Ok, French road signs suck at giving directions

So, Bellegarde is a somewhat confusing little jumble of traffic circles and one-way streets, and I've been trying to figure out a shorter way to get from the center of town back to home, because my current route takes me straight into town, but then I have to take the long way out, past another traffic circle, and it's like an extra 2 miles to get back to the road where Carlot is located. So today, I tried following the sign from the center of town that points to Nimes, which is the basic direction of Carlot, but the route took me north of the road I normally travel on, then on a loopy path ending back at the traffic circle I was trying to circumvent. It was in fact even longer than the route I usually take that ends at the same traffic circle. So the sign in the center of town should in fact be pointing in the direction of the route I've been traveling the whole damn time.
So, that being said, today was pretty mellow at work. Putting things away, moving a few things around. I did draw the short straw for decuvage and spent an hour or so shoveling grape must, and I'm cultivating some pretty sweet blisters on my right hand. I also washed the bungs on all the red barrels. The process itself is not that interesting, however 'bung' is a funny word.

This is a bucket of dirty bungs.






This is a pyramid of clean bungs.





We also did some fining today, which is a process I've touched on before where something is introduced into the wine to attract the heavier particles and make them fall out of solution. Sometimes it's done with egg whites, which offends some vegans. In this case it was done with a pair of chemicals, one introduced and mixed into the wine, and the other mixed in about a half hour later. Not all wines have to be fined, but press wines are cloudier than free-run juice, and since the quality of the press wine this year is high enough to potentially end up in the final blend, it needs to be fined to bring the clarity level up to par with the rest of the wines.

On an unrelated note, I've decided to start studying for the Court of Master Sommliers' Certified level exam, with the goal of taking the test in November. That means a lot of studying between now and then. Today's little bit of info: Chilean wine regions from north to south; (all valleys) Elqui, Limari, Aconcagua, Casablanca, San Antonio, Maipo, Cachapoal, Colachuga, Curico, Maule, Itata, Bio Bio, and Malleco. My mnemonic device: Everybody loves a chicken sandwich. My cousin can consume many. I'll buy mayonnaise.