Un petit morceau, s'il vous plait!

I stuffed a buttered slice of baguette into my mouth and hurried to class. We started off learning about the importance of yeast selection for wines as well as the use of natural yeast flora.

Following, we learned the general procedure of wine making. The difference between red and white wines is that the ethanol production starts with the skins still intact in red wine that allows the cyanins to be extracted from the grapes.

For lunch Jamie, Sasha, Viki, and I went to the town’s pizzeria. We ordered “The Vegetarian” and “Margherita” pizzas which had much thinner crusts than New York style ones but were still delicious. After lunch, Dr. Reinert took us through the medieval ruins of the old Cluny monastery. The high ceilings and arches were really lovely. There was even a virtual aspect of the tour with a spinning screen that showed you what the monastery looked like previously to its destruction. It was a really great way of preserving the architecture as well as using modern tactics to enhance it as a teaching tool. It was also incredible to see how large the church was. Outside, we stood where the church used to extend.

We continued the lesson going to the site of an active archaeology where the archaeologist showed us how the floor of the house was much lower than appeared, secret safes within the walls, and the potential of there being a back street that ran through the homes. Following the tour of the house, the archaeologist was kind enough to bring us back to his home to show us more. His house looked like a museum! It was full of old animal bones, toys, and letters, which he had found in the house. He showed us the drawings upstairs, which were a bit frightening to be quite honest but nonetheless interesting. The way Cluny still maintains the older houses and its people’s strong patrimony to preserve their history is much different than what I am used to in the US. For us, I feel that we are more inclined to what is new and modern and less connected to what is old. We considered it our ancestor’s time and we want to keep moving past it.

I decided to feast on a mushroom quiche and some goat cheese from the other day for dinner, perhaps two of my favorite things so far. I also stopped by one of the local charcuteries to pick up some Jamon for tomorrow’s picnic. Un petit morceau, s'il vous plait! I was a bit nervous to speak to the local shop owner in my broken and very American polluted French, but he was quite lovely and seemed to enjoy my nervousness!

Tip of the day: The faster you get into the water, the quicker you’ll get warmer! Give your French a go!