A Francois in his natural habitat

Saturday morning bright and early, Francois picked us up for our tour of the Luberon, an area south east of  Avignon considered some of the most picturesque territory in Provence.  If you think of a picture of Provence, this is it.  No secret why after Peter Mayle published "A Year in Provence", property prices sky-rocketed and the celebrities of the world(Ridley Scott, Pierre Cardin, etc) flocked to this amazing place.

Domaine de la Citadelle

We began our day at a splendid winery in Menerbes, Domaine de la Citadelle.  As usual Francois instructed our guests as to how properly taste wines with humor and information.  The wines were amazing, although Im willing to bet tasting in the renovated 17th century under croft had something to do with it...

 

We even visited a small, but fascinating museum dedicated to the history of the corkscrew.  No really, a museum of cork screws, including some that were personal possessions of Marie Antoinette.  No way should it have been that interesting, but god help me it was.  (sorry, no pics allowed)

From Domaine de la Citadelle, we headed up to the 13th century hill town just above the winery to visit Domaine de Marie ou la Maison de la Truffe et du vin.(Professionally translated by me as "big ass house with enough truffles and wine to put all your kids through colledge...twice)

Again, the wines were good but we got so captivated by the vistas from the city walls we lost track of time.  On the down side, with the sun in our face I could not shoot good pictures of the town itself, but I did get some shots of both valleys from the town itself.

Following a brilliant lunch at a small bistro in Bonnieux, we headed off for a drive through the countryside for an hour.  This area is so different and breathtaking compared to around Avignon, its hard to put into words.  Pics don't do it much justice, but we tried.  I shot over 600 pics that day.

Lourmarin

We ended up in Lourmarin for coffee and shopping.  This may be the quintessential Provencal village.  Small, scenic, tiny streets and alleys, we expected a quiet cup of espresso and some relaxing in the sun.

Nope, sorry!

In the town square, which was heaving with people, we watched a loud argument between a loud Spanish tourist and a local grumpy old man who just wanted to doze in the sun and not listed to the tourists extremely loud cell phone conversations.  The argument was priceless, with much shouting, hand waving, bread throwing and general grins and laughs from the other locals.  It was pretty damn funny at the time.

After coffee, it should have been a quiet stroll through town to the car and off to our next winery.

NOPE! 

We blundered into a Easter Carnivalle right through the middle of town!  Loud music, kids and adults all dressed up, the local winery tractors all fancied up.

 

Franncois looked pretty damn chagrined, but quietly leaned over and assured me, "No extra charge"  On the down side we spent so much time caught in the village we missed our appointment at the next winery, so we headed off to the village of Cucuron for photos and more sightseeing.  It was well worth it!

 

Cucuron Church Yard

Cucuron Town Square

 From Cucuron we drove to a lovely winery located in an 19th century laboratory glass factory.  Chateau la Verrerie Puget-sur-Durance produced some of the best wines we had this trip, we ended up stocking on their excellent whites and roses.

All in all, this was a tremendous day for us.  Best scenery by far of any of the areas we have toured, and by far the most interesting day.  How often do you walk into a parade while on vacation?

A very good day.

Yesterday morning we headed up to Les Halles to grab some much needed emergency supplies of cheese, pate, sausage, etc and ran into an incredible incident.  Walking around a corner of the cheese counters, we saw a cloud of white chicken feathers and a pack of laughing kids... that can't be good.

What we witnessed was something that would have had Americans calling in trauma counselors, medics, law enforcement, calls for federal food handling reforms, jail time, and repeated appearances of "experts" on CNN and MSNBC offering their dubious opinions.

We saw, live and in colour, children learning about where food comes from!  A group of little kiddos(6 or 7 year olds) was gathered around the central butcher stall as the meat cutter was grabbing different critters out of the meat case and asked them what they were and what noises they make.  Keep in mind when you buy poultry and small animals(rabbits, etc) they all come head on and guts intact so its really onvious what you are getting and how fresh it is.  The kids were laughing and making chicken, duck, goose noises as the butcher showed them the animals, pulled feathers and blew them into the air over the kids heads and generally put on a hilarious educational show for the them.

Its worth noting this is the same butcher that gravely disagreed with my learned opinion that his rabbits looked wonderful, he staunchly insisted that they are were, in fact, very small kangaroos.

Amazing!

No tears, no worries, just kids learning the real source of their food in a way that would have had American kiddos in therapy for decades after the lawsuits were over.

A fun morning.

Yesterday Nita and I hopped the ferry over to the island in the middle of the Rhone.  We had a nice little lunch at a place on the water and stared at the city over wine for a while.  Not great food, but still a great time. 

This evening I'm making rabbit and artichoke stew over cheesy polenta for dinner.  Should be a nice send off meal for Fernando and Debbie.

 

City Gates

                                                         Basilica of St. Nazaire and St. Celse

                                                                 Random city shots.
                                                          

Yesterday, Francois picked us up at 9am for our 2 hour drive to the medieval walled city of Carcassonne.  Along the way he took the time to show us all the little highlights and small towns on the route, even slowing a bit to show us the vineyard his mother in law still works for the family.  All in all, a very pleasant drive through the countryside. 

When we arrived at Carcassone, it was a total madhouse.  I stupidly forgot it was Easter weekend and all of France is on vacation.  There were Disneyland style crowds in the gates, people every-freaking-where.  The entrance gates and the first mart of the city streets were packed with people, dogs, shops selling the worst kind of crap, etc.  Luckily, Francois's wife grew up in the area and he led us through the back streets to where the tourists rarely go.  Once there, it was magical.

Carcassonne is regarded as the best existing example of a walled city.  In the 19th cent, a lot of the roofs and hoarding were replaced, to much argument about how they should be done of course, but the effect is magical.  From the walls, to the narrow streets, to the majestic cathedral, this town really feels authentic.

Apart from the renfest clad goobers and bad souvenir sellers...

For more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcassonne

                           Entrance into Fort St. Andre.  A lovely place to get all murderfied.

                                                  One of the center courts in the Abbey.
 

             West tower of Fort St. Andre.  I wish the pictures of this thing gave a better sense of  scale and mass.  You get a little dizzy just standing next to it.



Yesterday we jumped the bus over to Villeneuve and mooched around Fort St. Andre and the Chartreuse monastery.  Rainy as hell, but it made for some fun running between fortifications to keep dry.

In a couple of hours Francois is picking us up for our trip to Carcassonne!  I plan on posting a few billion pics after we get back from that!

First splendid group is gone, next is now here.  We are thrilled to have my folks, Deb and Ferd, but man we are gonna miss Kohni, Jess, Ryan and Kim.  Its always interesting to spend an extended amount of time with casual friends for the first time, we enjoyed the hell out of the week.

Have fun in Paris you wacky kids!

Ended up taking the taxi right to the door of the apartment since it was raining today.  Starting to get the hang of the trains at least to get to Marseilles.

This evening we wall went out to dinner and had a killer meal.  Personally I had the best cassoulet(white bean stew with rabbit and sausage.  No rabbit but 2 different sausage and a hunk of braised pork belly) of my life.  Wrapped up meal with a rum baba, a sweet cake soaked in spiced rum served with a bottle of rum to add at your pleasure and whipped cream.  Half drunk just off dessert.  No kidding...

Amazing couple of days, I will post some pics tomorrow after I sleep off my cake.

A quiet day in for Nita and I yesterday.  Ryan and Kim went to the Pont du Gard and Nimes, while Jess and Khoni took various buses down to the coast to ride horsies!

Everyone home safe and sound, dinner in and we killed 3 more bottles of wine.