I bilens tegn/Sign of the cars

Watch out for the grapeharvest.

Dagen staar i bilens tegn. Vi koerer de fyrre kilometer fra vores nye hjem i Verzy til det gamle i Soulieres i udkanten af de groenne druers hjerteland - Blanc de Blancs – som er betegnelsen for de champagner, der er fremstillet udelukkende af groenne druer. Tingene er dog ikke enklere, end at huset her bidrager til en champagne fra Blanc de Blancs-omraadet, der er lavet paa baade de blaa og de groenne.

Langs landevejen staar arbejdets frugter stablet op, 50 kilo per kasse, ved mark efter mark. Laengere oppe ad raekkerne soerger plukkere for at levere arbejde til baade den staerke mand og hans makker, der er hyret til at transportere druekasserne fra raekkerne ned til vejen og derfra loefte dem videre op paa ladet af den trailer eller varevogn, der skal koerer dem til pressen.

Det giver en heftig fragten frem og tilbage under hele hoesten. Ikke mindst traktorerne kan med deres tilladte 25 kilometer i timen skabe saa lange koer og gale chauffoerer, at saerlige skilte ved de fleste bygraenser maner til taalmodighed med gul katastrofebaggrund paamalet en ildevarslende roed trekant og en vintraktor og “vendange” (vinhoest) i kapitaler.

Forbered dig derfor paa, at hastigheden fra i dag vil blive skruet aartier tilbage. Den naeste uge foregaar arbejdet for mit vedkommende per haandkraft. Skulderkraft for baerernes. Vi kan dog alle glaede os over bilerne, der to gange dagligt vil transportere os hjem til solid fransk bondekost, som kun de faerreste af os ville kunne naa at forbraende paa en helt almindelig dag.

Today is in the sign of the cars. We have a forty kilometer drive from our new home in Verzy to the old one in Soulieres in the outskirts of the heartland of the green grapes – Blanc de Blancs – which defines champagnes made of only white grapes. Things however are not that simple since we are to pick both both white and black grapes for a champagne from the Blanc de Blancs area.

Along the road we see the fruits of todays labour piled up, 50 kilos per box, along one field after the next. Further up the rows of wine the pickers are busy creating even more work for the strong guys who transport the boxes from the rows to the road and further up in the trailer.

The transport makes the traffic immense during the harvest of the grapes. Especially the tractors with their maximum speed of 25 kilometers per hour kan create such tails of cars behind them, that special signs at the citylimits many places asks prudence of the angry drivers on a catastrophy-kind-of-yellow background in the shape of a horror red triangle and with a winetractor and the word “vendange” printed in capitals across.

So you just be prepared that the tempo from this day will be rewinded with decades. The next week work for my part will be done manually. Shoulderly when it comes to the strong guys. All of us however, we can happily look forward to be picked up by a car to take us back for good heavy French countrystylefood, that few of us would normally be able to burn.