Every winter we have a managers retreat at my work with all the team from the US over here in France for a few days. We've travelled before to Morrocco and Avignon, France before to get away and plan for the year ahead. This year we stayed in Paris and had meetings in a nice big space, then went out to dinner all together a couple nights. We also had a team scavenger hunt in the Louvre (my team got 2nd!), and a formal dinner out where we got all dressed up.
The highlight of the week was a surprise day trip to Bordeaux for wine tastings and a visit to the village of Saint-Emilion. I have never been to the Bordeaux region, but with the TGV (high speed train), you can get there in 2hrs. So we left Paris at 9:30am, went to two chateau wine tastings, visited the village, and returned to Paris at 8:00pm. An exhausting but fun day that I'll have to repeat when the weather is not so wet and cold.
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| Château Côte de Baleau |
I learned all about how there are very strict rules to be able to put "Bordeaux" and "Saint Emilion" and "Product of France" on your wine bottle. Examples include: no using irrigation, must be bottled and stored on site, only using certain kinds of approved grapes. These rules vary from village to village within each region of France too. So it's all very tricky.
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| The 2012 and 2013 |
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| The beautiful church in Saint Emilion |
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| Our second wine tasting at Chateau de Ferrand |
This place was pretty cool and owned by the Baron Bich, who became famous for the Bic pens. Then he got into the wine making business as a hobby.
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| The 16 cheeses on the plate at one of our dinners |
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