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Thursday September 13, 2007


Today was another travel day. After having another wonderful Chateau la Berchere breakfast, we headed out for the autoroute. Since it was not going to be a long drive, we got off the autoroute at Vienne to check out the northern Rhone wine towns. Our first surprise was the steepness of the slopes where the grapes were growing. The angle of the land was easily as radical as in the Rhine valley. The Rhone valley all throughout this region is orchard country with all manner of fruit growing and the grapes only seem to be planted on these extreme slopes, perhaps to soak up as much sun as possible.
We made one stop along the way in Condrieu to taste wine. We were most interested in the Cote Rotie here and were not disappointed. The vintner assured us that only regular work boots were required to climb these hills.
Continuing on south, we alternated from side roads to the autoroute. At Montelimar we headed towards Cairranne, but because it was a little early we stopped off first at Vaison la Romaine – another favourite town.
We found our B&B – L’Oliveraie - in a great location overlooking the vineyards and Cairranne and then dropped down to see Peter & Margaret. Peter has made amazing progress and the top floor of the house with two bedrooms and two bathrooms is now occupied.
For dinner we headed off to La Vieille France Jardin des Saveurs in St. Paul 3 Chateaux, a place Peter & Margaret always wanted to try but had never gotten to. This was a lovely mas-styled home on the outskirts of town that served haut cuisine. We all had the multi course meal consisting of everything from lobster to zucchini flowers to foie gras to the meat course that was turbot for everyone but me. I had pigeon. Since his last name is Pigeon, Peter just couldn’t bear the thought of having it, but he did try some of mine and quite enjoyed it.
The drive back to L’Oliveraie, located in the hills 1.3 km out of Cairranne was dark and windy and a very complicated, but fortunately Peter led the way. By the time we returned it was past midnight and we were pooched.