Saturday, September 19, 2009

Surprise visitor

So, I step out my front door and have one of those creepy horror-movie moments when, in the dim twilight, I see the silhouette of a small blonde boy standing in front of the fountain across from my door, looking at me. It quickly turned from a creepy horror movie moment to a cute French kid moment when I realized it was one of the Marès children (Eugène, I learned later), who was feeding the fish in the fountain. It then changed again, now from a cute French kid moment, to an American who's speaking gibberish moment when, after saying hi, I meant to ask if he was feeding the fish, but got the word wrong and instead asked if he was feeding the peaches. He was confused.
I tasted tank samples with Nathalie and Cyril and the enologist Alain today, which was very interesting. The wines are of course very young, but each tank has a disticnt character already. We tasted the press wine too, which was pretty good. No rough or vegetal character that can often spoil the taste of press wine. They don't decide right away what to do with the press juice, they wait to see how it is, and if it does taste good that's a bonus, especially in such a low-yield vintage.
We finished work early and I went to take my computer to the repair shop in Nimes. The good news is the hard drive is a relatively easy fix, and not too expensive. Bad news is I lose all my pictures since my last backup, which I think was September 9th, so that eats.
It's also bullfighting weekend in this region, and of course the repair shop had to be 2 blocks away from the arena, so I parked the car about a kilometer away and walked. I did want to stay and check out the festivities, but I had left the car on a curb and I wasn't entirely sure it was going to be there when I got back, so I figured best not to dawdle. It was still there. I went to the grocery store again to get everything I've forgotten so far, and to activate my cellphone since I don't have a computer for the next 5 days.
I drew a couple of ideas for a patisserie/sandwich shop with a speakeasy-style bar in the back that I've been tossing around in my head.

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