Paris and Onward 28 Feb 2015

I said I’d keep this up at least every two days – now I have some appreciation of how fitting it in is really going to be difficult. Not to offer that as an excuse, just saying!
About forty of us have just spent 5 hours at the Salon International de l’Agriculture. An exhibition that has the dual roles of allowing judging of the supreme representatives of  animal breeds and specialty foods, and to showcase agriculture to the many non-farming visitors.
Some highlights were:
Ferard – the Rouge des Pres bull who at 1890kg was the heaviest at the show – what a a set of curly hauches!!

The Montbeliarde breed, the second most populous dairy animal, with their lovely white faces – not a common look in NZ for dairy cattle!
Understanding the breed purity focus and Paris and Onwardmarketing strength that is leveraged from that – whether from a populous breed like Limousin (I saw branded Limousin milk and meat products) or a heritage breed of only several hundred such as the Breton Pie Noir (with a specialist product somewhere between yogurt and cheese called gros lait.
Seeing the layering of regional tastes with breeds to produce a plethora of personalised products.
Observing the highly animated facial and body reaction of a group of children when one of the giant cattle beasts poohed!
However the absolute highlight was being introduced to comte cheese, produced from a regional dairy operation consisting of only 5 farms. These are operated on an extensive basis, making provision for the growth of many native plants in their pastures – the exact plants that contribute to the unique flavour of this cheese.

Happily it also means they can stay within the limits imposed under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, such as no more than 30kg/ha of nitrogen per year. A previous French Nuffield Scholar is involved in this business and ignited enthusiasm in a bunch of down-under ‘uninitiates’ by virtue of his own passion. We sampled comtes with a variety of ‘fruitiness’ – and with vanilla granules or with black cumin seed. Then at opposite ends of the spectrum the soft seasonally produced Mont d’Or (cultured wrapped in bark) and the blue cheese that was distinctly ‘forest mushroom’! To cap it off our host told us that his people have a responsibility to their ancestors - to continue with these traditional products that have been handed down over many hundreds of years.
Interesting that the support for farmers seems tied to the parochialism and pride in this people’s history.
Now I’m on the bus – a 2.5 – 3 hour journey from Port de Versailles to Reims, where we settle in for our conference.
Reims Is in the Champagne region, so we start our time with wine-tasting tonight! This place is also where the ancient French king Clovis was crowned, and continued to be the place of coronation until there were no more kings to crown. We discovered this yesterday on a wonderfully enlightening commentated tour of Paris, a city that oozes a history with marker points right back to before Christ walked this earth.

Rich with town planning peculiarities, palaces, art history, scientific feats and architecture, not to mention photo opportunities, this is a place you could wander in for a long time!
In keeping with the regional food products, areas of Paris too have distinctive flavours. Our guide said “Tell me where you are from and I will tell you who you are.”  
Well the signs are telling me we are in Champagne country and a city is coming into view after only checkered villages, copses, and rolling countryside. Lets see what we find in Reims…

Journey Begins

I feel a bit like Bilbo Baggins - off to something outside my normal routines or places of familiarity - though he didn't fly in an Airbus A380, upstairs! 
Yesterday I packed and repacked - shaving items down... and leaving behind things I had bought thinking they would be good to take... I guess that makes them 'spares'! It also goes to prove that I should have done the whole packing job first - then gone shopping only to fill genuine gaps.

I'm very grateful for my family's support - from the wonderful sendoff by the Auckland troops en mass, which made an uplifting view from the departure gate, to my husband's absolute approval of this excursion - and of the personal development that will go along with the journey. He has never shied from being committed to someone who may change - thanks Ross.

Right now I feel very tired - I kept myself going the last few days with the internal promise that I could sleep on the plane - but Clara insisted I shouldn't on this leg to Singapore. She's right really - but it just means a bit more pain to push through first.
To keep my eyes open, I watched three movies...

I heard a great quote from Maggie Smith's character in "My Old Lady", set in Paris, which has obvious geographical appeal right now... Madame G is a French speaking (and living) Englishwoman and she says "If you are born English, you stay English. Englishness is so obvious."
I'm looking forward to a few days of concentrated Englishness!
However, for now I just need to stay awake, mobile and hydrated - and get on that plane to Heathrow!

Almost Underway

Welcome to my blog - an experiment in modern 'journalling' and communication indeed :)
One week to go until take off for one of the adventures of my life (getting married still ranks as the biggest one!!)... Nuffield Scholar, heading off to conference and a global tour - I worked out I'll be in 10 countries over the next 7 weeks, and that's not counting the stopovers in airports at Singapore and Turkey!
I've still got to re-sort my clothes to get my luggage down a bit - though it's tricky when I have to pack for both cold and warm climates, and for formal occasions as well as 'on-farm'.
Some good ideas on packing here:
 https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152924912281350&fref=nf 
I'll let you know how successful I am with it...
Creativity and improvisation will be important in many ways I can see. Maybe a theme will emerge...