dirty jobs: les vendange

After last Sunday, I have a new appreciation for wine and all 100% fruit juice.

I was invited to partake on a very valuable experience. I was staying with my professor's family in the village. Her husband informed me that one of the families in the village owned a chateau and they asked everyone in the village to help them pick grapes. I joined in on this, not really knowing what I was getting myself into.

After lunch, I jumped in the car. The family seemed confused that I didn't change into "special" clothes. For some reason, I saw no reason to change, because I knew I wouldn't get dirty.

Out at the vineyard, we parked the car and met with the rest of the helpers. I was greeted and then handed a basket, some rubber gloves, and some scissors (actually not really scissors but I have forgotten the name-sorry).

After about 20 minutes of clipping, filling, and shouting "Porteur!", I pondered on the idea of this being a full time job. It's fun and not as hard as I had thought.

On second thought, after about 4 hours of 'up-down-up-down,' clip-snip, dump, I had had enough. My back started to hurt and I could feel the burn in my legs.

This was tough work. Grapes were flying everywhere. My legs were spotted with purple and my clothes were in fact dirty.
Finally, we went back to the vineyard owner's house and watched the grapes exit the back of the truck through a tube to be separated from their stems. While we sat around, we drank beer, ate chips, and laughed as the sun began to set.