Le Parcours Sensoriel

Today began with an early quick trip – aka 6:30 a.m. - to Marseilles to deliver Jackie to the airport. The Autoroute du Soleil – what a great name for a highway – was fairly heavy, even at that hour, but still flowed nicely. One thing I really do appreciate about the French autoroutes, other than the speed – is that nobody passes on the right and the left lane is reserved for strictly that. Nobody’s going crazy speeds like in Germany, but lots of high-speed commuters are doing well over 150 kph.
We got Jackie through security and then headed back. I hope everything went well for her flights.
Before returning to Cairanne we picked up some groceries in Orange. We got back in time for PIZZA – lots left over from last night.

Without company, it was time to slow down a bit. The breeze was keeping things comfortable in the 30-degree sun, so we hung out on the terrace. The only drawback was the rumble of dump trucks passing us from the upper town where they felt it was time to refurbish the plumbing.


Later in the afternoon we walked down to Camille Cayran, the Cairanne wine growers cooperative. The farmers were busy delivering their loads of grapes. We often assume that all of these grapes are being picked in the Cairanne environs, where in fact, many of these farmers are driving their loads 20 kilometres or more.

Then, for the first time – don’t ask me why we haven’t done it before – we went downstairs at the co-op to a display they call Le Parcours Sensoriel - a sensory course.


They’ve put a substantial amount of revenue into this display – I’m thinking they’re looking to attract bus tours – which was an excellent course on Cairanne wines.
They described the terroir surrounding Cairanne with models showing the various cross-sections. Apparently only the hilly terroirs are producing grapes suitable for a Cairanne designation.
There was also an excellent collage of photos and artwork where I discovered that real French ladies drink their wine like this.

One display showed each wine produced with a sniffer that illustrated what was to be tasted in each wine. Loved it!

Back at the ranch, it was book and blog time. Meanwhile, the vendage went on below us.

OK. So, while I was writing this edition of my blog, I got an e-mail from my daughter, who was concerned when she heard about an explosion at a nuclear facility in the south of France. That news was correct, but may I emphasize that it was NOT a nuclear explosion. The facility in question was at Marcoule, the high-tech recycling facility - that by the way is studied by the rest of the world - built in nuclear-dependant France. There is no reactor at Marcoule and although one person was apparently killed, there is no risk of internal or external radiation.
After the disaster in Japan, the world is understandably neurotic about nuclear energy, but this incident twenty kilometres from us has simple come and gone.