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Happy Friday! I have an off-topic little bit of trivia to share. While planning an upcoming trip to France, I looked online at Amazon and others for a French book that is the best existing guide for anyone planning to visit wineries in France -- it's the Hachette Guide des Vins. The book is very cool, and bears explaining -- but the point of this post is the way I ended up ordering it. The best price I found from US booksellers was $70 -- but this is about a $25 book. That's some serious customs tax :) So, I went online to the french Amazon page (Amazon.fr) and ordered the same book for 24 Euro and 10 Euro for shipping. Even with the weak dollar, that's half of what it would have cost from the US Amazon site.
I realize I might just be a geek or way behind the times, but I love the fact that I can order something from France in just a few mouse clicks and,with no extra effort and a very short wait, have it delivered to my door for almost the same cost as if I was in Paris right now.
As someone who works with computers professionally, I think I take so much of the convenience for granted. This just struck me as something very cool. It's a pretty interesting time we live in :)
... and yes, this post is a bit of a cheat. I promised to be back up and posting meaty stuff by earlier this week, but my schedule has taken a bit more time than planned to get under control. I do hope to post some new tips before the end of the weekend (fingers crossed :)
... meanwhile, for anyone who is interested in French wineries and hasn't heard of the Hachette guide, it's really quite incredible. They have a very detailed listing of producers by region and locality -- provide ratings for recent vintages, as well as contact information and tasting\visiting policies. There is an English version, I believe, but I've been told it's just not the same. The 2006 edition was just recently released. I can't wait to get mine!
It's beautiful today in NYC -- hope everyone is enjoying this Friday!
Posted by Stephanie
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