Château de Lascaux 2006

After a Spring 2009 visit to an architectural gem of the highest order, and possibly the most erotique et fantastique et en meme-temps grotesque bâtiment du 20eme siècle, la Basilique du Sacré-Coeur de Montmartre, I dropped down the hill to the arty farty and over-rated Bohemian 18e arondissement.

Arty farty wine for Montmartre

Paris is a loveable city, and one of my favourites,  although a bit up itself.  All the historical République monuments are interesting and important, but one senses that the French are clinging to an identity that expired with the proof that all men could be created equal under a monarchy.

“L’Hexagon” (within maps of which wags paint “France” and without “pas France”) is a great example of a country struggling to maintain its presence on world affairs (not unlike the UK).  It is difficult to name an important event since the donation of La Liberté Éclairant le Monde to the former Dutch/English settlement of New York.  It took the French 100 years to get around to remembering their US “friendship” and in any case the monument was finally delivered 10 years late.

In fairness, nuclear power is one foresight the French have light years head start on other European nations.  They also have been making the best wine, certainly since quatorze juillet, 1789.

So bearing this important history in mind, I entered a shack sized supermarket in Montmartre and purchased a bottle of Château de Lascaux 2006, Coteaux du Languedoc for €9.50 (£2.50 at the time, but nowadays, £22.50).

Its deep purple colour brought to mind one of the most mindless, boring and yawningly tiresome guitar riffs of all time.  The taste of blackberry, smoke (not on the water), baked custard and wet cardboard was opaque, mysterious, deep and moody, like La Roux who, confusingly, is an English pop combo.

I guess old hatchets have been buried.  I have many French friends and I love France but I wish fewer frites on their collective shoulder.

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