Turning Up the Heat in a Small French Village
In Burgundy, where I now live after the death in California of my husband of 50 years, 2025 experienced the hottest summer on record. It could have been disastrous for this year's grapes, as temperatures soared over 100 degrees in July and then again in August. Luckily, most of the vineyards in the Côte d'Or were able to move les vendanges (the harvest) to mid-August instead of early September as hoped. Because of that, it will likely turn out to be a good year for the vintners.
I remember coming with my husband eight years ago to the little village of Meursault, outside Beaune, to help with the grandchildren, and where some in my family work for two prominent domaines: my daughter, Annabelle, for Domaine Roulot, and her husband, Brian Sieve, winemaker for Domaine de Montille. That's finished; most vignerons here, and probably elsewhere in France, think cooler summers will never return.
In mid-August, I fainted from the heat, broke my sacrum, and spent 2 1/2 weeks in the local hospital. The hospital did save my life (by pumping me with fluids to treat my severe dehydration) and I'm thankful for that, as is my family. But it took three days for the hospital to X-ray my lower back. Perhaps they were hoping to save money or maybe were just tired of my American screams.
More possibly, my situation was emblematic of how much the French medical system has failed to address years of diminishing care with not enough doctors, nurses, or staff to do the menial tasks a hospital is required to do. Many employees were allowed to take two weeks off to pick grapes and return to their jobs at the hospital. If my children hadn't brought me nourishing food, I would have died of starvation.
Not every patient had a daughter who could bring her mother fine food prepared by renowned chef Jean-Marc Roulot, a 6th generation winemaker who happens to produce exceptionally fine, white, Burgundies and refined eaux-de vie. Jean-Marc is not only a gourmet chef, but is also a well-known actor who starred with Juliette Binoche in the acclaimed 2023 film, “A Taste of Things” (La Passion de Dodin Bouffant) as Augustine Yannick, a forester who takes his fellow gourmands to his hut in the woods to demonstrate roasting and eating ortolan, a rare (and now protected) songbird, the delicacy François Mitterand famously ate for his last supper.
Nor do patients have a son-in-law, as I do, to bring them fresh croissants and quiches from Meursault's divine bakery, Le Septième Péché, after arranging for the casse-croûte and déjeuner from an exceptional local caterer for Domaine de Montille's large army of harvesters. La Domaine was featured in the 2004 film “Mondovino,” about the unwanted globalization of Burgundies and the Chinese buying up local vineyards. There is a low-key competition between domaines in Meursault to treat their seasonal workers well so that they will return to work the next year.
Bad Food in French Hospitals?
Oui! Plastic wrapped biscuits for breakfast, with a small glass of orange juice and coffee the color of bile, along with watery vegetable soup, “moussaka” that looked like cow dung, and a small chunk of packaged Camembert with a tasteless apricot for dessert is just one of the hospital’s typical daily menus. My 12-year-old grandson called my meals dégoûtants… in a word, disgusting. He should know; at his middle school he is served a gourmet lunch every day and raves about it.
Why should school children eat better than hospitalized French? What happens to those patients that don't have family or friends to nourish them? These were questions I asked a fellow patient. After whispering to me that the staff brings their own meals, she quickly put her right index to her lips to warn me not to complain or it could get worse. How could it get worse? I wondered.
Perhaps the dire situation of French socialized health care is just one more element in the general crisis France is facing with a dying economy, spiraling debt, uncertainty about what part France should play in ending the bloodshed in Ukraine, uncontrolled illegal immigration, anti-semitism, mounting crime, and a population that has lost any faith it had in its government.
The fractured Left called for a general strike 10 days after the confidence vote in Parliament that toppled the latest Macron prime minister and just a week after the “Let's Block Everything” protest movement. Many pharmacies went on strike in July, hoping to make life as difficult as possible, so they might elect the very far-left Jean-Luc Mélanchon over a replacement of far-right Marine Le Pen, who has been convicted of embezzlement and is barred from running, should Macron fall. Unless cafés, bistros, brasseries, and restaurants, close, however, it's hard to see how life will change for the average Frenchman, who will still eat extremely well. Merci Mitterand!
For me, I've told my children to just let me die chez moi (in my home), in my bed (with croissants for breakfast, and good bœuf Bourguignon with pommes vapeurs and fresh courgettes followed by a slice of tarte tatin for dinner) should I fall again.
No more French hospitals or French hospital food for me, s'il vous plait!
Community Calendar:
Seize Your Chance to Make a Difference!
We need 100 volunteers to reach 300 homes in Santa Barbara County by Nov 6th to distribute literature for the Special Election. Urge Registered Republicans to vote NO on Prop 50 to stop gerrymandering and protect fair elections!
Call Barbara at 805-895-5545 to RSVP and learn more.
Training: Sat, Sept 27, 9:00-10:30 AM
55S La Cumbre St, Suite 4
Your moment to act is NOW!
click here for more information and to sign up to Truth Rising Under the Stars
Got a Santa Barbara event for our community calendar? Fenkner@sbcurrent.com
President Trump’s triumphant speech in front of the United Nations General Assembly yesterday, was a much needed dose of tough love and a reality check for the EU. Granted, Trump’s visit to the UN started off a bit shaky, as malignant saboteurs attempted to embarrass our President by stopping the escalator just as he and wife Melania attempted to board. Followed up by an pitiful attempt to shut down his teleprompter and lowering his microphone volume. So it would seem the cowards at the UN were trying to silence and embarrass Trump? No matter, he continued to deliver a magnificent performance.
Trump accurately and poignantly described how the EU has become an “unmitigated immigration disaster.” The French, along with several other European countries, have been overrun by hoards of millions of uneducated, poverty stricken migrants from the Middle East and Africa, leaving French culture in shambles. Perhaps this is now an ironic dose of penance for the French for the decades of colonialism, capped off by a murderous rampage in Algeria?
Who knows? What is clear is the only chance for the French to regain relevance and identity it would seem, is to elect conservative Marine Le Pen. Then again, that may be complicated as she has been indicted for embezzlement. Sound familiar?
So, the left (no matter what country) will conspire by any means necessary, in an attempt to silence conservatives by a variety of means; criminal indictments, assassination and yes, turning off the teleprompter!
If anything Charlie Kirk has taught us, we will not be silenced!
Calla, our Cottage Hospital here now serves excellent meals. I know, I was there for seven weeks and I'm a pretty good home chef. It's my understanding that it was a Four Seasons chef who completely revamped the kitchen at Cottage. I believe it was due to donations and the young Chef Martin Frost (no relation) who was one of the key people responsible for this. (A sad note: he later died in a freak accident while diving.) But perhaps that's what you need in your part of France, some of your excellent chefs insisting on better hospital food. It didn't happen in Santa Barbara because of our government, God knows. It happened because of local people standing up for patients.