Beaujolais

warning: if you are hungry, you may want to wait to read this blog, because i can tell you right now, it's all about food.

but anyways.

today. today was a great day. the whole eap group (both the immersion and language and culture programs) got to go on a field trip to Beaujolais, a beautiful area north of Lyon and south of Macon, between the Saone and le massif central and is the world capital of gastronomy. here, we were fed an amazing meal, learned a little about wine, a little about bread, and got to hang out in a vineyard. oh. and it was a gorgeous day on top of that. not too hot, not to cold, but juuuust right. talk about a perfect day? i'd say so. alright, well that's the short version. now let's really start from the beginning.

we were told to meet at 11:30 am where 70 of us boarded two buses that would take us to Beaujolais. from there it was about a 45 minute drive (okay, i'm not actually sure about that number.. but it wasn't all that long) to where we would be spending the day - the home/vineyard/bakery/winery/whatever else of Marie and Ludovic Gros - the lovely couple who made our amazing day possible.

the couple on the right are our hosts

the whole group of eap kids

they spoke to us for a bit, then we followed them into the cave where we would be eating our meal. we found the tables set, glasses of wine poured, two types of bread already on the table, and it all looked amazing.

soon, the first course arrived. pate, and more bread to go along with it:

next, came the salad. which had some amazing dressing on it.

and then. the real dinner arrived. rice and beef.

then a cheese course of course:

and if you thought we had already eaten enough at this point, you would be mistaken. next came dessert. and two kinds at that:

 oh. and some more wine. this stuff i liked more, but we were told not to drink to much because it could make us sick.

 

and that was our meal. oh wait. there were a few other breads too that i didn't get pictures of. but it was delicious and i wish we could go back every week. on top of this amazing meal, we were told a little bit about making wine:

and baking bread (as well as shown how it was made):

 Marie described the bread's texture as feeling like baby's skin. and then invited us all to touch it

 and best of all (as far as the bread is concerned at least), they sent each of us home with our own little loaf! and fresh out of the oven i might add.

and on top of all of this amazing food, we got to hang out in their vineyard for a bit.

oh. and these are the two amazing directors of the program who helped pull this together, and who help with any questions we might have along the way:

Christine and Chris

but all in all. today was amazing. and i wish we could have days like this every week. great food. great friends. great scenery. who could ask for more?

i. love. france. <3