3 Year College Roommates Reunite in Tergnier, Fun had by All

Last weekend my college roommate Brita came to visit for a long weekend from Germany, where her brother lives. It was wonderful to see her-- we did day trips to Saint Quentin, Reims, and Paris, and spent our evenings eating at home and watching "Clueless" "Mrs. Doubtfire" and "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".

It's been unseasonably warm in Tergnier, but the days during Brita's visit were a welcome change-- clear and crisp. The nights were cold, and I just about made us miss our train to Reims one morning to take this *ArTsY* pic of a frosty rose.
Brita and I in Reims, in front of a restaurant called "Beef or Salad?"
Beef or Salad??
For me, the highlight of the visit was our visit to the Mumm Champagne house in Reims. We took a tour where our guide explained the process of making champagne, and we got to taste test some of the bubbly. Champagne is made from different combinations of the juices of three types of grape: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. Our guide, a frenchman who seemed pained to have to give a tour in English, explained in a hilariously vague way that the Pinot Noir is the father grape, that gives a wine its "strength," Chardonnay is the mother grape that gives "elegance," and Pinot Meunier is like the child that gives "playfulness". Spoken like a true wine snob! After the grapes are juiced, mixtures of the juices of these 3 grapes are put into giant stainless steel vats, where yeast is added and the fermentation process begins. The reaction of yeast and sugar produces CO2, which during the first fermentation is allowed to escape. What makes champagne special is the second fermentation, which happens inside the sealed bottle-- the once fermented wine is bottled, then more yeast and sugar are added (just the right amount, or the bottles will explode!) and the second fermentation begins. Because the bottles are sealed, the CO2 produced during the fermentation is trapped, and that's where the bubbles come from. Here is our tour guide explaining the process by which the excess yeast sediment is removed from the bottles after the second fermentation-- the bottles are slowly rotated every couple of weeks, the sediment is allowed to collect in the neck, which is then flash frozen. The frozen chunk is removed, more sugar is added, the bottle is recapped, aged for a bit longer, and is then ready to go!
Obviously the tasting was the funnest part. Brita and I took our glasses into a corner in the room, got pleasantly tipsy, and attempted to channel our inner wine snobs. We tried to describe the two champagnes we tasted in 3 words, and came up with stuff like "aloof", "flirtatious", "mysterious", and "blackberry". :)
The day before Brita flew back to Germany, we spent an afternoon in Paris wandering around la Cimitière Père Lachaise, aka "The cemetery where Jim Morrison is buried", a huge & very famous cemetary in Paris that is home to quite a few ODWM, like Chopin, Rossini, Molière, Balzac, Haussman, Oscar Wilde, and LaFontaine. Of course there's Jim Morrison, and there are a few well known women as well, like Gertrude Stein and Edith Piaf. It's a beautiful place to take a stroll, and we were lucky enough to be there on a sunny day! Malheureusement my camera freaked out and deleted most of my pictures of the ODWM, but I'll go back.
Le Mur des Fédérés in Père Lachaise, where in 1871, 147 rebels of the Paris Commune were executed. Unfortunately I know close to nothing about the Commune, so I'll have to do some research and get back to you on that.
Brita & Haussman, radical reorganizer of the city of Paris
Oscar Wilde's tomb-- they put up a glass barrier to protect the stone from loads of lipstick kiss marks that women were leaving on his grave, but if you look closely you can see marks on the glass!


I said goodbye to Brita on Monday, and have been taking it easy since she left. Last week in classes I made decks for 'Go Fish', but with colors instead of numbers, and spent a day explaining the difference between schools in the U.S. and schools here in France. Also had a funny exchange with Lucille, la Directrice of l'École Condren, who was talking to me about something or other and said, you know "cooboys"? and I was like ermmm no? and she said, you know, cooboys! who live in the desert and have guns and coos. And I was like you mean cowboys? and she said, yes of course! that's what I just said. Later in a lesson she brought up that exchange as a teaching point to the class-- she said that one can hear my American accent because I say "cow," while the French people learn English from the English, generally, so they say it with an English accent: "coo." Didn't have the heart to tell her they don't say coo across the Channel, either. :) This weekend was pleasantly busy-- I went bowling with some girls from the basketball team on Friday, and spent a nice night watching movies and staying over with Lucka, the Czech girl who I tutor twice a week. Today Tabea and I were invited for lunch by the woman who teaches yoga on Monday nights, and later had coffee with the assistants in Chauny to celebrate our friend Teresa's birthday. Looking forward to another busy week!