Which reminds me. Have you ever seen one of these?
Whenever visiting friends asked, "What totally-unique souvenir shall I take home from France?" I marched them right down to BHV. To the beloved basement, warehouse of All Things French. To stock up on these French corkscrews for their friends and family.
One reason? This is literally a piece of France: wood from old French vines transformed into a corkscrew, called a tire-bouchon cep de vigne: literally vine-wood pull-cork.
Another reason: each corkscrew is unique, for obvious reasons. Created by artisans.
One aspect of the appeal of the tire-bouchon cep de vigne is difficult to explain until you have one in your hands: the heft of the thing feels right, and the curve of the vine in your hand makes you feel like opening a bottle of wine is a bit of a ceremony.
Which, of course is as it should be.
5 comments:
Last time I looked for one of those in France, I couldn't find one! Anywhere!
Oh, wish I had known.... I scoured that basement floor of BHV just two weeks ago. Too bad, home now; next time. thanks!
I wish I'd known, too! I was in BHV last month, but only upstairs. A quick errand. Next time!
I'm in....I have one!! bought many years ago on a family holiday in Provence!!
Lol. Brings back memories. My mother, who is from Luxembourg, always had a few of these in the dining buffet drawer. She didn't drink much wine, but whenever she did, she used her French corkscrew. She said it was the same corkscrew my grandfather had used. When I left home and moved and moved to Pirmasens, just across the border from Metz, it was one of the first things I got at the farmer's market. Priceless memories. Good idea as a gift as well. I think I just did my christmas shopping!
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