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.