Okay, we just finished a take out pasta dinner in our apartment and need to think about packing up very soon! The 5 of us just finished 2 bottles of local wine and are now attempting to update this blog by committee.
Before I forget, here's a link to the very amazing, "Bitch'n", "Awwwwsooom" (must be said in a high, pitched voice) winery that we discovered thanks to CB (Car Bitch - GPS) 1 . http://www.caves-sarragan.com/vins-anglais.htm More on this in a bit.
The day was spent in Avignon exploring the history. The Palace of the 9 Popes started when Pope Clement moved the Papacy from Rome to France in 1305. It was the head of the Catholic church until about 1417. In a nutshell, it was an impressive bunch of gigantic empty rooms with lots of stairs! It was in pretty good condition considering it's 700 years old, endured a huge fire and housed the French military during the French Revolution.
Some of you may remember the song "Sur le pont, d'Avignon". We walked out on and enjoyed the river views from the bridge and have had the song running through our heads for most of the day. This is the bridge that only goes half way across the Rhone river because the other half
was destroyed bit by bit by the many floods and one of many sieges. (The dams added in recent years now protect Avignon from flooding).
Another stop in Avignon was at the Musee Angladon which was made up of a private collection including Van Gogh, Manet, Cezanne, Modigliani.
Back to the wine caves. We left Avignon at about 5:30 and since we really haven't explored the Provence region wineries much we set out to find something! Steve set CB1 to find wineries. We headed for the closest one on the list. This turned out to be a wine store selling wines of the cooperative. It's not what we were after but we did like their Rose enough to buy two bottles. As we were leaving, we noted a woman carrying her plastic jug in for a wine refill! Back to the car we go to see what else was on the CB's list. We decided to follow her lead once again. What fun! It
lead us down amazingly narrow, twisty, tree-lined roads past apple and pear orchards, dead sunflower fields, green houses and up, up, a white stone walled hill. We all start to comment how wonderful this is, but there's no way there's a winery here! Yet, Steve assures us (according to the GPS) its 400 meters away...
VOILA! Suddenly there's a parking lot and a directional arrow to the winery cave! We walk about about 100 meters down a white, rock chip pathway and through about 15 meter high openings in the rock walls. And then we walk into a huge, dark, cold, cavern.... it felt very much like being in an Indiana Jone's movie set. We round a corner and there's a beautifully lite, wooden bar! The woman greeted us warmly but pointed out very clearly (speaking French) that they are closing in 15 minutes. We quickly sampled 2 red wines, purchased 2 bottles of the
Merlot (pronounced by the French as "mare-low") and made our way back out of the quarry -very proud of ourselves for this wonderful find! Remember to go back to the web site link.
Well, it seems that the rest of this "blogging committee" has left me to on my own as they are starting to organize themselves so we are ready to leave for Beaune at 8:00 in the morning and I really should follow their lead!
Kiss, Kiss, Kiss, (as they do in Provence)
Judy
Before I forget, here's a link to the very amazing, "Bitch'n", "Awwwwsooom" (must be said in a high, pitched voice) winery that we discovered thanks to CB (Car Bitch - GPS) 1 . http://www.caves-sarragan.com/vins-anglais.htm More on this in a bit.
The day was spent in Avignon exploring the history. The Palace of the 9 Popes started when Pope Clement moved the Papacy from Rome to France in 1305. It was the head of the Catholic church until about 1417. In a nutshell, it was an impressive bunch of gigantic empty rooms with lots of stairs! It was in pretty good condition considering it's 700 years old, endured a huge fire and housed the French military during the French Revolution.
Some of you may remember the song "Sur le pont, d'Avignon". We walked out on and enjoyed the river views from the bridge and have had the song running through our heads for most of the day. This is the bridge that only goes half way across the Rhone river because the other half
was destroyed bit by bit by the many floods and one of many sieges. (The dams added in recent years now protect Avignon from flooding).Another stop in Avignon was at the Musee Angladon which was made up of a private collection including Van Gogh, Manet, Cezanne, Modigliani.
Back to the wine caves. We left Avignon at about 5:30 and since we really haven't explored the Provence region wineries much we set out to find something! Steve set CB1 to find wineries. We headed for the closest one on the list. This turned out to be a wine store selling wines of the cooperative. It's not what we were after but we did like their Rose enough to buy two bottles. As we were leaving, we noted a woman carrying her plastic jug in for a wine refill! Back to the car we go to see what else was on the CB's list. We decided to follow her lead once again. What fun! It
lead us down amazingly narrow, twisty, tree-lined roads past apple and pear orchards, dead sunflower fields, green houses and up, up, a white stone walled hill. We all start to comment how wonderful this is, but there's no way there's a winery here! Yet, Steve assures us (according to the GPS) its 400 meters away...VOILA! Suddenly there's a parking lot and a directional arrow to the winery cave! We walk about about 100 meters down a white, rock chip pathway and through about 15 meter high openings in the rock walls. And then we walk into a huge, dark, cold, cavern.... it felt very much like being in an Indiana Jone's movie set. We round a corner and there's a beautifully lite, wooden bar! The woman greeted us warmly but pointed out very clearly (speaking French) that they are closing in 15 minutes. We quickly sampled 2 red wines, purchased 2 bottles of the
Merlot (pronounced by the French as "mare-low") and made our way back out of the quarry -very proud of ourselves for this wonderful find! Remember to go back to the web site link.Well, it seems that the rest of this "blogging committee" has left me to on my own as they are starting to organize themselves so we are ready to leave for Beaune at 8:00 in the morning and I really should follow their lead!
Kiss, Kiss, Kiss, (as they do in Provence)
Judy
Those wine caves look fantastic!
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