Some of you may remember that C's family has their own vineyard in St Emilion. One of his great aunts lives in Paris and has a gigantic stock in her cave, so we usually buy a few cases from her each year. We got an email from her a while ago saying that she was hosting a wine tasting for the newly-bottled 2011 vintages, and we were welcome to attend.
I'd had a long day of classes Friday & Saturday, but we don't often see C's family, so I still wanted to go. Plus they live in an uber fancy apartment in the 16th, and I love going there to picture what our life would have been like had C's parents not shunned their family's money. I'm telling you guys, this apartment is nice - at least 120m2, lovely parquet floors, crown molding and antique furniture and art everywhere you look. I wouldn't necessarily want to live there, but I do like looking at it, and it definitely oozes old money.
There was some kind of incident on the line 6 that night, so I ended up going there straight from class, figuring that my semi-work attire would be appropriate enough for a family wine tasting.
Boy, was I wrong.
We showed up, and first of all, we were the only people under 50. The women were all perfectly coiffed and wearing LBDs and pearl necklaces. The men were wearing blazers and ascots. All of this left me and C (who was wearing a nice button-down RL chemise and a sweater) looking like kids at the adult table on Thanksgiving.
When we came in, the aunt introduced us to everyone as the young newlyweds, and we were greeted with a few nods, but then everyone immediately went back to their conversations. We sort of stood there a bit until someone finally brought us a glass of the newly released wine. We tried it and thought it tasted alright, though everyone around us kept murmuring about how it was too closed yet and need to age a few more years.
We are definitely not wine experts.
We tried a few of the different 2009 and 2010 variations, and finally a Belgian couple came over to talk to us. There were about ten minutes of awkward conversation - I mean, really, what could we have in common with a couple in their 50's living in the 16th? They had three kids and the wife was a stay-at-home mom. The dad traveled a lot for work, so I tried engaging him about that for a bit, but it didn't really go anywhere, and they eventually made their way towards the door.
And so did we after a few more glasses of wine and some fancy snacky foods. To top it off, as we walked out, the concierge peeked through her curtains and gave us a suspicious look, and I thought "Really? We are wearing respectable clothing and we both look completely harmless. Was that really necessary lady?"
You know what, maybe we're not missing out on that much after all....
Labels: La belle famille, Wine
posted by Ksam @ 9:00 AM
5 Comments:
Sounds like C's parents made the right choice. Money isn't everything!
Still, you had an evening of free booze and posh snacks, with each other, so it could have been worse. :)
A Yes the 16th. I was walking through there one day when I saw this
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23572607@N08/8270956420/
Yes those are two identical new Ferraris. When the guy parked the one across the street, you can see him in the picture, the people across the street were joking with him and giving him a hard time. "One wasn't enough you had to buy two."
He responded with a chuckle and "that one's not mine."
At least I think that is what they said with my horrible french comprehension. :)
They're Snooty McSnootsnoots. That's what I'd call them!
Hi I found your link on Chez Loulou and the cook book giveaway .. I have stayed in an apartment just as you describe, but mine was in the 7th.. I was Cat sitting, for two weeks, it was amazing .. never been in an apartment like it before ..
As an almost 50 year old woman who has already been where you are now, I understand how you felt. I had the same "what can I talk about with stay-at-home moms" when I was working a fast paced job in finance in Zurich. Then I became a mom...and even though some of my interests changed, my mental capacities weren't diminished. But I found that I no longer wanted to talk incessantly about work because in all honesty there are much more interesting things in life. That may have been why the Belgian man didn't respond to your attempts to talk about your work related travel. In general, the middle-aged Europeans I know prefer to discuss museum exhibitions, their last vacation, books that they've read or anything but their day jobs.
One of the biggest benefits of aging is that I've discovered that almost everyone is interesting - if you give them a chance. The old adage, "Don't judge a book by its cover" is very true.
Signed,
Mary Kay (an almost 50 year old unemployed woman who lives in the 16th)
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