My son’s second grade reader recounts the adventures of two protagonists, Picouic and Tigrelin, ( a dog and a cat) who gallivant around France and discover various curiosities and sites of cultural importance. A few weeks ago, my son read several chapters on Picouic and Tigrelin’s discovery of Rungis, the massive food market (the world’s largest apparently) seven kilometers outside Paris. The first incarnation of this market appeared in 1110 when it was established in central Paris at Les Halles. In 1969 the market was moved to Rungis in the suburbs, a move that many still regret. It was a bit like giving the city a gastrectomy. Recently I tried to obtain a pass to get into the gigantic, disembodied stomach but the paperwork required was daunting. I gave up. Picouic and Tigrelin managed to get in without passes. Their friend, the farmer who calls his cows “mes chéries,” snuck them in on his truck.
This week we read chapter 37 La Fabrication du Vin or The Making of Wine
A brief translation:
“Picouic and Tigrelin look at each other, delighted. It’s here that they make the most famous wines in the world, Bourgogne! Without making noise they follow the two men to learn more…
How fascinating it is to make wine! The man in overalls, the winemaker, explains to his visitors how to obtain the best crus of red wine.
– We are going to wait until September to harvest when the grapes are well ripened. We will choose the most beautiful grapes. Then we will press them to extract the juice, which we will then let ferment in a tank until it turns into wine. This wine we will put in a barrel to age in the cool of the cellar, for it is much better after several months, even years.”
I think you get the idea…
In France no one blinks an eye at this chapter on wine-making; nor does Picouic and Tigrelin’s reverent attitude, more appropriate to a visit to the Vatican, give the average French parent pause. Most children here have visited a winery by the time they’re seven – my son certainly has seen his share – and drinking wine is such an ordinary and yet holy part of French life that it is only natural for P & T to explore its fabrication.
Try to imagine such a chapter in a British or American second grade reader… The impossibility of Chapter 37 ever crossing the Atlantic speaks profoundly of our cultural differences in attitudes regarding food and pleasure, the material and the spiritual.
I also have a certain suspicion about Chapter 37. At age seven, Catholic children traditionally prepare for First Communion. Part of this preparation involves adjusting to the taste of wine so that the child does not retch or spit at the altar. I remember being administered sips of wine at dinner at that age and loving the tartness. First Communion was a breeze.
What I find suspicious is that this chapter on wine appears precisely in a 2nd grade reader destined for 7 year olds. And I don’t believe this is a coincidence. Nor do I think the connection with Catholic agenda is conscious. It’s like fish on Friday.