Chartreuse – Cras, France
Did you know the color Chartreuse comes from a liqueur made by monks in France? Me neither, but I do now. I have often found describing colors difficult. Jeff and I particularly have trouble with Khaki (is it tan, green, brown or grey). Our ideas are very different. Now I know why there are different ideas of Chartreuse also, as there is a Vert (green) and Jeunes (yellow). But first let be backup a little bit.
Yesterday we took the TGV train from Paris to place that starts with a V, that is escaping me. The TGV is an awesome way to travel. It is smooth and practically floats, very fast. Anyway, Remi picked us up and took us to his home. Where his wife Sandrine and two girls Natascha (10) and Johann (7) were there to greet us in their lovely warm and cozy home. They have two cats and three bunnies. Girls and animals to play with….my girls were thrilled. They quickly took to learning to communicate. Natascha has been taking English classes and Remi is fluent. Sandrine speaks quite a bit of English and little Johann is very fluent now at Rock, Paper, Scissors. 🙂
Yesterday was lovely, however today it has been raining all day and just a few degrees too warm for snow. Thus snow sledding was out and hiking the Fort in Genoble was out. Some how the topic of spirits came up, single malt whiskey and Cognac mainly. Remi suggested we go to the Chartreuse Distillery in Voiron. It was good to get out of the house for a little bit and it was only a short drive.
Jeff got to drive in France as they have two small cars, and we wouldn’t all fit in one. He did very well, at least as far as I can tell because I rode with Remi.
The kids weren’t thrilled with going to a distillery and covered their noses with their scarves because it smelled so bad (to them). I love that kind of stuff, the smells, the enormous casks, the cool temperatures in the caves and learning about something new that tastes good also. We even got to watch a 3D Movie about monks, unfortunately no subtitles.If you have a few minutes and want read a little about what we did today, check out wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartreuse_(liqueur)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartreuse_(color)
The other interesting thing is Walnuts. They are the major crop of this area, so we’ve been enjoyed cracking walnuts and walnut wine/port.
Last night we had a fabulous dinner it was very Gourmand. I”ll write a separate post for that evening.
Cheers, Leanne
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