I Love France, Have Lived & Visited There NEVER Often Enough !

I'm thrilled to be able to blog now more freely about all my wonderful years in France in the 1970's. My father was a career officer for the State Department and was sent overseas many times and we the family followed. I was inspired by many of my father's posts ( Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, The Azores Islands, Port of Spain Trinidad, San Jose Costa Rica, Panama City Panama and Paris France. I loved them all but as Paris , France was the last posting and I was the oldest then I think that it left the most immediate, alive and indelible marking of me both conscious and unconscious. I loved our years there and stayed on even when my father was later posted to Panama City, Panama.

I was not officially in the wine business when we lived in France in the 70's. I dabbled a lot with my father, however in wine as we both would go to the local neighborhood Nicolas in the beginning. Later we went occasionally to Hediard which was just a few feet away from our apartment at 63 Avenue Paul Doumer in the 16th arrondisement. Expensive but practical when you wanted a bottle of wine last-minute. I much preferred the selection at the Nicolas stores.

I still have many of these labels as well as others that I painstakingly removed from the bottles with razor blades or with either hot or cold water. The problem was often really good glue and really flimsy paper and that made for a really difficult time at removing certain labels without them tearing apart and breaking into pulp and many pieces. It was a challenge and one that I embraced wholeheartedly. I thought the effort was warranted because not only were some of these labels beautiful and interesting, they also captured a moment in time. And so here I still have them and can refer to them any time that I want and it helps to bring back these distant but wonderful memories of mine shared with my father as we scouted for them and later shared them with my mother. My two brothers were too young to drink them at the time.

We would bring these bottles home with pride just as if we had been out hunting in the wilds. We'd have them in a sack but we could have just as easily had them in our hands stretched out and offering them to my mother. In turn she would shop all the small, bustling, quaint and very picturesque stores for cheeses, meats, fish, vegetables and fruits and she's fix us meals that were often quite extraordinary. Thanks Dad, thanks Mom. Too bad I cannot go back now and relive one or two of these days with you both again. They were magical and really helped get me into the mood and a real appreciation of what the French were doing to celebrate and to enjoy life to it's very fullest. I know that these years in the 70's in Paris, France changed my life I strongly believe for the better and forever.

I started to work at the American Embassy there just off the Place de la Concord. Wow, what a setting with the Tuillerie gardens just to the left as you exit the embassy. And if you were to exit the embassy and take the very first left there at the corner you could walk two blocks and take a right into a small alley and three or storefronts to the left and you'd be at both the Acadamie du Vin and the Caves de la Madeleine, both establishments owned by Englishman Steven Spurrier. It was here where I would take those hard-earned American dollars and change them into French franc ( it was just under four francs to the dollar then ). I'd take my lunch break and rush down to the Caves de la Madeleine and talk to mostly the Americans and the English that ran it for Steven. What a wonderful treat. I'll never forget it.

I'll have to continue this story later. It's Monday, July 21st my day-off and I'm taking my son and wife to lunch now on this hot Monday afternoon at 12:43 PM. We're getting our daughter's car inspected and we can have lunch while that is being done. Too bad that we cannot do this in some lovely bistro in France. Oh well. We'll all have to go back sometime soon.

I was given a wine-tasting at the Caves de la Madeleine that was run by two Americans : Patricia Gallagher and John Winroth I believe. I was just 21 then and it was a birthday gift from my mother to me. Little did she know that this would shape my life for years to come and be a small but wonderful footnote for me as well as perhaps 30 seconds of the fifteen minutes of fame that I will, like everyone else enjoy in the course of their lives. I loved this series of classes. I was the youngest one there and not afraid to ask stupid questions. I could always feel all the others eyes boa ring into me as I'd ask some question that they deemed not suitable or appropriate. How fun it would be to meet someone again that had taken that course with me. You must be out there somewhere. Please contact or respond to this blog.

I believe that it was the first year that these classes were being offered. I'll have to try and contact both Patricia and John and mull this idea over with them. They both really helped to get me started in wine. I was actually there pursuing my art career at the time. More about all this soon. Cheers! TONY