« Infineon Needs A Sucker | Main | Who's A Cyberchondriac Then? »

The Aladdin Of The Boulevard Saint Germain

Sitting at the last presentation before lunch with my attention drifting, my fingers involuntarily type 'wine shop paris' into Google and up comes a list. Suddenly I am all-attention. There is a shop which sells only Bordeaux. and, by the look of it, every Bordeaux.

 

La Maison de Millesimes at 137 Boulevard St Germain, was offering "un service charmant et de bons conseils" as, indeed, it turned out to do.

 

The conference chairman then makes one of those wonderful pronouncements which you only hear in France, there will be a break of three hours for lunch.

 

The girl at the hotel reception says it's 40 minutes by taxi and will cost a fortune, and 40 minutes by Metro and will cost euros 1.60. She shows me the Metro route and I set off feeling as blithe as a schoolboy on a skive.

 

Onto the Metro's Line 3 at Galieni, and it's nine stops to Reaumur Sebastopol where a change to Line 4 brings me, seven stops later, to St Germain des Pres emerging from which I find myself almost at the door of La Maison de Millesimes.

 

Inside it's an Aladdin's Cave of Bordeaux. Wonderful bottles from the great, romantic names of the Medoc. Thirty year-old bottles, great vintages, not-so-great vintages.

 

Aladdin is a young Bordeaux-phile, we chat, and in that super-polite way of the more charming French, he indicates that it could possibly be more productive if we continue in English.

 

We exchange a few ideas. He knows 1,000 times more about Bordeaux than I do, but allows me to choose a bottle. He suggests the others. We haggle in the most friendly way about the price.

 

I leave as mellow and content as it is possible to feel. Six bottles of Bordeaux are usually quite heavy but these feel as light as a feather..

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.electronicsweekly.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/42008

Comments (6)

Rupert Baines:

Very jealous.

So what did you buy? Don't leave us in suspense!

David Manners Author Profile Page:

Pichon Longueville Baron 1992
Rauzan Segla 1994
Leoville Poyferre 1993
Grand Puy Lacoste 1993
Pouget 1995
Pontet Canet 1993

Dick Selwood:

And did you go back to the afternoon session?

david manners:

I have to confess I rather let the side down. Instead of spending the afternoon necking the whole lot on a park bench, I tamely went back and listened to the after lunch session. Now, if you'd been there, things might have turned out differently.

Elisabeth Feder:

David, you'll never change ! But the message is loud and clear. I didn't know this Aladdin's Cave, what a shame, but that's about to change, quite soon I hope ... By the way, how did you go back to the conference ? by metro or taxi ?

david manners:

Elisabeth, lovely to hear from you.
I went back by Metro.
I have aleady drunk the Rauzan Segla it was sublime
Hope to see you soon
David

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

About

This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on December 5, 2008 2:53 PM.

The previous post in this blog was Infineon Needs A Sucker.

The next post in this blog is Who's A Cyberchondriac Then?.

Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.

Sign up for the new weekly Mannerisms eNewsletter. Get the latest posts straight to your email inbox, no fuss. Tick the option for Semiconductor commentary.

RSS Subscribe to this blog's feed
[What is this?]
ElectronicsNews on Twitter Follow ElectronicsNews on Twitter

ADIFY Network

Recent Comments

david manners on The Aladdin Of The Boulevard Saint Germain: Elisabeth, lovely to hear from you. I w
Elisabeth Feder on The Aladdin Of The Boulevard Saint Germain: David, you'll never change ! But the mes
david manners on The Aladdin Of The Boulevard Saint Germain: I have to confess I rather let the side
Dick Selwood on The Aladdin Of The Boulevard Saint Germain: And did you go back to the afternoon ses
David Manners on The Aladdin Of The Boulevard Saint Germain: Pichon Longueville Baron 1992 Rauzan Seg
Rupert Baines on The Aladdin Of The Boulevard Saint Germain: Very jealous. So what did you buy? Don'

Archives