Some thoughts on time in France....

This past trip (September 25th to October 13th) was magnificent. So much time to reflect, to re-create, to enjoy good food, good wine and good company and to appreciate the many other inspirational moments that abound in the south of France...moments that we often take for granted when slugging away at the lives we have built for ourselves.

Chronologically, (by nature I tend to be a very organized person) landing on the 26th and spending a day running from meeting to meeting in Paris with things not really going as planned, provided a somewhat disappointing start to the trip. But I ended the evening having dinner with Jean and his daughter Chiara. The restaurant was just off the Boulevard St. Germain,perhaps a ten minute walk from the Latin Quarter. It was classic French quisine done superbly and the ambiance as we settled in about 10:00 pm was warm and glowing. The clink of glasses and silverware, the gurgle of flowing wine and the light buzz of conversation served to cocoon the evening in an almost movie like feel. Conducting a little business and catching up with Jean was great. We always enjoy breaking bread with each other. No matter how many times we've done it it seems each time is as fresh as the last. I particularly enjoy it when his kids are there as they provide a soft counterpoint to Jean's personal style...somewhere between the two of us.

At midnight I set out from Paris, having had only three to four hours sleep the previous night on the airplane. My plan was to drive south through my favourite region, the Auvergne, the tribal homelands of the ancestral Avernii Celts, whose leader Vercingetorix, was one of the few ever to have defeated Caesar in battle. As I drove through the night, speeding south of Clermont Ferrand, I knew when the site of that battle loomed in the darkness on my right...the mountaintop plains of Gergovie. I could imagine the legions encamped there and the Celts peering down on them from the heights, the scramble of troops in battle formation, the clash of weapons and the breaking of ranks. Had the Avernii followed up on the rout of the Romans there the entire world may have been a different place, Caesar defeated, shamed and slain, the Celts jubilant and wild knowing that nothing stood between them and Rome. It was a seminal moment but Celtic character called for drinking and celebration....it is often the same today I think.

The sun rose about 5:45 am over the mountains of the Central Massif. I could see its coppery glow long before I saw the disc's edge pierce the skyline. For many miles, as I drove up and down through mountains and valleys, the sun would oscillate above and below the horizons until finally it remained in view off to my left, in the east. I drove on, stopping only for brief naps as I had done through the night. Seeing the Viaduc du Millau shining in the bright morning sun and its long gentle curve punctuated by its spires and wire webbing was awe inspiring.

I arrived at Montlaur at around 10:45 and retrieved the keys from Christian, who has been doing a great job of keeping the grounds tidy over the summer. I knew I had a few days to get grounded before a few guests arrived so myfirst though was to execute the plan that I had formulated in my few months away, that was namely, to relocate the kitchen to the ground floor, make that comfortable, get the water hooke dup, plumb in all new lines and install a hot water heater, and install a bathroom. If time allowed I would also get two of the bedrooms started and set up.

Days in the south of France go by slowly. There seems to be a distinctiveness to mornings, afternoons and evenings that I don't feel here in North America. Perhaps it is the nature of a fresh association or, more to the point, the tendency to take things for granted when you have been subjected to them for long periods but whatever it is there seems a vibrancy there that resonates. Certainly the culture reinforces the perception of distinction. Mornings are for errands out and about, almost everything shuts down at lunch for two hours, the afternoon is for chores around the house or for socializing and the evening is for dining and entertainment. There is a rhthym to life that one can fall into very easily without being aware of the fact that you're falling into a pattern.

When I'm there I want to spend all of my time at the farm...improving this, examining that, planning dozens of little projects or just taking in the scenery. I spent about an hour one morning watching two escargot make love. I kid you not, one full hour! And having watched them do that, with a solicitousness and tenderness that would satisfy the most romatic chick flick director, I must say that the thought of eating them smacks of barbarity. Although, in all honesty, I have been known to be a little barbarous at times and I'm not sure I'm over that quite yet.

My first guests arrived on Sunday, Jack and Louise Liebel. Jack runs a trucking company in Balgonie, Saskatchewan while Louise is a nurse working I think for the public health organization in Regina. Christian and Corinne put them up at their charming little "Gites Rural" just around the corner from the farm, about a five minute walk away. They are two of the most fun people you'd ever want to meet. Funny, engaging and wholly in the moment, they have spent many of their vacations travelling around the world and I was only too glad to have them spend a few days with me.

I toured them through the farm and the Chateau ruins and described all the things I'd like to do, rolling out my decades long plan for re-creating the Chateau as well as the things I wanted to do in the next couple of weeks. Their attitude was from the start, "What can we do to help?" In fact, over the course of the next couple days I kept saying "Okay,let's take a break and go taste some wine!" They would respond "No, let's just finish this up first." or "How about we burn all this scrap wood on the fire." Eventually they took a couple of days and toured the eastern reaches of Languedoc through to western Provence, all within an hour's drive from the farm, before heading back to Paris and home.

Before they left they had made good on completing work on what will become known as "The Leibel Suite". After much discussion and hand wringing they convinced me that instead of repairing the plaster walls we should remove the loose old plaster to reveal the stonework beneath and then have that pointed as a finish for the room. Leaving some plaster in place and removing large sections of loose plaster resulted in a much more interesting and warmer appearance for what will become the first suite in the farm. I've attached a photo to show what it looks like with the pointing partially completed. The section of stonework on the right has been pointed while the remainder has not yet been done...when it was done it looked spectacular. There are many more opportunites to make a significant difference in the re-creation of this place. Just ask me whatever it is you might want to do. For the next trip I hope to do quite a bit of reconstruction, decorating and perhaps some landscaping and gardening. That, interspersed with wine tasting and touring makes for a pretty full agenda.

By the end of my first week I had the cold water system repaired and working, the kitchen installed in the ground floor and completely functional, the laundry, shower and toilets all hooked up and ready to roll. Next on tap was the installation of the hot water tank. That and my second week with Claire and Clayton will be the subject of my next post.

Time to get my feet wet in the BLOG...

Life can be overwhelming...when you are a one man band trying to produce the equivalent of symphonic sound. There are days when that is how I feel. Days when the bells and whistles, cymbals and horns, drums and other devices simply don't produce anything coherent. When the vision I can see so clearly in my head simply cannot be reproduced by any of the tools that I have at hand. And then there are days when it works.

Those are great days, days that I revel in and hold close in my memory. Right now its about 60-40 in favor of the latter and thats good enough for me. Most of my family, friends and acquaintances know that for the past couple of years I've been launching my new concept in wine experiences, the Micro-Lease. I've committed everything I have to the dream of working with my friend and vineyard owner, Jean de Montlaur to produce an experience in wine that was previously beyond the reach of most, if not all, people who were not already intimately involved in the lifestyle.

And my vision is that we do this at the farm and chateau in the south of France that has been at the heart of Jean's family and of winemaking for over a thousand years. There is no other vineyard in the world that has been in the same family for as long a time. There are few vineyards in the world that can make a claim to a heritage dating back to the Greeks and the Celts. And there are no other vineyards in the world that are actively seeking customers to enter into an ownership arrangement called a Micro-Lease and encouraging those Micro-Leaseholders to come and experience life as a wine maker in the south of France. And no one is offering so much value to the few who will become the stewards, builders and long term patrons of this vineyard. Imagine...your own vineyard....in the south of France....wandering through ruins from the Romans through the 16th century at your doorstep...sleeping in a fourteenth century farmhouse that you help restore with your own hands...sipping wine from your own vines around a fire with good friends while music fills the night in the courtyard of an enchanted castle.

These are some of the pleasures that await those with the passion in their hearts to reach out and taste life, feel the soil in their own hands, hear the wind traverse a gentle transit from the mountains to the sea, smell the spice of wild fig, rosemary and thyme, and watch a purple sunset in a timeless place. The senses are fully activated...nothing left to chance...beauty abounds and its possible to be changed by any and all of these things even if in small ways.

So much needs to be done. But we are on our way and help is always welcome. There are few pleasures greater than the joy of re-creation and sharing that pleasure with others is the whole and complete goal of Monte Lauro Vineyards.