Boucher du Vin!

Wine bottle tree!

Okay, think of the most French thing you can possibly think of. Now think of something at least 10 times more French. Yes, that's right, I just finished bottling some wine!

Every year around this time, my host-father and some of his friends go to this wine festival thing, where you can fill up huge plastic kegs (whatever you bring yourself) with wine. Then, they take it home and bottle it themselves in the backyard. And I got to help!

It's actually pretty simple; they just fill up the bottles and then cork them with this lever tool. If you "accidentally" put too much wine in, then you just drink the extra before corking it. It seems like it would be hard to shove the cork in, but it actually isn't. I guess because the lever arm lets you exert a greater force than if you were just trying to push it in directly. (Oh-ho! Statics class!)

I tried a little of the wine, and it was pretty good! I think I got more wine on my hands than I actually drank though. Miraculously, I don't think I stained my shorts. It was a ton of wine! Probably like 100 bottles, and we had to stop because we ran out of empty ones. The jug below by itself is like 20 bottles!

Such a French experience! À bientôt!