We made our last pilgrimage into Vaison la Romaine this morning for Tuesday market. Weatherwise, it was a fabulous October 1! The girls were given free rein to wander about for a couple of hours - how brave am I? - while I set out on a quest to complete a photo essay of the ancient village. Here’s some of it.
When I made it up to the chateau, low and behold, someone was walking up the wall of the chateau. I initially thought they must be working on something, but now I’m wondering whether it was just some thrill seeker.
Having owned a Peugeot 504 and 505, I have a soft spot for the vehicle, so this vintage Peugeot - not unlike Columbo’s, except his was a ragtop - caught my fancy.
I made my last visit to see Viviane and purchase those fabulous tomatoes, one more time. She bid me farewell, shook my hand and I told her we’d be back next year. Dawn and Brigitte dropped by her stall later and she likewise bid them adieu. Hope she remembers us!
We had reservations today for lunch at Couteaux & Fourchettes just outside Cairanne, but because we were early, we made a little photographic stop in Rasteau.
Lunch was another culinary delight and for our third lunch out with Brigitte, we found that all three places had served excellent, but very different prix fixes. Here, for 23 euros, our appetizer was either crab mousse with avocado puree or a beef carpaccio wrapped around fromage blanc (kinda like pureed cottage cheese)- of course mine was the latter. We all had the same main course and if I say it was pork and beans, no one would be impressed. But that’s basically what it was and it was unlike any pork and beans I’ve ever had. Those French!
Dessert was either a plum mousse for Brigitte or the raspberry cream on a shortbread cookie and lemon sorbet, shown below for Dawn and I.
To give Brigitte a feel for the local wines, we stopped briefly into both the Coop and the Belvedere Cave. We’ll do some further exploring of these wines - a.k.a. drinking - later this week. Back at chez Pigeon we now have some entertainment as the house below us is undergoing renovation, including new beams in the roof. It’s a little noisy, but we’re out for most of the day anyway and it’s quite enlightening to see the French actually get some work done. That was not meant in a nasty way, but they have had a reputation for cafe sitting, cigarette smoking, unreliability, etc. - well you get the picture.
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