My brother, he has this blog, Le Blog. You know, 'cause he lives in France. Makes sense. While my sister-in-law studies her ass off, he gets to go out with friends and dine for free in the kitchens of two-star (two Michelin stars, that is) restaurants. While I'm sitting here blogging about diapers and food stamps, he's off to grab some dinner in Italy. And if you think I sound pretentious, let me show you where I get it:
On being an illegal migrant worker experiencing the grape harvest:
I did the vendange with a friend of mine's family estate, Domaine Audoin in Marsannay. Marsannay is the northern most commune in the Cote de Nuit, just south of Dijon. The weather was cool, the clouds hung low and the soft mist had turned the vineyard's clay soils to mud.
The upside of this day was working on a picking crew unlike any we use in California. In Cali., the crews are incredible... I have tried to work with the (mostly) Mexican guys there, and was never able to keep up. I couldn't go half as fast as those guys. France is different. The crews are composed of students and the under- and un-employed.
On bargain shopping:
I called Megan to ask if it would be possible to take advantage of a screaming bargain, but she (typically) said no. I thought $400 for a bottle of H. Jayer's Cros Parantoux '88 was clearly meant to be... The retail on this wine is between $2100-$2600... She clearly doesn't recognize that we lost money because I didn't buy the bottle.
Oh Christian, Christian, Christian.
I tease because I love. And because I'm painfully, painfully jealous.
i promise you life in France isn't all wine and roses, perhaps your brother just doesn't blog about the 5 hours he has to spend every 2 months at the town hall trying to get his residence permit which is held up because it has to "travel all the way from paris", or the 20 minutes he spent on the phone with some comany (for which they CHARGED HIM to call at about 1 dollar per minute) trying to resolve a customer service nightmare.
dont get me wrong, i love being here, but it isn't quite what some people make it out to be :)
Posted by: sara | 03 November 2006 at 03:16 AM
Yes, and don't forget the six weeks it took them to get online, so they could actually write the blog. But that's what's so endearing about total immersion cultural exploration.
Posted by: Mama | 03 November 2006 at 10:07 AM
I'm just wondering how I was able to miss the pretentious train altogether...must be my fabulously good looks, my staggeringly impressive brainpower and my phenomenal sense of style.
Posted by: Auntie M (aka Sister Bear) | 03 November 2006 at 11:34 AM
No sis, it's clearly because of your modesty.
Posted by: zygote daddy | 03 November 2006 at 11:38 AM
Actually, I have about 4000 little thing happen to me every day, many of which require waiting in long lines. The French love to wait in line for some reason.
Of these 4000 thing, I get to remember perhaps 20 the next day. I then blog about one event every few days. By my poor math, that means each of these thing I write about is a one in 16,000 kind of thing.
I write about the stuff I want to remember... waiting in lines doesn't make the cut.
Posted by: Le brother | 03 November 2006 at 04:04 PM
Holy crap.
Yeah, well, uh. . .I don't know. I tried to think of something whitty to make you feel better but I got nuthin'. Sorry.
Let's step it up a bit with the zygote, m'kay?
Posted by: samantha Jo Campen | 06 November 2006 at 01:39 AM