J'aime la bière. Which means I like beer in French. It is no secret. I have been to a few bars in Rennes to get acquainted with the local culture. France is not known for beer as we all know it has traditionally been known for its wine consumption. They have a few fairly large producers, but the French beer is beer pong quality at best. I have taken a liking to Belgian beers. Their unique, almost sweet taste, makes them very recognizable. Being very close to France many of these beers are readily available. Towards the beginning of the semester, one of our Canadian friends who studied a semester here for his undergrad took us to a little bar that sells a micro brew called La Chouffe. Instantly, I was in love. It is very good, but a little pricy. We frequent this bar just to grab a Chouffe or two when nothing is going on or a place to start out the night.
During a class where we were not listening about SPSS and how to enter statistics into a special program to help our research, or something like that, my roommate and I got a wild hair up our ass's and decided to make the trip to Belgium to check out this brewery. We rented a car and woke up at the ass crack of dawn to begin our voyage to Belgium. I was so excited that I didn't sleep at all the night before. Maybe not the best idea, as I am the only one who can drive a manual transmission. We drove through a majority of France, no thanks to our stupid GPS, who was not aware of half the roads we were traveling. After some select words aimed at GPS lady, which I will never let my mother hear or deny to the grave of ever having spoken these words, we saw the sign to Achouffe Belgium.
We had finally made it. There was a wooden gnome pointing down a hill. Before I move forward, the gnome is the symbol for the beer. The brewery is located in the Ardennes mountains, which is known for their fairy tales of gnomes and elves roaming the forests. They are not what you would think of as a typical US mountain like those in the Rockies, but more of very large wooded hills, which even in the beginning of March proved to be beautiful. Back to the story, we drove down this hill not knowing what to expect. We finally reach the bottom and basically our mouth's dropped. It was almost if this was out of a picture book or fairy tale. This entire town seemed to be dedicated to the brewery. Not only was there a small brewery, but a lake, chapel, tavern, and restaurants all bearing the Chouffe name. We were a little early for our tour, so we decided to find our hotel which was supposedly located in this town.
We walked into the tavern, and in basic French, asked if they spoke English. The girl at the bar did and pointed us in the right direction. Hey, it was an 8 hour drive, we did not feel like structuring a French sentence together. We drove up this winding hill to the top. Here sat our hotel, L'Hotel Espine. It was a Thursday, so we were the only guests to this point. This hotel sat at the top of a large hill and you could see for miles. There were little houses with smoke rolling out of the chimneys and there were rolling hills of forest as far as the eye could see. It was truly a spectacular sight. Rennes is not extremely huge, with a population of a little more than 200,000, but being a small town boy it was good to be in the country. We checked and took the short stroll down to the village.
I had contacted the brewery earlier and they said we could take the tour, but the catch, it would be conducted in Dutch. They gave us an English text and the tour guide spoke to us before and after in English to clear up any questions, as we had no idea what the hell was said in the tour. After the tour were were given a complimentary Chouffe glass and a token to have the first beer on them. The rest of the Freaky Deaky Dutch went to a separate place, but since we were starving we went to the Chouffe tavern that was a restaurant as well. The place was modern, but very cozy and given the old feel. There was a fire in the middle and a few old men sitting around talking to the Chef. We had a few beers and decided to order. All of the food in this place had a Chouffe theme. At first glance, we saw the menu was in Dutch. In Belgium French and Dutch are the primary languages spoken. We were pissed, why couldn't it be in French. We discovered it was as well. We may not be learning much, but hey, at least we can figure out a menu when it is in French so we are learning something. I ordered rabbit in a Chouffe sauce. It was amazing. I have never had rabbit before, but I chased plenty of those little bastards in my Geo Metro in high school. Actually, I drove into someones back yard to chase one and then saw the patrol car sitting in the back driveway so I got the hell out of dodge. To be safe, I left my lights on so my car would die and I could drive my mom's car to school the next few days. Anyways, that is an entirely different story.
We sat around for the better part of the afternoon, enjoying our food, La Chouffe, and checking out the scenery around the little town. Being a Thursday, things closed down fairly early. We took a little nap, and then realized not much would be open, so we just chilled at the Hotel bar. We actually played chess. Neither Ryan or myself know much about chess, but we are extremely competitive. The game took like an hour and a half as we strategically analyzed each move, but I am proud to say I was victorious. I know you will want to compare me to Bobby Fischer, but I will humbly decline. I'm just an average guy, with the will to win in anything. It was nice to relax and check out this amazing place. We checked out the next town over a bit in the morning, but that about concludes our stay in Belgium. We then made our next adventure to Luxembourg which will be discussed later because I am tired of typing and I have to pee, but until next time, Au Revoir.
PS----> I need to get this off my chest and I am pretty sure no one will read this so it is better to do it here. I ran out of TV shows to watch online so I decided to try Glee to see what the hype was about. The first episode was OK and then the next thing I know it I am on episode 8 and it is 4:00 in the morning. I don't care what you think, those f**kers can sing. I am hooked. I don't know why I played sports in high school this seems much cooler. I guess I can't sing and when I dance I look like an awkward duck, but alright I wrote a novel check you later.
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