It is not uncommon for Americans to travel to Paris and return home believing they now know La France. The reality is often missed. What we consider a refined, cosmopolitan place … well, that is Paris all right. France is the biggest nation in Western Europe and also its emptiest. It has miles and miles […]

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Typically, we would be looking at another couple of weeks before the wine-producers haul out their monstrous vine-shakers and start bringing in the 2020 harvest. However, a dry, hot summer has the local producers are thinking later this week more than later this month. Which reinforces what I come to understand about making wine, while […]

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At the time, we thought we were going to be fine. It was March 5, and the Covid-19 coronavirus was spreading in France, but it wasn’t where it was going to be in a few weeks. No reports of cases in the neighborhood of our little village. So we did something Just Plain Stupid. We […]

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A reader asked for information about the experience of finding and consuming the often-quite economical wines of the Languedoc region of southern France. In theory, I should be an expert, after four-plus years based among the rolling hills and vineyards in this part of Occitanie, but that would be an error. I like wine well […]

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