So yes, this book is about its about me following jeffersons travels across europe and its really it was a chance to learn about a different side of jefferson that we dont often hear about we all know about the younger jefferson who wrote the declaration of independence at the age of 33, and we probably know something about jefferson as an older man when he was president , but this gave me a chance to explore this different side of jefferson. It was in his when he was middle age in the 1780s. So jefferson was just going into his 40s, and he almost didnt travel to france at all. He had been asked twice to go over there to be ambassador from the United States and a declined it both times. But there were there were two events two traumatic events that really changed his mind and changed his whole life in the early 1780s that led him to take this trip. So one was he was governor of virginia for two years during the revolutionary war and it wound up being a very difficult time jefferson, you know, hes a brilliant guy, but he was not a good wartime governor. There are many challenges. He had trouble calling the militia up and the british wound up over running the state and jefferson himself was was almost captured at monticello. The dragons charged up the mountain and came within a few minutes of of catching him. And jefferson left office and he was fiercely criticized by this incident and he was really stung by criticism. He was you know, he was a bit of a sensitive guy and he swore at that point that he was done with politics. He wrote that hes retired to his farm and his family and his fields and nothing would stop ever separate him from them again. But then the next year the next event happened his his wife martha died. So they had lived together. He wrote it was 10 years of uncheckered happiness and when she passed away, he was just devastated as you might imagine. He he wrote that he was in a stupor of mind as dead to the world now as as late wife was so he was very distressed and he even wrote to one friend hinting at suicide. So so this is not the jefferson that that you might think of. In fact people didnt even know that he had written the declaration of independence for the most part. This had been kind of kept secret to make the document seem like it was the work of the Continental Congress as a whole. So here he was he was out of politics. His family life was ruined and he really just he just wanted to get away at that point. So James Madison knew this his good friend and close political ally and he arranged for congress to ask him for a third time to go to paris. This time he accepted. And it was over there. As you can see maybe from this painting that Jefferson Jefferson started enjoying himself again and and started to kind of find the joy in life if you will. So here he is. Hes hes dressing in the french manor. He discovered paris. He found so much to love there. He fell in love with the the Art Galleries and the intellectual salons and the music and just all the culture that paris had to offer and he really kind of came back in a way. I think he he not only got a new lease on life so to speak but he wound up learning so much when he was in europe, and it was learning about different topics that he could then contrast with what was going on in america and and come back to america with new ideas. So he wound up taking several trips across europe from paris. He was state. He was there he spent five years as the ambassador and he took three great trips away from the capitol where he really got to explore. So one was to the south of france and italy one was to england and one was to the netherlands and germany. And he learned about a lot of different subjects. He kind of refined his political ideals and i think my theory is it was really this time in france that kind of put him back on track to to rise through the political ranks in the government and eventually become president and it was towards the end of this day in europe. It was in 1788 that two Young Americans came to him. These were these were friends sons of friends of his back home and they were planning a great trip around the continent and who better to get advice from then jefferson the ambassador and the friend of their father so jefferson, being jefferson and you know the ultimate overachiever. He didnt just give you know a few a few names here and there you should go here and you know, check this out instead. He wrote a 5000 word letter to these these two 20 something guys and he even gave it a title. He called a hints to americans traveling in europe. So he sketched out this itinerary and for them to to follow and gave them a of ideas to. Of things to do. He also had a lot of insight from his english trip that he could share about things to do over there and he thought that it was it was important though that these young men not just go over to europe and have a good time. Although they hopefully, you know would enjoy the trip it was it was really about learning he gave them homework. And jefferson set out what he called eight objects of attention that he thought were particularly important for americans to learn about things like agriculture and landscape gardens and architecture and royal courts. So i have a question for you here here in the crowd which of these different subjects if you can see them there. Do you think that jefferson thought was particularly worth great attention for an american. I mean there are several up there that he subjects that he wanted to explore and that he was interested in but he thought one in particular was really worth great attention. Obvious agriculture, but i dont know agriculture agriculture was one that was right up there, but but not one for that particular quote. Anything else that hes hes known for . Architecture, absolutely, absolutely. So well give you afterwards this nice little in pursuit of jefferson bookmark. For your your reading pleasure architecture was one that he really was was fascinated by a subject. He was fascinated by and something that he wanted to he wanted the people to explore. So this this guide, you know, it really spoke to me and i think it came at an interesting point in my life. I saw a few parallels. I dont want to overdo the parallels, but i was about the same age as jefferson was when i came across this travel guide. It was about a decade ago, so i was pushing 40 about the same age jefferson was you know, im from virginia. So i i was kind of seeing a you know, a couple of things in common, but really i was just fascinated by the fact that jefferson who had been my hero growing up in virginia, you know, he wrote this guy and and he set out all these challenges and so i was looking for someone Something Else to do in my life a little bit of a midlife crisis if if it were and and kind of thinking about you know, what else did i want to do and this idea of following this itinerary from start to finish and and exploring the different places and going, you know going the sites and and and and doing you know learning about the subjects he set out this just sounded great to me. So so i started thinking about you know going out and do it. I didnt want to quit my job. You know, i had a job and i didnt feel like i could just, you know go off for a year or whatever and do this long trip, but i was starting to think could i could i break it into pieces. Could i start to do the travels and find out what would happen and what i might learn along the way and so one one subject, i think. Was was particularly interesting to me. Which was how was i going to learn about wine . So in jeffersons travels, ill go back to the map here. You can see in the map, you know where that wine glass and wine bottle is and bordeaux, you know, if you know anything about bordeaux, its one of the most exclusive wine regions in the world. So jefferson sends the traveler there and hints and he makes a big deal out of it. And you know, i felt like if i if i was gonna follow these travels id have to figure out how to go to bordeaux, but the problem is you cant just waltz into bordeaux. These are very exclusive vineyards that dont let you know anybody off the street just you know the in for a tasting you kind of have to have an in so a scratching my head trying to figure out, you know, if im gonna do the travels, how could i go to go to bordeaux and particular when i came across Something Else on the internet, which is that in bordeaux. They have a marathon every year, but its not just any marathon you dress up in costume and you get to go into the different chateau and they actually serve you wine, you know, and this is vineyards that are producing 500 bottles of wine. So my wife leon and i thought about it. Wondered if this was kind of the in i was looking for and finally we decided to go do it. So here we are starting off this wine marathon. So it was a strange way a bit of a travel hack, you know to get into bordeaux and the catch was we actually had to run a marathon and we had to dress in costume. So that year that i did at the the theme of the marathon was history. So it seemed like the perfect chance if i was ever going to dresses thomas jefferson, this would be it, but i did ask myself. I wanted to know more so before the before the the marathon i was i did some research i had to find out why was jefferson so fascinated by wine . So, you know, hes a very serious guy, you know, hes not joking around a lot and you know wine doesnt seem like that serious topic for a founding father, but he put all of these different wine references in his travel guides. In fact, he told the travelers he listed 13 different types of wine that he wanted them to find so i learned about it and so eventually as im gonna read just a short passage from my book about why wine was important to Jefferson Jeffersons travels through Southern France as well as italy and germany formed part of his quest for the perfect bottle of wine. This wasnt just so he could lay out the best table in america, although he would do that, too. Until independence americans had drunk only rough overly sweet madera forced on them by the english and their restrictive trade policies now the wines of france were open to american importers, but which ones were the best there were no printed guides. Jefferson would have to make discoveries for himself. The grapes, he selected might even be grown back in America Jefferson worried that the Fastest Growing drink in popularity back home was corn whiskey. He didnt want his beloved yeoman farmers going on benders. He imagined them sipping fine yet affordable wines by the fire at night reading virgil in the original latin and discussing democracy. So jefferson rambled through the vineyards as he put it talking to vintners observing winemaking and finding deals. He recorded how women plucked snails off the grapes and how men grafted vines. He bought vine cuttings to experiment within his garden and bottles to sample at home. These were the happiest days of his life. He wrote later. After his trip jefferson would use his rankings of bordeaux to guide his purchases which he made directly with the winery wherever possible. Middleman inevitably cheated the consumer. He wrote adulterating wine switching vintages and producers and storing it poorly. Only the producer itself provided the Genuine Article for ubi suicidal for them to do otherwise he would travel home from france with 363 bottles in tow mostly white bordeaux. And that was just for us Immediate Use the rest of his vast wine collection was shipped in crates. So we went off to the to. To the marathon and ill read you a short passage from the end of the marathon. So i was thinking about a lot of things. This is my first jefferson travel experience and i was looking for ways to make connection between his time and hours, you know during the race. I was thinking about the history of when jefferson was there and when these two young men followed hints and made it toward two bordeaux one of them men following hints William Short jeffersons private secretary actually wrote to him from bordeaux. He said a bit of a crisis himself. He was wondering if he should stay in europe for his the rest of his life or go back in america and follow politics. So theres theres a lot of history going on but mostly by the end of the marathon leon and i were just thinking about finishing this was our first run. Theres a hot day were drinking wine. Were in costumes. So were just hoping to survive by now the small sips of bordeaux no longer dole the throbbing in our knees or the blistering on our feet and even the mild. Whiny buzz has disappeared. Alayliana called out the spectators who look concerned. Her name is on her running bib, but i wonder why she has garnering such attention. Then i see that shes as bright red as a nice cabernet sauvignon. Despite all the pageantry and wine. Its still a marathon our first. And doubts about this whole expedition creep in. How would it bowed for any plans of following hints to to americans if we fail this inaugural leg . We walk briskly. I know where north of six hours into the race closing in on the seven hour limit. A tent with the flag proclaiming kilometer 38 as a welcome sight. Were on the home stretch and its time for the most famous stop on the journey a table piled high with heaps of modeled oysters. So there were stops along the way where youre getting gourmet food along with this wonderful wine, but you do have to be careful because theres a time limit and theres these three french runners called the sweepers. So if you fall behind the sweepers, theyre running at the slowest pace you can do and still be in the marathon if youre but if you get behind them youre too slow and they can kick you out. A man with a proud white mustache and son brown arms shucks the oysters at a snails pace. I drink white so tear and poured from a plastic water bottle. This lush drink almost puts me in a trance. If only i could lie down stop running and drink some more preferably listening to sitar music. I reached my hand out for a second. Lyanna shouts to me from the edge of the tent. I cant hear her but manage a garlic shrug smile weekly and take another swig lyanna looks upset as if shed eaten a bad oyster and points dramatically at a hill as if to say jacquees. I follow her finger high cresting a distant hilltop 100 meters ahead of us run the three sweepers. Behind them a gaggle of runners practically cling to the trios capes begging for penance the sweepers and their acolytes disappear over the hill crushing the juice from our dreams. Were about to be placed in a van and hauled back to the starting line my hints test run a failure. On monday, ill be back on the commuter train getting to work by 9 for another week of sameness. Just like those bordeaux wines. Ill be confined in a classification thats impossible to break out of. My mind flashes back to jefferson and these young men following his advice. Am i really going to be leaving them . So soon and about how William Short wrote the letter to jefferson from bordeaux. Consider carefully jefferson counseled in a return letter will be sorry to lose short as a secretary, but the young man had to find his own path to durable happiness. It wont be easy. It will certainly involve hard work. This is not a world in which heaven rains riches into any hand that will open itself jefferson wrote whichever of these courses. You adopt delay as loss of time. The sooner the races begun the sooner the prize will be obtained. Mailed, i feel an almost electric jolt course through me. Im not ready to abandon this race this prize this pursuit of happiness. Without a word leanna and i rushed forward revolutionary storming the barricades. We put pain out of mind we charge up the hill sweeping past the sweepers on a runners high blisters and heat forgotten we clock our fastest kilometer as the grand jerome river comes into sight. My cape flies crisp in the wind our hearts pounding unison our minds drag our exhausted bodies behind them. Alleliana. Shes purple like merlot and determined loud french music blairs people clap the clock ticks. Seventh hours. We cross the line holding hands. We finished the marathon. Now the hard journey begins so we decided to continue as you can tell from that reading. We decided that first run that test run was was fun enjoyable. We made connections and we set out. And and as i did the the trips. We wound up combining about a trip a year doing part of this itinerary in europe, and then wed come back home to virginia and we look for for smaller trips we could do in virginia to see how jefferson put all this knowledge and put these projects into practice. This is Fernando Franco the viticulturist at at barbersville vineyards in virginia. Im practicing that scuppernong sells barbersville vianier here. So jefferson tried to grow wine. After all these european experiences and learning any any failed in virginia and one reason there were several reasons why but one was the grapes werent working the grapes didnt take and its because of this this aphid we have in the us the phelacher allows that was attacking the roots of this vines. So all the european grapese brought over couldnt take hold here and produce good wine grapes. Eventually jefferson actually tried what what could be a solution to it towards the end of his life people started sending him grapes different kind of great wine grapes that grew here in america, which hopefully people might know the name of of those grapes grapes here. And the hint is this store is named after this wine grape. And of course the scuppernong river, its the scuppernong grape european grapes wouldnt grow in america, but but native grapes would like the scuppernong which jefferson with maybe a little hyperbole said a had a very fine and aromatic flavor to it. So so he you know, he wasnt successful really growing his grapes ultimately, but he did kind of kickstart what became you know the American Wine culture that we have today. But we continued on our trip. And i think the stop that we really learned how to travel like jefferson was an amsterdam. So this is this is a scene of a festival in amsterdam called kings day. It happens once a year. Its to celebrate the royal house of orange and when jefferson went to amsterdam, he saw something a little similar. He also was there for the celebration of the prince of oranges birthday, and he had to wear orange. He had to he bought an orange cocade to joining the celebrations there were fireworks. So it was in amsterdam is the place that jeffersons travel guide starts, and it was so thats a Perfect Place to put his his travel advice into practice and i think his travel tips are interesting a lot of them stand up to get today one thing. He wro