Thursday, November 20, 2008

How Champagne is Made, circa 1949

If you have eight minutes to spare, enjoy this almost 60-year-old educational film, in English. It starts in Paris, with some great street scenes of places you might recognize.




While everyone else is getting feverish about the arrival of le Beaujolais Nouveau 2008, you can kick back and learn about the ancient art of making champagne. I wonder how much it has changed.

Bonus: if you've ever been baffled by how to pronounce Reims, you'll have it perfected by the end.

4 comments:

Jane said...

I love these old films. This one really made me crave a glass of champagne. Too bad it's 11:00 a.m.

Starman said...

That was very interesting. I already knew how to pronounce Reims, but I wonder about the announcer since he pronounced it differently several times.

Polly-Vous Francais said...

Jane,

As my family always says, it's noon somewhere in the world. (Or 6 pm, depending on the desired libation.)

And I credit your blog (Betty and Helen video!!!) with inspiring me to look at archival black and white films on the web. They are a major time sink, but so wonderful.


Starman,

Did he really pronounce Reims differently? I hadn't noticed -- all I heard was an excited pitch in his voice every time he said the word. The 'foreignness' of his accent in English did seem to vary with his enthusiasm for the subject matter...

christine said...

Oh I want to travel back to that time --get off the metro and be in that Paris. Thanks for sharing!

(his accent sounds almost fake to me...is he really French I wonder?)

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