A Lesson Learned

Wine is important to the Frenchman, and wine-drinking is a ritual in France. As a visitor, it's important to participate in this cultural mainstay, lest ye be laughed at. Fortunately for us economically hard-pressed language assistants, decent wine is cheap here. Three euros will buy you a drinkable bottle of wine, and five euros ($7) will buy you a good - nay, a classy - bottle of wine. Would you expect so much from a $7 bottle of wine in the States?

There is just one obstacle to overcome before one can partake in that sweet, sweet nectar. Have you ever noticed the pesky fact that it is, generally speaking, impossible to drink a glass of wine without first uncorking the bottle? And when you don't own a decent corkscrew, this is a feat easier blogged about than actually accomplished.

For your viewing pleasure, below are photos of the first bottle of wine my roommates and I uncorked to celebrate our newly formed roommate trio.

As you can see, the effort quickly devolved into a team-building exercise.

Fortunately we were able to get that bottle open relatively unscathed. The next bottle, as you will see below, presented a bit more of a challenge.

We broke the cork. We bottomed it. We banged the base of the bottle against a phone book (internet forum advice). We sliced the cork with a knife and attempted to dig it out, bit by bit. This, friends, is our dedication to the craft of wine-drinking. We broke the corkscrew.

Eventually, we did manage to get the cork out. And we drank that bottle of wine. The wine, it turns out, was only the least bit corky.

And then, friends, we invested in a winged corkscrew. And that little guy has been such a friend.

I can now open a bottle of wine with some measure of success and not too much strife. I still look forward to the day when I can open a bottle of wine in under ten seconds flat. Maybe my roommates and I should hold periodic tournaments...