Auchan & Nyons

 So, yesterday was a shopping trip to the Auchan mall and supermarket. This has always been one of our favourite places to shop. 

Later in the day, we visited the wine boutique in Cairanne called Caveau du Cairanne and tasted some of their 100 offerings.

Before dinner, we enjoyed the terrace, with some of our finds of the day.

This morning, we headed across the hills towards Nyons and stopped to take the prerequisite photo of family and Cairanne.

The Nyons market was not as crazy as Vaison, but busy nonetheless. 

By the time we returned to Cairanne the heat was on and we headed up to our neighbour's pool for a respite. This pool has fabulous vistas of the Dentelles de Montmirail and Mt. Ventoux.

For our last evening with the Whites, we opted to dine out at Cairanne's La Tourne au Verre.

White Arrival & Market in Avignon

 Yesterday afternoon we drove south to Avignon to pick up the White family at the TGV station - we thought. Turns out, that wasn't the train station they were coming in to. They were coming in to the Central station in Avignon - didn't know there was one. Anyway, they taxied over to where we were and we were off to Cairanne laden with luggage. Sadie & Ella  very quickly struck up a relationship with Charlie and Odi.

We had nibblies and enjoyed hearing about their adventures in France thus far.

Today we headed to market in Vaison la Romaine. It was crazy busy but we threw ourselves into the melee and spent a few hours wandering and shopping.

Following lunch at a Vaison Brasserie, we took a slight detour to Gigondas and sampled perhaps some of the best wine we have ever tasted - and came away with 19 bottles - good drinking to come!!

When we got back to Cairanne we had some slow time and then took a stroll about the village. 

The top pic shows Chez Pigeon  behind the cyprus tree and once again just above Dawn's head in the bottom pic. The second pic is in the vineyard behind the village walls - donjon - and the third shows Mt. Ventoux in the background. The wind is still howling as I think can be discerned from the pics. At least it is warming up a bit. 

Later we had some Happy Hour time on the upper front terrace where we enjoyed Gigondas rose, olives and dried sausage from the market and then finished off with a light meal of pasta, brioches and salad.

CVG & Marseilles Again

 It appears we may have imported Ontario's rain, because we had a substantial rainfall yesterday and today - which was badly needed.  The temperatures also dipped to Ontario levels but are promised to recover to Provencal standards later in the week. 

Peter and Margaret had some neighbours over for a drink in the afternoon which was lovely.

Last evening after the rain paused, we did go out for dinner  to the patio of a very nice restaurant in Ste. Cecile les Vignes called Compagne Vignes Gourmandises or CVG for short.

CVG

We started off with a glass of champagne and nibblies then we had fabulous meal of lobster with an exceptional northern Rhone red  from Cornas.                                                    

Today Peter & Margaret finished packing and off to the airport in Marseilles we went. We also parked their car and picked up a larger vehicle for the next few days. The Alamo booth was hoping busy. We noticed that the wind has build up to nice howl on the drive back to Cairanne. Not sure if it's a mistral but typically these winds carry on for three days. I guess the bonus is cleaner air. Tomorrow the Whites arrive by TGV from Nice.

Cairanne

We have arrived with lots of assistance from Air France. It’s been a long but wonderful day. It is hot & dry in the south of France, but Margaret & Peter helped us deal with that with  a fabulous meal and copious bottles of excellent southern France wine!

Back to France

Well, after 4 years and a global pandemic, we are travelling again, and this time back to our regular haunts in Cairanne France. After coming home from Egypt and Jordan in 2020 as Canada approached lockdown, we weren't sure we would ever travel again and added to our family with a sibling pair of English Springer Spaniels, Remy and Max. With some trepidation we have farmed out the dogs to our wonderful children and are once again across the pond.

We have once again chosen Air France as our carrier and have decided to upgrade to Premium economy this time around. We are once again house swapping with Peter and Margaret Pigeon and have opted for a one month stay, from Aug 24 to Sept 24 2023.

While we are at Chez Pigeon, we expect two batches of company: Chris, Jessie, Ella and Sadie White; and Susan Schaffner and Dave Bain.

The last two weeks we will be in our own company looking to see what kind of trouble we can get in to.