Internet is so hard to come by!

Internet is so hard to come by these days, but I finally got access. As I write, I am sitting in my one-star hotel right ouside the Geneva Aiport. From our window one can see the France-Switzerland border. Though its not the best hotel ever, it should do the job for the next two nights. It's been a while since i've last updated so i'll combine all the posts I was going to make the past week into one long post.

So Thursday pretty much concluded our tour of Cluny and the Burgundy region. We left at 7 AM to head up to the Juro mountains, just north of the Burgundy region. The day began with a cheese tasting at 10 AM that included several cheeses produced in the area. We then headed to Salin-Les-Bains for a tour of the salt mine. Up until refrigeration, salting was a major way of preserving food, thus making salt a valuable commodity. Salt is also widely used in cheese production, and we all know cheese production in France has always been at high levels. Thus, from about the 9th century until the mid-20th century, Salin-Les-Bains was producing salt. What was cool about this one is that it was used for over 1000 years! Of course, over time, the methods of producing the salt improved. Now, to emphasize how important a commodity salt was, the mine was surrounded by a wall that only had a single gate. Thus anyone exiting or entering could be monitored closely. The town of Salin-Les-Bains was built over time based on the salt trade the mine produced. After the salt mine was a trip to Pasteur's house. I like to say that he's the patron saint of Microbiology because of what he did for this branch of science. Among his accomplishments are a vaccine for rabies, disproving the theory of spontaneous combustion, and discovering why wine spoils. I could go on, but my fingers would be tired from typing out every accomplishment of his. We then ended our day at Baume-Les-Meesieurs which is one of the absolutely beautiful places I have ever seen! If you thought Cluny was beautiful, Baume-Les-Messieurs is a far prettier place. I can only wonder as to the reason its abbot set out to establish the Cluny Abbey where he did. I think it would have been pretty nice at Baume-Les-Messieurs. Friday we then had our presentations and a small final evaluation. We then headed to Cathy's house for a final farewell dinner, which was out of this world!

On Wednesday we had another set of field trips. We started off at the Chateua de Monthelie-domaine Eric de Suremain, to learn about his process of wine making. It was interesting to see how Eric made his wine in comparison to Jacque Perault, a winemaker we visited early last week. Whereas Perault has all new machinery, de Suremain uses the same barrels that have been used for many generations in his family. I found the man very interesting: an owner of a chateuax, he looked like a commoner and acted like one too. If you saw him on the street, you could never have been bale to tell that he owned a 17th century chateaux that produced very good wine. After a suprise wine tasting in his supply room, we headed into Beaune for lunch. Afterwards we visited the hospice de Beaune. This hospice was established to look after the elderly and very sick in Beaune during the middle ages. The hospice was very much tied into the church as every room containing beds had an altar. Here we got to see the back side of the altar, featuring the beautiful polyptych by Roger Van der Weyden that was a scene representing the Last Judgment. The polyptych was only allowed to be seen by the sick on Sundays and on Feast days. The painting is quite moving, and one can only imagine what feelings of intimidation it brought upon those who saw it as they reached their final days of life. There is much mroe history behind the place that I could tell you about, but it would be too much info to put here, so if you want to know more, e-mail me. We ended Wednesday with a cheese tasing in Beaune. This tasting was by far the best! A favorite cheese among the class was the one prepared by the fromagiere on site. It was like a cream cheese coated with mustard seeds. They also gave us a nice, stinky, "flavorful", runny epoisse.

As for Monday and Tuesday they were devoted to lecture and paper writing, as well as working on presentations. We covered the microbiology and biochemistry of wine production, salt preservation, and waste treatment of whey among other things.

And before I go, I must fix my last post. It seems I had enjoyed too much wine as I wrote it. It seems the section about north vs south cheeses, the l'abbaye de citeaux, and the Clos de Vougeot. Here's what it should have read:

Anyway, yesterday was a lot of touring cheese farms/factories and learning about the different ways in which cheese is produced in then northern part of Burgundy. The main difference between norhtern and southern burgundy cheeses is that the South uses goat milk while the North side usually uses cow milk. Nevertheless, at the Abbeyie Citeaux, we learned how the monks made their famous cheese, using mostly stainless steel, automatic equipment to help make the process go faster. Because they are a young factory, they add starter cultures to their milk to help get the fermentation process going. In a few years however, they will no longer need to do so as there will be enough free floating bacteria in the factory's air to provide sufficient inoculum to get the fermentation going. After a delicious lunch at a nearby town we headed to the vineyards that these monks once possessed. These vineyards are located on top of some of the best grape-growing soils in the world, known as the Clos de Vougeot. Therefore, its not surprising to see these wines being sold for at least 1000- 4000 euros a bottle! The trip to the chateuax by the vineyards was followed by a visit to a cheese factory. Here we learned about a more industrial kind of cheese production facility. After a tour of the factory we had a wine and cheese tasting there. Many of the cheese we tasted were smelly and full of flavor, exactly the way I like it!

With that, I shall leave you until tomorrow, when I will update about my last day in Europe.

Internet at Last!

Though the connection is slow, we finally got steady internet access at the hostel! The downside, all 7 of us students have to share this pay-for-hour internet USB thing there's only one to go around. Thats ok though, because sharing is caring.

As you can see i'm able to put up pictures now! So allow me to continue my comments on the Abbey of Cluny. The photo above was taken from what would have been the right in front of the church's door. The two buildings closest to you would have been where the entrance towers were. Between them would have been a large decorative arch, some of which has remained and is kind of visible in the picture. A few feet further would be the grand entrance of the church and the start of the nave of the church. This nave would have extended back all the way to where the last remaining tower is. Now, the tower you see in that picture, imagine another one just like it connecting it to the nave, but maybe towering 50 feet more. This would have been where the altar was. Then add another tower like the remaining one to the left of the altar and you almost have the complete church. Behind the altar would have also been another set of beautiful and extravagant architecture. To help you visualize all this I have attached a second picture (2nd from the bottom) which is a model of what the church once looked like. With these pictures, I hope to pass on the same feelings of inspiration and awe I first felt when picturing the church in my mind as it was in the 12th Century. I mean if you think about it, this church was humongous!

Moving on to more about the course thus far. Today was a fairly calm day. We learned about the process of cheese making during the morning, had another 2-hour lunch, then visited a supermarket to look at the variety of local cheeses being sold to help us select a cheese to write about. Yes, we do have assignments in between all of our adventures. By the end of the course we need 2 3-page papers on one local cheese and one local wine, discussing how its made while providing a brief history of it. In addition, we must prepare 2 15-minute presentations on both. My cheese of choice for the paper is called Saint-Nectaire.

The best part about this program however is that the course thus far has been a great marriage between the biochemistry and microbiology of wine/cheese and the history of Cluny, the Burgundy region, as well as the culture surrounding regional wine and cheese production. Though a lot of time is spent on history and culture, we have still learned equally as much about the biochemistry. In fact, me and my classmates frequently discuss how Dr. Haggblom is so good at teaching biochemistry because he continually clears up many of the things we found confusing in our General Biochemistry courses. Personally, his lectures have helped me make the big connections between regulation of glycolysis by the citric acid cycle. In all, since the start of the course, we have learned the glycolytic pathway (also known as the fructosebisphosphate pathway), differences between respiration and fermentation, what homolactic and heterolactic fermentations are, and the process of cheese making from curdling to separation of curd and whey to the microbiology of aging cheeses.

By the way heres a tidbit of info you may not have known:

Homolactic fermentations yield only lactic acid and are used in cheese production while heterolactic fermentations yield lactic acid and CO2 and is used to produce products such as kefir. Kefir is a popular European fermented dairy product and is very delicious.

Anyway, back to where I was.

Tomorrow our day begins at 7:45 AM, and we will be visiting the Abbaye de Citeaux, where the abbey monks have prized cheeses. They will be showing us their production facilities while explaining their personal cheese making process. After a visit to the local market and subsequent lunch in Nuits Saint-Georges, we will visit the Chateuax du Clos de Vouget and then end our day at the Gaugry cheese dairy in Brochon for another tour/tasting. I think it should be a pretty good day.

To finish up this entry, I will now direct you the other two pictures I posted, outlining the major events from my time in Switzerland. The first is a picture of Chateaux Chillon, one of the most beautiful castles i've ever seen in my life, which are few in number. I'll talk more about that castle in future posts. The last picture is of the delicious Swiss cheese fondue Wayne and I enjoyed our last night in Switzerland. Of course, the fondue was accompanied by a glass of delicious white wine.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it as much as the last one! Oh, and Dr. Haggblom gives his regards to Dr Young and Dean Ludescher

Greetings from Cluny

Today is the first day I am able to get internet access at one of the internet cafes in town! Once our professor gets his computer set up at the hostel were living in, I will begin maintaining a daily log of what is happening in Cluny and will also add in entries about my time in Switzerland before the course. For now though I will give you all a quick summary of the course thus far. I apologize in advanced for the lack of apostrophes as I cant figure out how to make them on French keyboards. Also the q/a, z/w, and m/n/, keys have been switched around, so I also apologize for future typos. Anyway, onto the good stuff!

The second I arrived in Cluny, I was told to put down my bags and quickly come downstairs as we immediately were scheduled to have a wine and cheese tasting at a local wine shop. If you can come up with a better way to start a three credit course do let me know! Afterwards was our first of many long meals in Cluny, a 2 hour dinner. Thus far, all of our meals have been a minimum of 1.5 hours long and utterly delicious the Whole way through. But alas, I could go on for pages about the culinary experiences weve had outside the classroom thus far, but ill save that for a day when I have an American keyboard and more time on my hands. Needless to say, after the first night of the course, I knew it was going to be a fantastic 2 weeks.

Indeed even though its only Wednesday, we have done more things people dream of doing than I ever imagined. For example todays itenerary started out with a tour of a vocational school that teaches the art of wine making. Then we travelled and toured the vineyards of a prominent Burgundian winemaker where we had a wine tasting. Then he invited us to have a picnic by his fanmily pond situated on the hillsides within the French countryside. We topped it all off with a trip to a goat cheese farm to taste some fresh, unpasteurized goat cheeses after touring the farm. Of course, both the picnic and the farm both involved many glasses of wine as well!

Although wine and cheese tastings have been abundant, that is only part of the course. Every morning begins with lectures on the biochemistry of wine and cheese production while the afternoons have been filled with history lessons about the town of Cluny. I now understand why my sister was a medieval history major. After learning all about Cluny, its impossible for anyone not to fall in love with medieval history! I also understand now why she is incredibly jealous of this trip.

At this point, it is appropriate to introduce you to Cluny. Little did I know, Cluny was THE center for Christianity, its glory peaking by the end of the 12th century. What was once a monastery of a few monks that started out in the 10th century, it had become the biggest church in Europe, until the construction of St Peters in Rome! The sad news is that over the centuries only one wing of the church remains as it eventually was taken apart during the 19th century for use as building material. Though but a small portion of the church remains, it is impossible for me to describe what the church must have looked like at one point. As soon as I can get some pictures up, I will indeed walk you through what it would have looked like based upon the ruins that were left behind. So consider it a cliffhanger for now.

Still, no picture thus far can really do justice on how beautiful Cluny and the surrounding countryside is. Around every corner is another great view of the countryside. And almost every home dates back to at minimum, 200 to 300 years old. One of the more memorable moments though was when we toured the inside of a 12th century house. No words can describe the feeling you get when you climb a 12 century staircase that was still intact. As I have more time to blog later this week, I will also go into more detail about this house.

In the end, these past few days have been surreal. This course has been like nothing Ive ever experienced before. Cluny is a town full of medieval history, surrounded by a countryside of the worlds finest wine and cheese makers, with enough beautiful landscapes to last a lifetime. As I get better access to the internet, I will indeed be filling up all the gaps in my stories. For now though, consider this to be but a taste of what we have experienced thus far. I cannot wait to continue updating you on this too-good-to-be-true experience, while filling in the rest of the holes in my story thus far. If youve gotten this far, thank you for reading, and I hope to be posting much more very soon. Until then, as the French say, "Au Revoir!"