Champagne...not!

We had lunch at my in-laws' yesterday before heading over to meet Suzanne's new second cousin (or is it first cousin once removed)? Anyway, to drink we had a choice of organic orange juice or la méthode. My FIL was serving it like a kir royal so I'm wondering if this is white wine, sparkling white wine, mousseux, crémant, clairette, or one of the other various sparking white beverages the French have that aren't champagne (can you tell my in-laws are into wine?). As the meal goes on, and we start talking about the municipal elections (which was obviously way too much for me since I was only drinking organic juice) I finally asked the question: what is la méthode? The answer, quite simply, is champagne that cannot be called champagne because it is from a different region.

Which brings me to the bottle of real champagne that's been sitting in my fridge for over a month now. For the holidays my boss (who I adore not only because he's great, but because he has a very Anglo-Saxon way of managing!) gave us each a bottle as a gift. We decided to save it for a special occasion. Since it wasn't consumed at New Year's, we decided to wait until the big day - the day GDF came. Every time I open the fridge, I see this lonely bottle sitting next to Suzanne's milk.

On Thursday night, I come home rather late from a drink at my boss' (cool he invites us over to get sloshed, right? He even rolled around on the floor with Suzanne who didn't drink by the way), Jérôme asks me in a kind of rhetorical way when we would drink the champagne. I respond that it's for when GDF comes. He informs me that they came: we now have a new counter and they drilled a hole in the sidewalk to set up the gas line. I see the look in his and I ask, "but do we have gas?"

So, the champagne is still in the fridge getting colder and colder, but I think this deserves some sort of celebration, just the fact that GDF actually exists is enormous! so, let's break out the méthode!