oublions jamais!”—or never forget.

Next, Lorna and I headed over to L’as du falafel in the Marais (really a Paris MUST I think), which we ate in Place de Voges—the oldest park in Paris. We then had a lot of laughter and some TERRIBLE service at a café along place de Voges, and Lorna told me a highly entertaining story about a family vacation being ruined by airplane seat-induced static-y hair.

Finally, we went to l’Orangerie—the museum that houses les nymphéas, Monet’s room-sized Water Lilies. Now’s the time to fess up; Monet’s Water Lilies were probably one of the first pieces of art I ever truly appreciated when I saw them the first time at the Museum of Modern Art in New York when I was ten. To me, the point of viewing art is to experience an emotion, either the one intentionally evoked by the artist, or even an independent feeling representing your own reaction to the experience. And whether it be due to their sheer size, the vibrancy of their colors, or the beauty of the scenes depicted in them, I can vividly recall the overwhelming feeling of serenity and awe as I stood there in the presence of les nymphéas for the first time. Seeing them again, that feeling was renewed. And what was more, this time, the gratitude for the beauty of nature and simplicity of life that I feel Monet must have been exhibiting in creating les nymphéas resonated with me incredibly strongly. How much I have to appreciate!

If that had already merited the entrance fee I somehow did not have to pay, L’Orangerie also housed an amazing collection of works by Picasso, Rousseau, and many others, including Chaïm Soutine—a VERY French artist with a beautifully sarcastic style—whom I’d never heard of before but whom I now adore. There was also a lovely exhibit on artist Didier Paquignon—a contemporary artist who uses a multitude of bright and lovely colors to portray dingy urban environments. I was very impressed by the effect of this technique and told him so in the guest book I signed upon exiting the exhibit.

Lorna and I capped off our day with some hot chocolate and macarons from Angelina before meeting up with her couch-surfing host in the tenth. “Couchsurfing host?” you say... “really…?” Yes, for those of you who know what that is, Lorna has been couchsurfing here in Paris to experience the city from an insider’s perspective and to save money. For those of you who don’t know, couchsurfing is a program where you can go online, check the profile of local residents who have chosen to host people in their homes for a weekend or a night, email them, and crash on their couch. Sound sketchy? That’s what I thought. As my World of Wine professor so eloquently put it: “As a mother, a teacher, and a former hippie, I have conflicting views about the whole ting…” But, as Lorna explained to me, the people who host surfers go through a verification process, have references from surfers who have stayed with them, and get “vouched for” by users of the system. And, Lorna’s host, Bruce, turned out to be really really cool, so I’m thinking, the program is a winner!

So, we met up with Bruce and some of his friends in a bar in the tenth, and headed across the street to Bruce’s school to watch a piece of performance art. Bruce is in an elite miming school in Paris, so the piece we saw was a very abstract theatrical work about the relationship of space and props to the actor, and was based on Le Ventre de Paris—a French book about the city that I have actually read! The piece was a bit abstract, particularly to Lorna and I who did not know the theory behind it, but very cool nonetheless. After watching, we chatted with some of the performers over wine, and saw art pieces they created with Le Ventre as their inspiration. We then headed back to the bar and hung out with the troop of mimes, until Baggy joined us and we all headed off to Pont des Art together. What an interesting, fun, and random night! I absolutely LOVED it.

Last night (Saturday), a group of us met on Champs de Mars for a goodbye party slash Swedish holiday party. Another lovely evening with lovely people.

Now, I’ve been at l’imprevu for a few hours and have gone through a Chai Tea and a café and have yet to even begin on studying for my TWO finals on Wednesday. So, I better get to it I guess….