The Paris Nightlife

The Paris night life is so amazing here! I got my first taste of it two days ago. I ate a delicious dinner and got to see the famed Notre Dame at night! Afterwards, I hit the Latin Quarter and went to a salsa bar. Since I was still a bit jet lagged, and had work the next day, I didn’t stay out too long, but it was definitely a VERY memorable if short experience :) 

Friday night, I don’t have many pictures for you all just because there wasn’t much to take. I ate with the other interns at this nice restaurant by the French museum Pompidu and afterwards enjoyed the Paris night life for a bit. Most of us didn’t do anything yesterday night because we were all preparing for today’s adventure: Champagne Tasting! =]

It is now 10:30 PM. I woke up this morning at 8:00 AM to drink champagne in the famous champagne making city Riems. A lot of us found it ironic that we had to get up so early to drink.

We left on the TGV (France’s bullet train) at 8:45 AM and arrived in Riems in an hour. At that point we went to the first cellar. 

Champagne making is quite an art. We learned that each year grapes are picked and selected for their perfection. Only a certain amount of these grapes make it to the cellars before they are then ground up and made in to wine. At this point, yeast and flour is inserted into the wine and let age for at least 15 months to 7 years (Vintage) depending on the quality of the grapes. Once aging is done, the dead yeast now in the form of a sediment - read toxic laxative - needs to be removed from the bottle. To do this a machine slowly rotates the bottles a 1/4 clockwise and raises its angle until all the sediment is deposited into the neck. This takes about a year to do. Afterwards, they dip the bottles into -20C degree water to freeze the sediment. That way, when they open the bottles, the carbon dioxide forces the frozen sediment out while preserving the champagne. Finally, depending if the champagne is to be a dry or a sweet one, a solution of liqueur and sugar is added, and tasted before bottling. 

After the first cellar, we had a quick lunch and then went to the second cellar which was WAY nicer and in my opinion tastier. Which is why I bought a bottle :) By the time we finished it was 4 PM, so we just wandered around the area and saw the cathedral until our train was here to take us back to Paris.

I got back from the wine tasting 3 hours ago, and I have to say this has been one of the best French experiences I’ve had so far.