Chers tous,
Once again, a fantastic French
wine degustation! The evening was a perfect mix of fine wines, delicious
cheeses and pâtés and great company. Special thanks to Brent McKay of Amazing
Grapes, who provided a selection of fine wines that delighted our palates and
our senses. These tasting evenings are not only informative and enjoyable, but
they also provide an opportunity to discover some interesting wines and enjoy a
very relaxing evening... all right, the wine must have had something to do with
it!
Many of us enjoy the Tour de
France, not just for the race itself, but also for the scenery, the history,
the wealth of information and the famous "Plat du Tour". Due to the
Olympic Games, this year the Tour de France will start a week earlier than
usual, on 29 June, and will be quite different with a new starting location,
its first gravel stage, a non-Paris finish and a different type of final stage.
As you know, the Tour de France has always ended in Paris, with several laps
around the Louvre and Champs Elysées, due to Olympic preparations in Paris, it
will end in Nice on July 21 with an almost 34 km individual time trial. If you
would like to download the route (bilingual F/A edition), follow the link:
https://storage-aso.lequipe.fr/ASO/cycling_tdf/tdf24-parcours.pdf
Unveiled on 16 May Saint Honoré’s
Day (Saint Honoré being the patron saint of bakers and pastry chefs), the
French postal service “La Poste” has printed 594,000 mouthwatering copies of a
new baguette stamp, which captures the scent of bread in the ink. The baguette,
which won intangible heritage status from UNESCO in November 2022, is
considered a jewel of French gastronomy. “The baguette, the bread of our daily
lives, the symbol of our gastronomy, the jewel of our culture", La Poste
says on its website. “The baguette is the embodiment of a culture and customs
that are deeply rooted in the daily lives of the French. It stands for a
ritual, that of going to the bakery, a local business rooted in the regions,
attracting 12 million consumers every day. The fact that 6 billion baguettes
are made every year confirms its emblematic status as part of France's food
heritage.”
The Art in Miniature group is
holding its annual exhibition at the Raglan Gallery and Cultural Centre in
Cooma from 3 July to 18 August 2024. The opening will be hosted by Anne
Masters, Director of the Gallery of Small Things (ACT), on Saturday 6 July at
2pm. If you are passing through Cooma, I encourage you to visit the exhibition
(Wednesday to Sunday, 10.30am to 3.30pm). You are going to think that it is not
really French, to which I would reply that one of the exhibiting artists,
Jocelyne Godber, is French.
I look forward to seeing most of
you on 14 July in Madame d'Aulnoy's Parisian salon, and if you are worried, no
heads are likely to roll, because we will be there at the end of the 17th
century, with the Revolution still to come...
A bientôt!
