Forget George Washington, Louis Pasteur slept here!
Yeah, I know, here I go picking on George Washington again. Arbois was just too magical to leave, so we stayed another day. If there is an overarching theme of this region, it might just be on the microbial level. Not only is so much of the wine and cheese making here dependent on the unique microbes that live in this area, but huge landmarks in scientific advancement are inexorably tied to the area. Louis Pasteur lived and ran his experiments right here in Arbois, first working to cure “diseases of wine”, then creating the anthrax and rabies vaccines, while also discovering that eliminating microbes in wine and food via heating can lead to less spoilage (aka pasteurization), as well as pioneering new techniques of sanitation in the medical field that led to less secondary infection and risk of death on the operating table (before this time, physicians were not in the habit of sanitizing their tools or hands!) My science nerd self enjoyed the walk around Pasteur’s old haunts, but was then distracted by the wine nerd self who realized that even the cathedrals have murals and stained glass dedicated to the grape, and the town is chock a block of medieval buildings dating to the 13th century, with what seemed like every other shop dedicated to wine tasting rooms or to selling cheese. I have now acquired some new treasures to bring back home (I wish they let me bring the cheese or saucisse back on the plane, but to no avail, so I’ll just have to eat them here), and it’s time to get back to work. Almost, almost caught up on emails and tour journal stuff, and tomorrow we’ll start heading north again in the direction of the Netherlands and our last two shows here in Europe.
