French Cuisine DVD

French Cuisine - The Basics of French Cooking

Professionally filmed and produced by ZK Pro and delivered in DVD format, French Cuisine provides an in-depth look at the basics of French gourmet cooking, spiced with the experience, anecdotes, and wisdom of one of the best!

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Bordeaux

We just got back from Bordeaux. The ride down was gorgeous! It's amazing how much variety there is in the French countryside within so short a distance. It's kind of like all the different landscapes you have in the U.S. packed into the size of Texas. We really saw this phenomena going down to Bordeaux. The countryside is very rocky, and reminds me of pictures I've seen of Scotland. They raise a lot of sheep, and make Roquefort cheese with the milk. Roquefort and this other kind of cheese that was really good (but I forget the name), are their two specialty cheeses. Both are made from sheeps' milk. I feel tempted to go on about the cheese after reading the latest Credenda Agenda (great magazine by the way), but I guess I will stop here. :)


We arrived in Bordeaux and stayed with my Uncle and his family. My father and my uncle have several things in common besides having the same last name. They are both pastors, they both married an American wife (and speak English as well), and they are both church planters in France:) The big outing we did was to go to the "Dune du Pyla", the highest sand dune in Europe. It is 117 meters high, and is composed of soft, white, fine sand. We had a ball running up, and it was even more fun running down! On the way up, you basically had to take two steps to go the length of one real step. It was a wierd feeling! The view of the Atlantic ocean from the top was amazing, even though it was somewhat hazy. Coming down that dune was of course the most fun! It felt as though you where running down the side of a cloud, if that makes any sense.


We went on another outing as well; we drove to St. Emilion. St. Emilion is a cute, picturesque, very old town with impresive architecture. We arrived a little late in the day, but still had time to go to one of the wine shops, and taste some of their wines, and but a couple bottles. In an earlier post, I mentioned Haut Brion wine. Well, I saw the real Chateau Haut Brion wines here. The prices ranged from 350 euros (year 2000) to 1448 Euros (1961) There was also the real Chateau Margaux, year 2000 selling at 490 Euros. You wouldn't want to spill a glass of one of these wines!

Three Good Bottles of Wine

I just acquired 3 fairly nice bottles of wine to add to my collection. Auchan is having their "Foire au vin", so I took advantage of that to buy a few while they had a large selection. The first one is "Château Haut-Maurac" 2001 which is a Cru Bourgeois from the Médoc region. It has the 2003 silver medal from the "Concours Mondial Bruxelles". The second is a "Château Larrivet Haut Brion" 2002. I was hoping it was one of the Château Haut-Brion wines, or similar, but it seems to be somewhat of a lesser wine than that one. The real Château Haut-Brion wines cost over 150 Euros anyway! The third bottle is a "Château Labégorce Margaux" 2002. The French Magazine, Le Point had this to say about the Château Labégorce's 2002 vintage: "Mild spices, white flowers, black-currant, bilberry. No dazzling woodiness, but a sumptuous fruitiness supported by a compact tannic background. Very long in the mouth and extremely elegant. This wine would hold its own if placed amid the crus classés." (source)