One of my best Champagne moments goes back to my time in Marseille when I worked as an intern for a spirits company. This little anecdote is intended to express my deep love for the French culture.
One normal office day in summer 2014 on of my intern-colleagues spontaneously invited me to her goodbye-lunch with her male coworkers. It took place in a nearby restaurant the same day. I agreed and went around 12h30 to Le Comptoir, a french restaurant with a beautiful terrace. After we took two Lillet aperitifs at the bar (in France, it's ok to drink alcohol at lunch), we were brought to the table and started selecting from the menu. I remember that I took salmon covered with vegetables. I still have the delicious taste in my mouse when I think of it. The sun was shining so bright that one of our paler colleagues even got sunburnt. For a sunlover like me, it was just fine.
I still thought that this would be a normal two hour lunch break which is already pretty long measured by German standards. Even if I was used to this kind of breaks in France, this one was setting new records. After having finished the main dish, we pursued to the dessert. It's unnecessary to say that the wine perfectly matched the meals. We were laughing, hearing stories from everyone and just enjoyed each others company.Time was flying. When we arrived at the coffee ceremony, my watch displayed 15h30 (!). I was already having lunch since 3 hours…Ups! This would have definitely never happened in Germany, where I was used to 30 minutes lunch breaks, and when I say 30 minutes it was no minute more or less. And the lunch was not over yet:
Champagne came as the cherry on the cake. We ordered two bottles of Perrier-Jouet to finish this wonderful get-together. From this moment on, it was definitely not an average goodbye-lunch anymore. Champagne turned it into a "moment de fête".
Finally, I was back at the office at 17h30. I just had a 5 hours lunch break. I have to admit that I was a bit afraid of the comments that I would get but my co-workers were just saying: "Cool, seemed you guys had a fun time."
This is one of the reasons why I love France. French do not care so much about time. In addition, they treat themselves to the good things in life more often. They know when the time for Champagne has come. They just enjoy life. I got inspired.
Cheers to the working week ahead! Let surprise you!
