Study Abroad Week 6: Aix-en-Provence and Sainte Roseline's body

So-called Atlanteans supporting the balcony of a house with a beautiful façade

Well.  I remember reading about incorruptible saints, and how common relics of saints were in Europe during the middle and dark ages.  The e-mail for this particular CEA excursion just said that we would be going to Aix-en-Provence, then to a vineyard and seeing the Chapelle Sainte-Roseline next to it, where Saint Roseline's bones were kept as relics.  It wasn't until we were leaving Aix to head to the vineyard that the program coordinator, Kristin, told us that we would be seeing her body, and that the reliquary held her eyes.

As French a meal as you can ask for, except for ordering a croque monsieur/madame

I've read a lot about the history of the Catholic church, so I tried to recall this saint as they gave her story. I could not until they mentioned that a miracle where bread held in her apron turned into rose, then I remembered her from my bulky encyclopedia of saints.  I remember thinking her body had been found preserved from the heavy organic material in the soil, but then thought I was mixing her up with Saint Bernadette or someone else, until Kristin mentioned that her body had been exhumed and found preserved some centuries after her death.  But then she mentioned the eyes.  When Rosaline was exhumed, her eyes were wide open and glassy, almost lifelike.  I do not know how much of that to believe, as whenever I read about incorruptible saints, it always says that their bodies are perfectly preserved and do not decay, looking almost asleep, leading you to envision a body as though freshly dead. But when I was older and had access to the internet I googled these incorruptible saints and they all look like Rosaline- merely mummified, much like the Iceman, bog bodies, or Ginger.  Their bodies are all quite well preserved, but always they are never "as though sleeping."  The most beautiful examples of incorruptible saints- Bernadette and Silvan- are all covered in wax to appear as though asleep, or their body parts are made of wax.  This is, again, much like preserved bodies in museums- they are either treated to remain in appearance the way they were with found, or represented in a way meant to show them as they appeared when alive.  Some books I read as a child do mention that the bodies are only very well-mummified, as the book I had on Saint Bernadette contained a lengthy section on how her body was found a mummy, and the lengthy process of keeping it routinely preserved and making the wax mask that covers her face and creates her hands.  It was fascinating, and a souvenir my aunt had brought me back from the site at Lourdes.  As far as I know, "incorruptibility" is just not used anymore, and Roseline wasn't on any list of so-called incorruptible saints, although she was on lists of preserved and/or naturally mummified saints (as were any "incorruptible" saints).

From left to right: Sainte Roseline's body, a plaque honouring Sainte Roseline's miracle of the flowers, and the eyes of St. Roseline within the mask in the reliquary 

For Rosaline, a doctor, wanting to keep her body preserved while it was on display, embalmed her body and coated her in a thin layer of beeswax- very thin, so her body could appear is it had when in the earth, nothing as extreme as the much later Saint Bernadette's. He removed her famous eyes and placed them in a reliquary, which, although I did peer into it, I could not bring myself to look at it for longer than a glance, and it was poorly lit, so I do not know how well-preserved her eyes actually are.  I'm going to assume they're something like the Gebelein man's ("Ginger," as linked above) "perfectly preserved" skin- dessicated but clearly retaining their owner's living appearance.  For Sainte Roseline, there is a prayer bench for the faithful, so you can pray while gazing into her long-dead eyes.  Nothing like gazing into mummified eyes to inspire spirituality, right?

From left to right: Barrels of wine, a figure swimming in the rain, and bottles of the Château Sainte-Roseline

After that we went back into the winery next to the chapel and walked around for a bit, had a lovely little wine tasting session (a follow-up of sorts to the CEA "Introduction to Wine Tasting" session we'd had previously), and I bought my parents a rosé wine as a souvenir, in the vineyard's characteristic lampe de méduse bottle. There's just something Provençal wines, particularly the rosés.

Au revoir!

Study Abroad Week 4: Wine Tasting!

My favourite wine-tasting locale: the typical French cafe or brasserie.  Because why not?

 

CEA held an Introduction to Cheese and Wine Tasting session on Tuesday. About half the program as there, because due to the size of the program they broke it up into two sessions of about 15 people each.  It was interesting.  We got a little booklet explaining the principles of wine tasting, the regions of France and their respective wines, wine-making and bottling practices in France, and a little bit of information on how to distinguish the origin of a wine by the shape of its bottle.  Our region of France is apparently known for its rosés, and even with the few wines I've tasted thus far into the semester, I can understand why.  Rosés just have so much more distinction than I can detect in either red or white.  True, reds have far more character and whites are more subtle and elegant (disclaimer: not a wine taster.  Take my opinion on wines with many grains of salt), but the varieties and subtleties of rosés amazes me.  We also had a little introduction to the cheeses of France, and how to pair and balance them with wines. 

In cheeses, we had:

1. Fromage de chèvre (goat cheese); served spread on bread
2. Chausée des Moines
3. Brie
4. Cousteron
5. Compté
6. Emmental
7. Roquefort; served spread on bread
8. Saint-Félicien; served spread on bread

 So today I had a randomly selected rosé and the three B's: baguette, brie, and basil

In wines, we had a very "basic" red and rosé, and Monbazillac, a white dessert wine.  I fell in LOVE with the Monbazillac, to the point I know that is one bottle I am bringing back to the States in May. 

In the instructions for tasting wine:

• Sniff the wine, whole nose in the glass, and swirl it around the glass
• Look at the "legs" of the wine- the wine that remains on the glass after you stop swirling
• Sniff the wine and sip, swirling it in your mouth and chewing it
• Spit or swallow

The red wine I found incredibly spicy after tasting it by chewing, though simply fragrant and woody when I tasted it normally just before.  The rosé deepened its fruity flavour when I chewed it, and the Monbazillac had a very delicate taste after chewing, in contrast to its vry sweet taste before that.  With the other wines I've had this week, I've noticed that reds tend to be quite spicy.  I'm no sommalier, but I do find that these little wine tasting tips have added interest to tasting wine for me, beyond "I liked it" or "This is good but that was bad."  And I have 3 months in wine country left to develop this with local but fine and rather cheap fare!

One other thing that astounded me was how different the cheeses tasted before and after tasting the different wines. I never have liked Roquefort, but it tasted decent and even delicious after the rosé and the red, and the emmental, which I loved, tasted AWFUL after I sipped some red. Brie, my favourite cheese ever, tasted lackluster and even meh after the red wine, but okay after the rose, and delicious as ever after the Monbazillac.  The other cheeses tasted great throughout, although how they tasted to me changed throughout.  I wasn't the only one, either, and the wine tasting pamphlet did have a brief mention on how different wines affect the palate. All in all, it was a wonderful experience and very good introduction to getting familiar with why I liked this wine and didn't like this one, or what it was in this wine that made it taste different from that one.  It was great!

Au revoir!