Lara’s Knighthoods

In my life, I’ve been awarded a few thingys here and there.

My favourite ones are the Order of Canada, and the Ordre des Chevaliers du Tastevin. The Order of Canada was a big surprise, and I still have no idea how it came about. But, being basically the Canadianest Canadian south of the border (has anyone SEEN my Canada Day cooking!?!?!) I’m super proud to have received it. I don’t think it was awarded for my pea soup and butter tarts though.

The Tastevin one is not, in fact, given to someone for drinking lots of red wine, as is commonly supposed by folks who know me. One has to be nominated for that one too, and I don’t know how it happened either. It was amazing to go to that incredible dinner at Château de Clos Vougeot – I negotiated to play early (it was Arts et Lettres: Printemps et Musique) so I could drink sooner.

Still, I missed the Champagne and almost all the white wine courses. By the time I got to the table after performing, many folks had already drunk a lot of the whites and were starting to not even taste their Vieilles Vignes de Bourgogne glasses. As a proper recently heralded and knighted Chevalier, I helped them out.

I think I might have had around, well, several to a multitude of glasses of wine that night. I recall (yes! I do!) leaving around 2 AM. I had to leave around 9 AM the next day, and I woke up like a little daisy. The greatest wines from the oldest vines do not hangovers create.

Toujours en Vin, Jamais en Vain!

I was disappointed that the Order of Canada ceremony was so early – 11 AM! It took a while, but even so, the reception and lunch happened around 1:30 PM, and I can’t drink wine in the daytime so I ended up staring sadly at all these vintage Canadian wines I’ve heard so much about (yes folks, we make quite a lot of great wine from two of our valleys – Okanagan and Niagara!)

I made up for it the next few evenings with Ottawa friends. And met quite a few ultra-interesting fellow Order members at that nice lunch.

Two great days for the memory book.