To Pezenas and the Med

Peter & Margaret departed this morning. It was great having them and as always it's a treat to go tasting wine with Peter, since he is so knowledgable about what it is excatly that he's tasting. He was very pleased with the wines of this area and said they've come a long way in the last decade. Of course they will always be different than the Rhone wines due to terroir and climate, but most wines here are blended in the same manner as those in the Rhone - majority Grenache or Syrah, with Mourvedre and Cairignan added in lesser quantities.
For our day, we decided to trek up to Pezenas for their market. When we got there, it reminded us of Uzes, where you park as soon as you see cars parking, because once in the town there'll be precious few spots available. Of course, we didn't follow my advice, but my luck held and we did find parking not too far from the old town, which is where the centre of the market is found.

We walked a good kilometre through the conjested market and then ambled back to our car through the ancient non-market streets. We had been here years ago with Dennis & Jackie, immediately after the market was over and I discovered that although it is very authentically old, it's tough to get good pictures here due to the dark, narrow streets.

Leaving Pezenas, we headed for the coast. Cap Agde was closest, but once you get there, there are precious few peeks at the Mediterranean because of the dense development of mostly gated communities. The only look we did get of the Med, showed it to be very angry today, with brisk winds only to get brisker and anyone on the beach was wrapped up tighter than a chocolate bar. We have a few other beaches we want to check out next week, but hopefully we'll have nicer days. That is the weatherman's promise. We'll see.

Back in St. Chinian in the late afternoon, the rain again started. There has been devastating flooding from the Var river in the Cotes d'Azur, but so far, we've been fine. The locals are, however, pretty sick and tired of the crappy weather. I have to say it really hasn't affected us that much, other than the soaking we got in the Dordogne. But we are not sugar and indeed, we did not melt.