The Vineyards of Champagne

The Vineyards of Champagne by Juliette Blackwell   416 pages

If I don’t get my Christmas cookies baked this year (2019), it’s Juliette Blackwell’s fault. She has written another compelling novel that had to be read as opposed to baking.

The story takes place in, and below, in France’s Champagne region. I first learned about the numerous cave systems that run throughout the area when I read Kristin Harmel’s “The Winemaker’s Wife.” Fascinating reading.

This story has one of my favorite storytelling devices: dualing timelines.  The present day starts off in California’s Napa Valley. Recently widowed Rosalyn Acosta, a wine rep for Small Fortune Wines, is begin sent to Reims, France, to call on the smaller growers there in hopes of gaining the rights to represent them in the States. There are only two drawbacks to this assignment. First, Rosalyn doesn’t want to go to France, Paris in particular. It was where she and her late husband, Dash, honeymooned.  Second, Rosalyn abhors champagne.

On the flight to Paris, Rosalyn lives every long-distance flyer’s nightmare. A chatty seatmate in first class.  Turns out that the seatmate, Emma, is also headed to Reims. With her she has letters from Emile Legrand, that date to World War I. The letters are are between Emile and Lucie, a childhood friend,and Doris, Emile’s marraine de guerre, or war godmother. Women who wrote to the soldier’s that didn’t have no one back home. Emma knows that to get the complete story, she must find other letters. Letters that have been sitting in attics, backs of closets, in tiny museums for decades. That is her quest and it’s clear early in the novel, that Emma pretty much well gets what she wants.

As Rosalyn is reluntanctly brought into Emma’s quest, she becomes fascinated with how the people of the Champagne moved into the cave system in order to avoid the German bombs that fell incessantly. They had schools, shops, resturants, everything that was accessible above ground.

So now Rosalyn has two goals while she is there: Land some new accounts and help Emma translate the letters.

I enjoyed reading what life was like in the caves. It sounds rather romantic, but the facts lead to a different conclusion. I really enjoyed this novel and “The Vineyards of Champagne” receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

The Winemaker's Wife

 

The Winemaker’s Wife  by Kristen Harmel   400 pages

Part of this story takes place in the Champagne Region of France. It’s set in 1940 and begins just before the Nazis invade France. Then the timeline and the location shifts to 2019 and New York. Dualing timelimes…one of my favorite plot structures!

In the 1940s sections, the Maison Chauveau is one of, if not the, best Champagne houses in all of France. The house is owned and operated by Michel Chauveau and his new wife, Ines. Also heavily featured in these sections are the chef de cave, Theo, and his wife, Celine. No matter the danger they are in from the aiding enemy army, there is a bigger threat to the house’s stability. Celine is half-Jewish. Word of the real purposes of the “work camps” is just beginning to be discussed. Michel puts them all in danger, but especially Celine, when he begins running munitions for the French Resistance. Michel is so worried, and so preoccupied,  that he begins to ignore Ines, hoping her ignorance of his activities will keep her safe. Then there is the attraction Michel feels for Celine that puts a monkey wrench in the whole situation.

In New York, Liv has lost everything. Right before she and her husband, Eric, had started their third round of in vitro fertilization, he convinced Liv to quit her job, to stay home and focus on getting pregnant. Little did Liz know that it got her out of the way while he had an affair. Now divorced, Liv is depressed. There’s a knock at her door

Her 99-year-old grandmother has arrived from France to get her. Liv isn’t interested in returning to Paris. But Grandma Edith is a tough cookie, still, and won’t take no for an answer. Plus she has an agenda that will shock Liv, and give her the purpose she needs to move on with her life.

I enjoyed “The Winemaker’s Wife.” Author Kristen Harmel does an excellent job in keeping the characters’s secrets until the end. There was one question that I had that wasn’t answered and that is, “Did the Nazis find the hidden room in the underground cave system where Michel and Theo his their best champagnes?” Otherwise, the story is a fascinating look at the cave system where Maison Chauveau hid their products, the small things that were done as part of the Resistance, and family secrets. 

The Author’s Notes provided insight into the book’s creation, which was also fascinating.  “The Winemaker’s Wife ” receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.