Into the Luberon

This morning, we thought we'd go down to St. Saturin les Avignons to look for fabric to reupholster our dining room chairs. So, we fired up Emily, programmed in St. Saturnin and off we went. I'll tell you, Emily is not afraid to send you out on to cow paths. Never a dull moment when depending on the GPS!

We did, however, find Tissus Gregoire with no difficulty and for lovers of fabrics of all kinds, this place was paradise. Our problem here was not finding something, it was making a decision. We did succeed in choosing a nice replacement for what's currently dressing the chairs, which although we like it, is marking far too easily.

From here, we thought we'd wander down into the Luberon and go for lunch in Rousssillon. Of course the route takes you immediately below the ever-photographic Gordes, shown above.
Roussillon continues to be one of our favourite destinations. We lunched in a cafe down from Restaurant David - never want to pay their prices - overlooking the ochre cliffs. Following pizza and salad, we went to visit Francoise Valenti, the artist whose works decorate our dining room. We had a nice chat with her and she shared with us a recent trip she took to India by taking us through her journals. Each page of her journals is an artwork with water coloured sketches she did along the way along with her diary. She said it takes her about an hour to illustrate 4 pages of the book, so clearly she's very good. She is definitely not wasting the magnificent talent that she has nurtured over the years.

Emily then proceeded to take us home right through the Venasque Gorge - delightful! This is a route I've often contemplated, but thanks to Emily we took ever twist, turn, switchback and canyon that the road threw at us. Just as a navigational note, this route from Roussillon to Cairanne takes 1 hour.

Back safely in Cairanne, it was cocktail hour and that was about it for today.

Dentelles de Montmirail

Woke up this morning dreaming I was in paradise. Oh...I am in paradise! After one week in Provence, the weather has been spectacularly hot and the skies have been spectacularly blue. Voila, Provence!
Today we got going very slowly but did head out to Vaison la Romaine before lunch to pick up some staples at the Intermarche. It was early afternoon before we headed out for a little drive to Gigondas and in particular the countryside of the Dentelles de Montmirail.

The Dentelles de Montmirail are a small chain of mountains in Provence located just to the south of Vaison-la-Romaine. They are foothills of Mont Ventoux, which is situated just to the east. Their name (dentelles means "lace") refers to the dramatically jagged shape of their peaks, formed by horizontal strata of Jurassic limestone being folded and forced into a nearly upright position and subsequently eroded into sharp-edged ridges and spikes. The highest peak of the Dentelles is St-Amand, at 734 m. The range, which is only about 8 km wide, is renowned for the walking and rock climbing opportunities that it offers. There were lots of those activities going on today, as it was not only Sunday, but the last weekend before children go back to school. Quel dommage!

We thought we'd try to find a route through the Dentelles by car from Gigondas to Beaumes de Venise, but as Dawn's dad would have said, "It wasn't punched through" - at least not for regular cars. So, we drove down to road to Vacqueras and drove up past one of our favourite lunch places, Chateau de Montmirail. From there, the road appeared pretty good, so we drove along it and before we knew it, we in the heart of the Dentelles - views abounding.


Although the roads up here are primarily for the farmers with vineyards on these slopes, there are lots of walkers trudging along and a few idiots in cars. The roads actually stayed pretty decent and before long we hit a paved section just above Domaine de Durban and Beaumes de Venise and before we knew it we popped out at Beaumes de Venise.
In around 15 minutes we were back in Cairanne, did some yard cleanup and moved to cocktail time.
For dinner this evening, we thought we'd try haute cuisine and visit the pizza truck that is supposed to be parked at the main square in Cairanne. It might have been a "fermature exceptionelle" or a regular holiday, but the pizza truck didn't show. Plan B - out of the fridge.
To sign off today, I've included what I consider to be the tourism shot of Cairanne, taken in the evening with Mt. Ventoux as the backdrop and Peter & Margaret's place on the right side.

The one below is identical to the one on the Cairanne brochure.

Bien Boire ou Boire Bien?

Now, that is the question, isn't it? It's kinda like "to be or not to be". In this case do we drink a lot, or do we drink well? I'm wondering why we can't do both. More about that later.

The day began in Ste. Cecile les Vignes, the village next to us that has a Saturday market. The wind that began yesterday, is howling nicely today, but the temperatures are still up there, so it was pleasant strolling through the market. We were basically casing this place for next Saturday, prior to our first set of guests, Jessie, Chris, Aaron and Amber.
After market we headed to Domaine Galuval which is just on the outskirts of Cairanne. The event being held here today was the title of today's entry. This consisted of wine tasting along with a lecture - en francais - on the connections between wine and music. Of course, the intent of these gatherings - they migrate from village to village and are totally free - is to promote the local wines and encourage the "boire bien" part. We tasted 1 rose, two whites and 5 reds, of which we found 2 that we really wanted to revisit - euphemism for buy later. We thought we followed the lecture pretty well and felt just like one of the locals. There were several English speaking couples in the crowd, but all of them have spent years in France and speak it fluently so they weren't in our place.

After two hours at Galuval, we drove over to Seguret, who were having a "before-the-harvest-festival" - basically an excuse to have a party before the harvesting work begins. Seguret is a Plus Beaux Villages de France, so it's always a treat to visit.

On this visit, the bonus was getting a nice walk through town and into the vineyards and tasting the local product. It was lightly attended, but then there are a lot of events happening today throughout Provence.

Following dinner of artichoke hearts, fresh lasagna, salad with roquette and wild strawberries that we bought at the Ste. Cecile market, we headed down the hill on foot again - two nights in a row - and attended the "Jazz in the Vineyards" concert that was held this evening at Domaine Brusset, a short walk from our place. The last one of these concerts we attended with Peter & Margaret was in Villedieu, over the hills from here and it was chilly that evening, so we ended up in the warehouse of the vineyard.

This evening, I guess because of the wind, we were in the cave again and it was packed. The 4 piece combo featured a guitar player named Louis Winsberg and they played very cool Euro jazz. Afterwards there was a tasting and nibblies. A good time was had by all.

Cotes du Rhone-Villages

After yesterday's longer drive, we decided to stay closer to home today. This gave us an opportunity to check out some of the other Cotes du Rhone-Villages rated villages just north of us, that we'd missed in the past.

We headed out the back road from Cairanne and got a different look at Cairanne through the vineyards. The vines are laden, the fruit is already pretty sweet and as I mentioned earlier, they have started picking the whites. So soon the countryside will be abuzz with farmer's tractors and wagons heaped with grapes and the mammoth mechanical pickers roaring up and down the rows of vines.

Between Montelimar and Avignon there are 18 villages that have been given the Cotes du Rhone-Villages appellation. Some of these were the villages we passed through today, with the exception of Vinsobres which is considered a Cru, like Gigondas and Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Vinsobres is a wine we really don't know and seldom see in Canada, so we'll definitely have to check it out in the coming weeks. Pictured below are scenes of Vinsobres from below and above.


The other Villages rated villages we visited on today's meanderings, other than Cairanne, included St. Maurice, Valreas and Visan. Valreas is actually considerably larger than the other two and has the amenities typical of larger places in France. Visan and St. Maurice, on the other hand, are both very quaint and ancient-looking.

Today, we managed to start out a little late, so had to skip tasting in these places because they were closed for lunch. Mid-day is not a good time to get anything done in France. We did, however, drive through some very pretty countryside with already harvested but very colourful fields of lavender and sunflowers that were ready to be harvested. A number of the roads around here go right along the spine of the hills, affording vistas in all directions.


Later in the afternoon, we set out to taste some local wines. We first went to Alary, who are literally a stone's roll from our house. Much our their production has been sold out, which says something for the winery, but we did find a couple of nice reds.

The next two places Armand and Richaud were A) closed and B) lacking in product, so we went down the road to Domaine L'Ameillaud, which as it turns out was owned by a Brit. We spent a delightful time tasting his reds - no whites here either. This is one name we know from Canada, but now he only exports to BC & Alberta, because he was fed up with the LCBO. Have we heard this story before? YES WE HAVE! We found all of his wines very enjoyable, even though only one actually had the Cairrane name on it. He made an interesting observation about the Rasteau wines being more consistent than Cairanne and that might be why we see more of them in Canada. He thought he would be harvesting in about 10 days. There is a Gite here holding 5 couples - 5 rooms, 4 baths, with a pool and right at the estate. Could be interesting.
Believe it or not, tonight was the first time that we've eaten out, since we've been here. We walked down to the local restaurant La Tourne au Verre, which offers only one menu of 3 courses each evening and were seated on their patio - their only seating area in nice weather. This evening for 23 Euros we started with an amuse bouche of rillettes, a starter of warm mackerel and aubergine and a main course of duck with mashed potatoes, vegetables and a jus of thyme. Dessert was a chocolate mousse. For wine we bought by the glass, as they had a really nice selection. They also have an amazing wine (by the bottle) menu, with pages and pages of French wines. We were glad to have made a reservation, because they were full and turning away late comers.

Walking up the hill was at lot tougher than walking down, but at least we might have worked off a few calories. The wind is blowing tonight and that might signal a change in the weather. We'll have to wait to see what tomorrow brings.

2009 Tours de France - by car

Vieux Cairanne - early morning.

So I thought it would be fun to retrace the route taken by cyclists this year on the Tours de France and since we're close to the 20th stage - the 2nd last one, from Montelimar to Mt. Ventoux - we decided to drive 2/3 of the 167 km that the cyclists covered in 4 hours and 11 minutes. Now of course it's totally cheating doing this route by car, but we really tried to get a sense of what the cyclists were experiencing as they drove the course.

We picked up the route around an hour into the race in Nyons, which happened to have a market today. From this point to Bedoin, we had never driven the roads taken by the race and so were experiencing a whole new area. We knew what the racers would encounter once they hit the foot of Mt. Ventoux - grades up to 16% - but were not prepared for the fact that they had 5 other nasty climbs to make before they even tackled the last 16 km of the course.

The entire road is very hilly - we'd call them mountains in Ontario - and the landscape is bleak and forbidding. That doesn't stop the French from agricultural pursuits, like having one of the most intensive olive growing areas in France here and endless fields of lavender.

The were lots of reminders along the route, that the famous race had passed this way, like the banner in this small town or the personal messages written on the roads for the bikers.

At one point near Brante, the riders get tantalizingly close to Ventoux, with a good glimpse of the summit, only to realize that there's still 1 and 1/4 hours left in the race.

Because there's such fabulous TV coverage of the race, there are numerous displays along the route, some to be only appreciated from the helicopter camera and some by the cyclists themselves as they zoomed past. I'm not sure they really appreciate anything along the course, which is actually a shame.

One of the other things they probably never appreciate are the number of picturesque villages that that they pass by.

I'm fairly certain that they definitely appreciate the steep hills and twisting roads that make up the course. I'll tell you, I'm pretty sure Peter's little Peugeot was feeling the pain as we struggled to the summit of some of the inclines.

With less than a half hour to go in the race, the bikers finally begin the ascent to the top of Mt. Ventoux. Although it's high by Provencal standards, Ventoux, at 1912 metres is tame compared to other mountains in France. But this finale of the 20th stage is a kilometre climb and it's punishing. There are always cyclists doing this climb, but other than on race day, very few make it from the base to top without a few stops.

When you pass the tree line, Ventoux takes on a moonscape-like appearance. After deforestation for ship building in Toulon, the topsoil blew away and today's austere landscape is what is left.

About a kilometre from the summit there is a fairly poignant monument to mark the death of racer Tom Simpson in a past conquest of Ventoux. This should remind everybody, what a toll this climb takes on the body.

When you finally get to the tourist packed summit of Ventoux and cross the finish line, it almost seems a little anticlimatic. I'm guessing it didn't feel that way for the racers. It's actually a very small area in which to cram the 150 some odd cyclists in this race.

The telecommunication tower at the summit was nicely bedecked with a banner highlighting past winners coming into Ventoux. Mt. Ventoux is not always on the itinerary for the race, but when it is, it's certainly a highlight of the entire race.


Now here's the interesting thing. It took the cyclists about 3 hours and 10 minutes to drive the route that we took. It took us almost 3 hours. Granted, I did stop regularly to take pictures, but on some stretches, I could attain speeds that the bikes would never reach. So, if I wasn't impressed by the prowess of Tour de France cyclists, I sure am now!

Wine Country

Although Cairanne is now in the heart of southern Cotes du Rhone wine country and is starting to make a name for its wines abroad, the village of eight hundred and some odd has a history going back to the early 1100's. Of course any towns settled at that time on hilltops, albeit Cairanne's not on an extremely high one, were built there for defensive reasons. Most of these villages have maintained some remnants of the original walls with a tower or two that would allow the residents to view advancing armies. Today, it's more about the views of wine country and the hilly outcrop nearby called the Dentelles.

The annual vendage is actually underway, despite the fact that we haven't seen the end of August. Whites are being harvested now and reds will begin sometime around the first week of September. As we headed down the hill from our place, we noticed one of the farmers painting his grape gathering wagons in his garage and one harvester was in the fields starting to whack the grapes from the vines. Considering this brutally mechanical method of picking, it amazes me how good the vines look.
We headed into Orange shortly before noon to try to rent a larger car for when the kids visit. We went to both the Renault dealer and ADA and found ADA significantly cheaper. So now we have a vehicle for all of us and an airport transit vehicle as well.
On the way back we stopped at the wine store in Cairanne. This place represents most of the producers in Cairanne, so is a good way to compare different vintners. There appears to be considerably more red wine production than white, but we did find a couple of nice whites to consume in this heat. There is also a Co-op here and we will eventually make it there for some wine, of that I'm certain.

We met our neighbours, Jim and Lynda Gardner from Portland Oregon, today and travelled with them to what was supposed to be a walk in the vineyards with English spoken. By the time we got to Domaine Mourchon in the hills above Seguret the skies became threateningly dark and there were a few distant rumblings of thunder. It didn't look promising.
We did however meet with the owner and his son-in-law who told us that it would be an abbreviated tour of the vineyards due to the weather. We walked up to one of the higher vineyards and the heavens unloaded on us - thunder, lighting and driving rain. We scampered back to the car shelter next to the winery, where it was clear that our outdoor activities for the day were finished. And the rain fell! This was their first rain in a couple of months, so it was badly needed.

Meanwhile in the winery, our tour continued under Hugo's leadership. He gave us a very comprehensive explanation of their wine making process then led us to the tasting room where we proceeded to experience numerous fabulous wines. We started with a rose and finished up with a Family Reserve Syrah and Family Reserve Grenache, but there were no whites to be had. Each wine had its own redeeming qualities, but we particularly appreciated the way he led us through the tasting of each wine. Then we proceeded to empty out the winery's stock. C'est la vie!


In the evening, we had dinner with Jim and Lynda. By the way, they are the owners of the significant property adjacent to the Pigeons. We had a most enjoyable evening with excellent wines and conversation.

Market Day in Vaison la Romaine

After a leisurely start to the day, we headed off to the market in Vaison la Roamine, about 15km down the road. This is close to, if not the largest Provence market we've experienced, encompassing the entire town.

But before I get to that, let me talk about traveling in Europe with a GPS. This is our first experience with a GPS and after a few days we've made a couple of observations. First of all, when it works well, it's fabulous and it's taken us on routes never before covered. When it doesn't work - like when the satellite coverage is poor - you're screwed, unless you either use some common sense, or if you have done a paper map overview before you headed out, or in our case, actually had some clue as to where we were. On numerous occasions, Emily - that's our British GPS guide - is seriously late with turning instructions and/or slightly out of location. I've been trying to follow her implicitly but her pronunciation of French road names is quite often a little sketchy and without Dawn reading the actual name on the unit I'd have problems. Maybe we should be listening to instructions en francais - maybe not.
Anyway, back to Vaison la Romaine. This is one of the chi-chi spots in Provence and specifically the Vaucluse, so on market day, there lots of foreigners crammed into its narrow streets. We hear lots of English, Brits and Americans, German and similar Germanic tongues like the Dutch and Belgians. We have been to this market numerous times in past years and it seems to get busier and busier and we seem to be parking further and further down the road.

We seek out a number of our/my favourite vendors like the tomato lady above - she of the amazing sun died marinated tomatoes, plus excellent olives and olive oil- , or the paella stall, or the chicken guy shown below.


There are, of course, many tablecloth merchants and needless to say, we have yet one more tablecloth to add to the stable. Hard to resist!
On our way back to Cairanne we drove through the neighbouring village of Rasteau, which is probably better known in Canada for its wine than Cairanne. The old town offers some nice photographic moments.


From there we actually drove past Cairanne to Orange, so I could get a networking cable for the internet, since the mystery of the wi-fi password for our house has still not been solved and now my new hardwire stretches throughout the house.
We were fine in the air conditioned car, but back at the non-air conditioned house we had a quick bite and resorted to finding the coolest place for a nap. We're starting to conform to French dining habits and eating dinner much later to escape the heat in the kitchen. Actually, this also allows us to dine on the terrace overlooking an expanse of the Rhone valley and as far as the eye can see, vineyards. Shabby!