Coccinelles, Chatreusse, et Champagne

Spring Break: St. Pierre

Saturday afternoon, after lunch at a Moroccan restaurant, we left with Pierre and his sister to drive up into the mountains to the small Chartreusse village of St. Pierre where we'd meet the family and go skiing. Up the winding route, with warning road signs with pictures depicting cars falling off the edge and rocks falling onto cars, (the latter which I don't really understand why it would be of any use) I learned some about the driving education in France. In order for the French to get driving licenses you have to be twenty-one and go through and intense long driving school and then of course take a test. A lot more than my read a book, dad taught, online test at sixteen. Anyways, Still, I would never want to drive in France, or park in France, or be too close to a car in France, so being driven up that mountain with an of course, stick shift little car, feeling like we were going 80 mph...i thought i was going to die, and was overwhelmed with joy to see the cute home of my friend's French relatives at last.

As we entered the house, we were greeted with slippers for on our feet, a warm fireplace, Pierre's father's coccinelle (ladybug) collection, and champagne and a hot entree and a cold entree.
Then it was bread, fois gras, salad, with homegrown baby tomatoes and a sweet white wine to complement the fois gras.
Then it was dry white wine, a baked pasta dish and vegetables.
Then the cheeses.
Then fruit bowl and plum and apricot tarts, also homegrown
Then the Chartreusse Digestif alcohol.
Every night went like this. Starting the morning out with home baked bread with homemade jams, coffee drank from bowls to dip your breakfast cake slices into, fruit, and yogurt. A small lunch. An afternoon tea and tart. And then again the massive 4 hour dinners, always ending with a bottle of Chartreusse.

The herbs grow naturally and locally in the Alps and are medicinal digestives handpicked by the family and put in bottles with the alcohol. I learned that the green liqueur Chartreusse itself has been made by Carthusian Monks, since the 1700s and is aged with over 130 herbal extracts, originally produced for medicinal purposes. The liqueur is named after the Monks' Grande Chartreuse monastery, located in the Chartreuse Mountains in the general region of Grenoble in France, and is produced in the city where Pierre's grandparents live in Voiron.