Bâton à Casser la Mousse,

This morning I took a wee tiki tour on my walk down to the winery, a bit of a detour to see more of the village. There are beautiful castles and gardens tucked away, some looking quite closed up, though after my time in Champagne now I know there are people living behind those walls. Ran into Dedette Chauvet on the way, the winery's founder and Clotilde's mother, buying her daily baguette from the boulangerie, and we did the bises bises, that double cheek kiss greeting. It struck me how easy and familiar everything is feeling now, and how I'm properly getting recognised around the village too.

Today was an unusual one for the middle of harvest. Not much fruit coming in, so things felt a bit more relaxed than usual, and that relaxed mood is exactly what let the team pull off a proper prank on me.

bâton à casser la mousse

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bâton à casser la mousse 〰️

I got sent off with a trolley to find a bâton à casser la mousse, which translates to a stick for breaking the foam. Except there's no such thing, it's a vintage prank that gets played on the newbie. I got sent down to Champagne Pâques et Fils, who sent me into the village looking for it, then down to the Co-Operative, who strung the joke along even further by actually building a fake wooden version of the thing. The whole village was in on it, having a good laugh at the one who doesn't speak French being sent hunting round for a tool that doesn't exist. I couldn't stop laughing. Got back to find the winery team creased up, and somewhere in amongst it all I'd been handed flowers and a ball. It was so funny. Revenge is brewing, I'm properly part of the team now and I've got a plan taking shape.

My plan was revenge, so I went back to the Co-Operative and explained myself, how I wanted to add salt to a bottle of Champagne to play on Nikolai. The Co-Operative team were on board and gave me a bottle. Went back to Fred's house and we added the salt and recorked it there. The joke's on him now.