Which Champagne For New Year? And Which Travel Resolutions?

 

G H Mumm Champagne Brut Cordon Rouge.  Photo by Angela Lansbury.

My husband chose this Champagne for Christmas. Champagne comes from the Champagne region of France. It is a dry wine, hence the word Brut, meaning dry. 

Angela and her husband Trevor drinking Champagne on Christmas Day. Photo by Trevor Sharot.

Champagne is a sparkling white wine, made with red skinned grapes. I kid you not. This one is made from a grape called pinot noir. Noir is French for black. In English we describe grapes as red and black grapes but in wine-making most grapes are black.

Rouge is the French word for red. The word rouge in English has also come to mean red cosmetics applied to the cheeks for colour.

Cordon rouge, like cordon Bleu, (Bleu is French for blue) refers to the cordon, which is a sash. You see it here on the Champagne worn diagonally. It is on both the bottle and the cap.

Other Champagnes sold in the same supermarket were made from Chardonnay grapes. My husband prefers the fuller flavour of pinot noir. Most people are happy with a best selling cheaper wine.

For New Year, for a change, my husband might buy a blanc de blanc, meaning a white wine made from white grapes. And what about New Year resolutions and travel?  My plans include:

1 Keeping A Travel Wishlist

2 Learn a new language each year. Finish a course in that language on Duolingo.

3 Learn the words from every bottle of wine. (Even if you are not a drinker, you can learn the words from the wine bottles, the wine list, and the menu.

I have been to many Champagne cellars in Rheims, as well as wineries around the world.

According to their website, the Mumm company has installed art and architecture making it an award winning tourist attraction. So they are on my wish-list for a destination as soon as Covid-19 caused restrictions are lifted and I and my family can fly to the UK and on by ferry to France. Meanwhile, a happy New Year to you and yours.

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champagne

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._H._Mumm

About the Author Angela Lansbury

BIOGRAPHY

Angela Lansbury B A Hons ACG ALB PM5 EH5 DL5 VC5 
The Author of several books including  Etiquette For Every Occasion. Wedding Speeches & Toasts. How to be the Best Man. Quick Quotations. Who Said What When.

Blogs travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Club Vice President Public Relations (VPPR), Previous President

Join BHA 1st Wednesday 7pm and 3rd Saturday 2 pm Singapore time 

Vice President Public Relations (VP PR) of Tampines Changkat Advanced;

Secretary of weekly online Singapore International Dynamic Toastmasters Speakers’ Club;

Member and past president of Harrovians toastmasters club, UK; Past member of HOD Toastmasters, London. Past member in Singapore of: Toastmasters Club of Singapore (TCS); Tiarel; and Senja Cashew.

More details from Toastmasters International find a club.

Regular attendee at annual Swanwick Writers’ School, England.

Regular attendee at annual Writers’ Holiday, Wales.

Contributor to poetry readings, and after tea courses on: Speaking On Radio To Promote Books; and Plots And Character.

Winner of many club and area speaking contests in the UK and Singapore.

Language advisor to Empire Toastmasters club in Indonesia.

Language and speech workshops in Singapore.

Speaker on radio and TV in England, Scotland, the USA, and Australia.

Compiler of a school course on public speaking for teachers to prepare pupils for school open days with attending ceremonies before government ministers, Singapore.

Former member of Harrow Writers’ Circle, London, and two writing groups in Singapore.

Angela is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter. She would be delighted to link up with new friends.

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French Words: Cafe Rouge and Prix Fixe

Cafe Rouge sent me an email about their prix fixe. To me it's obvious what this means, but I speak French fluently. Words which are obvious to other people who speak Arabic or German or Spanish are not obvious to me.

Cafe - cafe, and of course Cafe meaning coffee
Cafe Rouge - cafe or snack bar with red colouring
fixe - fixed
prix - price
Prix fixe - fixed price
rouge - red colour, red colouring for your cheeks

Angela Lansbury, BA Hons, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker

Learn languages - French colourful words - cordon bleu at the moulin rouge

The colours of the rainbow in English which children learn at school are:
Red orange yellow green blue indigo violet.

The mnemonic (memory aid) is
Read Out Your Green Book In Verse.

French colours
rouge orange jaune vert bleu violette
(Nobody ever says indigo in any language, unless they work in printing, dyeing, clothes marketing or paint matching.)

The French colours are easy to remember.
Rouge, the red colour women put on their cheeks. Moulin rouge is the red windmill, a landmark entertainment centre in London in the old days. Vin rouge is red wine.

Orange is the same in French. The Spanish is naranja. Originally we said a naranja and eventually the n moved and it became not a  n o r a n g e but an orange.

Un is French for one or an.

Jaune is easy to remember as yellow if you see J and Y as being similar in shape when  hand written.

Vert - as in the name of the designer of women's clothes, Jacques Vert, in English Jack Green. Green grass grows vertically - upwards. The verge (edge of the lawn or grassy area) is green.

Bleu is almost the same spelling as blue. Just reverse the last two letters. Cordon bleu is awarded to good cooking, a fine French cookery school. A cordon is a ribbon or line. (A police cordon ropes off or goes around a crime scene.)

Violet or Violette is the name of a flower and a girl's name.

If you are reading wine labels, blanc is white. Blanc de blanc is white wine from white grapes. Blanche is a girl's name used in English as well. Notice the e on the end, a feminine word ending.

Angela Lansbury, English teacher and tutor, writer and speaker.

French words of the day: fondant; fondue; sucre roux

French words of the day are sucre roux, brown or raw sugar.
Fondant means melting.

Fondue is popular in restaurants in Switzerland, the home of cheese and chocolate. Fondue is melting cheese or chocolate, served in a bowl over a small tea light, candle light or burner, usually with two or more people using skewers or pincers to pick up and dunk cubes of bread or vegetables in the cheese; or cake, or marshmallows or fruit such as strawberries in the chocolate.

Fondue sets are sold in supermarkets and department stores in the crockery departments, packaged as gifts at Christmas time. I bought what I thought was a fondue set. It is an oriental stir-fry set.

This set was sold in Tesco as an oriental gift set, with a stir-fry sauce.

English - French
Sugar-sucre
brown sugar-sucre roux

French - English
brun - brown
fondant - melting
rouge - red
roux - raw
sucre roux - brown sugar / raw sugar

Brown and white sugar served with coffee at Fulham Wine Rooms in London, England.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, speaker, author.