Cairanne and back to Mas de Viales, September 13-15

We spent the night at Peter & Margaret’s and arose to very cool – for Provence – temperatures. The Mistral is not finished messing with us yet. After a leisurely rising, I took some pics around the property pointing out some of the improvements, like the


pergolas over the terrace and the wrought iron gates. Of course the chapel right across the street from their place is always a photo op.

We then drove to the next village, Ste. Cecile les Vignes, for their market. They had a few unique displays like the guy with 3 miniature animals in a box - a goat, a pig and a Chihuahua. What he was doing with them, I have no idea.


There was also an amazing display of cheese and regional dried sausages. This, from our experience, is one of those stalls that sucks in the tourist every time and sticks it to them, because their product is very expensive – however, also very good.

Peter & Margaret are of course getting to know lots of people, French and English, in the area. So on our wanderings through the market, we ran into numerous acquaintances and then we came upon a table of aging Brits at 11:00 in the morning who were already well into their first bottle of wine. We met them all.

Our next destination was the new cave in Rasteau. More great wines tasted and more great wines purchased. I’m creating quite a cellar! From here we drove across the base of the Dentelles to Beaumes de Venise, a village renowned for their sweet dessert Muscat wines. We were here, however, for the new restaurant located in the Cave de Beaumes de Venise. Although relatively new, it’s already been getting a lot of attention from the likes of Michelin and others.

The decor was quite nouveau for France and we found things like the floors that looked like hardwood, but were actually tile and the variety of serving dishes that were unique in shape and size, including the slate dishes, most appealing. The meal was three courses for 28 Euros and we sampled pretty much everything on the menu. They started us off with amuse bouches that were foie gras lollipops rolled in crushed pumpkin seeds. Appetizers were tomato slices with rockette in balsamic sauce or flowers of zucchini stuffed with a chicken mousse with lemon and ginger. Main courses were dourade (fish) with figs or steak with a vegetable gratin. Dessert, which came with glasses of Muscat de Beaumes de Venise, was fig and pear sorbet or a Beaumes de Venise cold mousse with almond tuilleres. Among the four of us, we ordered every item described above, which was good for comparison purposes. The entire meal was fabulous! Have I mentioned that eating in France is a highlight for us?

On Sunday morning, we woke up to a moderately nicer day than yesterday. Although the Mistral was still at it, the sun was trying to shine and this afforded us a really nice view of Cavillargues, through the pines.

This was the day set for the Vide Grenier in St. Pons la Calm, the village next to us. This is an annual event for villages in France and it translates into a giant garage sale. Literally, it is a “clean out the attic” sale, but in the end it’s the same kind of junk at any Canadian garage sale, except this one’s for the entire town, each resident being allotted a tiny spot in the market square. They added one more people draw to the day, by bringing in a few vintage cars, but most people were here for the junk.


Leaving the Vide Grenier, having made NO purchases, we set out with a detailed local map in hand, to discover the mas’ of the area. Now of course, we are staying in a mas – the Mas de Viales - historic enough to be included on the map, so it was interesting to see how the various mas in the area compared. The historic mas is a Provencal farm-house, usually housing multiple generations of a family and their animals. The ones that make it to the map here are very old – ours dates back 400 years. Most are quite rambling and difficult to photograph in their entirety, but we did find 13 in our area and got a few good images, shown here.



Our search took us through a couple of very old, picturesque villages on the opposite side of the valley from us. In some, the road through the town is barely wide enough for our car, much less trucks, or heaven forbid, oncoming traffic. You learn very quickly in this area to always be aware of pull off spots, or places you can turn into if you meet oncoming traffic. One of prettiest spots we went through today was Fontareche.

For dinner on Sunday evening, we finally made reservations at the restaurant 100 metres down the road from us, Chez Ma Mere. Perched on the side of the hill, it has a difficult access, which apparently doesn’t stop people from going. But in this area, it is the ONLY restaurant and as we discovered today, 100’s of villas and summer homes are tucked away in the hills here, so there is clearly a market for a restaurant.


The menu here was quite imaginative and not nearly as limited as we might have thought in this remote location. For o’er d’oeuvres we chose St. Nicolas salad for Dawn – not really sure what she ate and Bill had a salad with chicken giblets, lardons and foie gras. We ordered the mayor’s white wine and it was very good. For main course Dawn had gambas (shrimp) done in whisky and Bill had frog’s legs – a good dozen of them. Dessert was crème brulee for Bill – bien sur – and pear tarte for Dawn. We were suitably impressed with the cuisine so made reservations for next Friday.

Cairanne September 12

After last night’s deluge, the weather changed significantly. The hot muggy stuff we’d had for the past few days was replaced by cooler, drier, breezier air influenced by the Mistral.

We left mid morning for Cairanne to visit Peter & Margaret Pigeon and did a small detour by the Pontet Auchan. Peter & Margaret have had their house at the top of old Cairanne for 4 years now and the main house upper floor with two bedrooms and terraces is now finished. The kitchen, living and dining room still have a ways to go, but as Peter is now planning to sub contract some of the next stage of work, the main floor could be habitable by Christmas.
Margaret had a nice lunch prepared for us and we got into some very fine whites from Burgundy. After getting caught up, we visited 3 local wineries and found all of them had outstanding wines at decent prices. One must make a point of stepping back and appreciating this location, with its commanding view of both the Rhone Valley and the Dentelles hills.


On returning to their house, we played some cards – learned a new game called Bite Me - and then headed down the hill on foot to the local restaurant. This restaurant called la Tourne au Verre offers only one choice each evening for 32 Euros and this evening it was an amuse bouche of goat cheese with balsamic vinegar, followed by an appetizer of rabbit terrine and salad, with salmon, risotto and a mélange of mushrooms for main course and a lovely sorbet/ ice cream cake for dessert. Every course was outstanding and even though there was no choice in food, the wine list was incredible. The locals flock to this place so it was packed and very lively.

After dinner we found the ascent up the hill a little more difficult than the earlier descent – surprise! But, we made it and finished up our card game - Margaret won - before retiring for the evening.
The breeze did diminish a little before bedtime, but I suspect there is seldom a moment that there isn’t some kind of breeze up here.

Mas de Viales, Cavillargues, Gard, South of France from Sept. 10

Although it rained over night, it’s another torch of a day today. First, we were off to the Bagnols Tourism Office to post my blog and then on to the marche. A circus has come to town and so the market was displaced in several locations. We bought sun-dried tomatoes at my favourite stall in Bagnols, but my tomato lady was not present. Quel domage! Maybe next week. Also, due to the circus, Dawn’s favourite linen merchant was not present. Once again, maybe next week. Every walk through this town affords architectural treats like this doorway below.

Thursday, although it was not market day, we winded our way out of the Tave Valley and made for Uzes, probably the prettiest and most historic of our nearby towns. In actual fact, this town is best visited on non-market days, because at least then you can appreciate it’s buildings, shops and squares without the throngs. We are always drawn to the centre of town, The Places des Arbres, with it’s aging plane trees, central fountain and


best of all, the arcades that surround the square. The arcades are home to many cafes that spill out into the Places des Arbres, as well as many specialty shops, like a truffle shop that sold all manner of products with even the slightest whiff of truffle in them. We actually noticed the earthy smell of truffles as we entered the shop, but resisted making any purchases, principally due to the high cost associated with anything “truffle”. Since there’s notorious scamming in the truffle market, how does one, other the true afficianado, know whether or not they’re getting the real thing.


Despite one past unpleasantry- like Dawn’s wallet being stolen here – Uzes remains one of our favourite destinations. It’s a very touristy spot, but it has a warm,
authentic charm.
From Uzes, we made our way to the Mistral Auchan south of Avignon for some more provisions. This is nothing like the massive Auchan north of Avignon. It’s actually easy to find your way around this store. As a small example of why we love shopping in grocery stores in France, we found for dinner, a packaged trio of duck servings – kebabs, fillets and sausages. Our plan is to have those for dinner with some fresh pesto pasta and salad.
From Avignon south, we made our way north along the Rhone and along the walls of the great city and of course under the Pont d’Avignon – Pont St. Benezet. What a fabulously historic and picturesque city this is! There were one of two tourists wandering about as well. Our next destination was Chateauneuf du Pape and this time NOT for a pass through

Chateauneuf is the undisputed crown jewel of the Cotes du Rhone wines. The problem here, as always, is to choose from the approximate 100 distributors. We did have a little help from a book we brought with us outlining the best wines of France. The chateau shown below – Chateau Mousset - was not on our list, but we could not resist driving up to it. Most of the even high-end producers of Chateauneuf, look nothing like this place. The common denominator is the rocks, in which grow all of the grapes here.

Chateauneuf itself was pretty quiet since the Vendage has begun and people are actually working – not a good time to get a tour of a winery. We purchased a couple of wines that were ready to drink. Chateauneuf is one of those places where the wine must age to appreciate its grandeur. At this point I haven’t any specific plans to bring wine home with me – the new “no fluids in your carry-on” has put the damper on that. But, either of today’s purchases – a 2004 Chateau la Nerthe white and a 2001 Galet des Papes veille vignes red – would be worthy candidates for export.

We took an opportunity to sit by the fountain in the main square that flows with Chateauneuf during its wine festival in late July. Way back in 2002, when we were here for that festival, we simply held our glasses beneath the fountain. Quel dommage! As we sat, a huge grape harvester rolled through town, dwarfing all other vehicles and proof once again that Vendage is under way.

Arriving back at the Mas in late afternoon, it was still very warm, but a storm was impending. So we had only a little time to sit at the table overlooking the vineyards, before we had to retreat to the interior for the evening and listen to rain pound on the tile roof. And it rained. We were worried about the state of lower roads. But, we were busy preparing our duck treats! C’est la vie! Tomorrow Cairanne.

Mas de Viales, Cavillargues, Gard, South of France from Sept. 8

The weather has been spectacular since we’ve arrived at the Mas – hot, sunny days and cool, good for sleeping, nights. Of course we could get this weather in Canada at this time of year as well. However, it’s not the south of France.
Proof that we’re slowing down is the picture below of Dawn. This is good! Spending daytimes here, you seek out shady spots and one of the great ones is our inner courtyard, which we really haven’t used since our visit with Tony & Jackie in the summer of 2002. It gives not only respite from sun but breeze as well.


Today’s only plan was to find an internet connection in Bagnols sur Ceze to post my blog and pick up e-mails. Heading to the Tourism Office, we found they had wi-fi for free. So now we know we can post regularly and in a nice environs, so for my regular readers, you can count on posts at least every other day.
Everybody that knows us, is at the very least, aware of our passion for France and our desire to be here as often as possible. The only drawback to being here for lengthy periods is below. C’est la vie!

Bagnols sur Ceze is not on any tourist map, but it is actually a very vibrant, historic town. They have a great Wednesday market along its narrow, twisted walking streets, but it’s actually nice being here on non-market days, with the significantly reduced congestion. We are fortunate to be so close to a town like this.
On the way back to the Mas, we made a stop at the Intermarche for a few more provisions – translated into wine and underwear. Since last here, they’ve totally renoed this store. Some things in France do change – but not many.



As I continue my blog, it’s now Tuesday and that would make it market day at Vaison la Romaine. This is a giant market that encompasses the entire old town and is almost more than one can explore. On the way to market we noticed that in some places, they’ve started Vendage and the grape laden wagons were making their way to the cooperatives. Nothing below the Mas yet, but it can’t be far off.

Vaison has amazing Roman roots with two very large excavated sites of the original Roman habitation. These days it has become a huge draw for English speaking tourists and this place seems to typify Chic. The remaining Roman bridge with a distant view of Mt. Ventoux brings out lots of cameras.

As for the market, it is a slow wander at best through the throngs and there is nothing you can’t get here. We did manage to browse purchaseless for a good hour before we came upon the linen merchant we frequent in Uzes. Then it was game over. I think we’ve already filled one suitcase. I have to say that we don’t seem to have our normal shopping stamina yet, so we sat down for lunch at one of many cafes and by the time we’d finished lunch, the market was over and most vendors had packed up and gone. This was about 2:00. The streets were, however, much easier to traverse, and being still lunch hour, all the shops were closed, which makes shopping really easy. On our way back to the Mas – about a 40 minute drive – we made a minor detour to pick up some wine in Gigondas – not a hardship.

Tomorrow – Wednesday – is market day in Bagnols, so we’ll kill two birds with one stone and post this chapter of the blog and pick up a few items we can’t exist without.

Mas de Viales, Cavillargues, Gard, South of France from Sept. 6

Did I mention that I was weary at the end of the last posting? So how do you know you’re really exhausted? Dawn putting her head down on the serving tray of the airplane to catch a few z’s might be one clue. Even though I drive a standard car every day, I’ve got a better exhaustion story for you.

By the time we got to our B&B, the Jardins Fragonard, clearly I was in the bag. We drove up the very steep and narrow driveway to the B&B and managed to enter the wrong driveway, which sloped steeply downwards. OK, we’ve been here before and I should have remembered where to go, but keep in mind the tired thing. So, once we discovered we were at the wrong gate, my brand new Renault was nose to nose with the wrought iron gate. Reverse isn’t in the same location in all standard cars, so instead of backing up,

I started to push on the gate. Did I mention the brand new car? I only pushed on the gate three times before finally digging into my gray matter and using the emergency brake to escape my tight situation. Fortunately, after our afternoon siesta, I was a little more prepared to drive up into the old town of Cagnes sur Mer for dinner.

So, after a lovely breakfast on the terrasse of our lodging, we struck out for the autoroute, first across the south of the Riviera and then north to Avignon. Traffic was relatively heavy and we ran into a few “bouchons” (traffic jams) on the way. We had originally thought that we’d try to make it to the market in Bagnols sur Ceze, but as we continued, the skies opened up, making an open air market less appealing. Plan B became a stop at the Auchon centre just north of Avignon. For anyone complaining about the size of any of the Canadian superstores/big box stores, you should spend some time in this place. A conservative guess would put the length of the grocery/whateverelseyouwant store at ½ kilometer. Lots think us nuts, but we really love grocery shopping in France – there are so many unique products to savor.
If the car wasn’t already full before our Auchon stop, it was now. As we made our way to the Mas de Viales, formerly owned by Peter & Margaret Pigeon, we heavily resisted an urge to stop on our way through Chateauneuf de Pape. Who the hell resists a chance to sample some Chateauneuf? Apparently us. Not over the tired thing yet, I guess.

Arriving at the Mas, however, was like coming home. This is our fifth visit to this fantastic destination and each one has been as enjoyable if not more so than the last. After unpacking, we made our way down to Peter’s concrete table for a drink overlooking the vineyards of the Tave Valley. The tranquility here is breathtaking!


On our way in, we noticed the new restaurant a few hundred metres down the hill from the Mas. This is promising. At the Duty Free in Paris, I picked some Laurent-Perrier Champagne and a container of authentic foie gras. Although we did save the champagne for later, we did dig into the foie gras with some Cremant d’Alsace for o’er d’oeuvres. Vive la France! Or even better – La Vie est Belle!

After a delightful first night’s sleep in the Mas, we awoke to blue skies and arising at a leisurely pace, we showered in the courtyard, had breakfast – lardons factored in here – and headed out to the Sunday market in Laudun, a short drive from the Mas. This is not a large market by any Provencal standard, but it has most crucial ingredients – flower vendor, olive & spice seller, veggie stand, sheep cheese seller, seafood vendor and of course the pizza truck.

Leaving the market with Nicoise olives, Cavaillon mellon and a pizza – this one had lardons of course, but also crème fraiche and prunes – we headed back through the Cotes du Rhone vineyards to the Mas. Apparently the Vendage- grape harvest- is not close due to excessive precipitation – kinda like at home right? – and the farmers are not happy – not enough sun to add natural sugar to the grapes. On this route, we always pass through village of Tresque which is a really pretty vineyard town, but one we just take for granted. So, given the blue skies, I stopped for a photo op.

Of course pizza goes nicely with a sumptuous Alsace riesling, so the afternoon was very quiet, but we’re definitely getting into an R&R mode. With a view like the one below, what’s not to induce serious R&R.

Last evening for or d'oeuvres we added fresh figs from this morning’s Laudun market. We discovered later that we have lots of figs on the property. I’m not sure appetizers get better than this. I neglected to mention that we stopped at Quatre Chemin Winery in Laudun for some wine and other goodies. The wines were both Cotes du Rhone Village Laudun – red & white - and so far, the white was delightful. Among the goodies, were bars of olive oil soap, half the size of previously purchased bars here and much more travel friendly.
It's interesting how much English sneaks into the French language these days. I heard a gentlemen at the market this morning say, "Bon Weekend, eh!" This guy would fit right in in Canada.

Nice & Cagnes sur Mer

Friday September 5, 2008
After a very uneventful – I think that’s a good thing – flight aboard an Air France 747 from Toronto, the Canadian in me became very aware of one of the huge differences between Europe and Canada - space. Due to my impeccable booking skills – to be debated – we found ourselves busing from one airport to another in Paris – with all of our luggage – to get our connecting flight to Nice. The limited space that the bus driver had to maneuver in and out of Charles De Gaulle Airport would drive most Canadian bus drivers nuts. But everything is smaller here – cars, roads and the space between. It’s little wonder that when Europeans come to Canada, that they marvel at distances we travel and large, open, relatively empty spaces like Algonquin Park. For the next month, however, I shall revel in the small spaces!
As it turns out, Orly Airport is a 50 minute bus drive from CDG right through Paris but we arrived with plenty of time to rebook our luggage and board our flight to Nice. After the 6 ½ hours it took to go from Toronto to Paris, the next 1 hour was a breeze.
Once in Nice, we collected our new Renault Clio Estate and being the light travelers we aren't, we pretty much packed up the car. By the time we made our way to the Jardins Fragonard in Cagnes sur Mer - only a stones throw from the airport - we were
both feeling pretty much in need of some sleep. So from 1:00 to around 5:00, that's what we did. Feeling somewhat replenished, we headed out to the old town, which is atop the highest hill in town, crowned by it's castle. It was a beautiful 30




degree afternoon, so we were quite content wandering about watching the townsmen play boule and general people watching before sitting down for an aperatif and then dinner. As it turned out, the place we wanted to eat - le Jimmy's - a restaurant with a commanding view of the hills above Nice and a great pizza place, was hosting a wedding. So we waited until it finished, once again having a perfect opportunity to people watch and then had great pizzas. Dawn's was like nothing we'd ever experienced - thin crust topped with muscelin and Parma ham slices.


We were back at Fragonard by 8:30 and then I wearily posted this blog. Tomorrow we're off to the Mas de Viales.

Back to France

August 23, 2008
As a very wet and not so hot summer starts to wind down, we are preparing to return to France for September. Our itinerary for the next trip looks like this:
Thursday Sept. 4 - Fly from Toronto to Nice, Air France flight AF0353 to Paris & AF6224 to Nice
Friday Sept. 5 - staying in Cagnes sur Mer at the B&B, Les Jardins Fragonard
Saturday Sept. 6-20 - back to the Mas de Viales in Cavillargues
Saturday Sept. 20-27 - going to a new destination, the Mas de Genets in Saignon
Saturday Sept. 27 – Thursday Oct. 2 - taking the ferry to Corsica and staying at the Hotel Santa Maria in Olmeto
Thursday Oct. 2, Friday Oct. 3 - back at Cagnes sur Mer B&B and Les Jardins Fragonard
Saturday Oct. 4 - Fly from Nice to Toronto, Air France flight AF7713 to Paris & to Toronto AF0352
As usual, I hope to post my blog regularly, but internet availability may be intermittent, so some posts may represent more than one day.
We're starting to get quite excited and it will be great to be back in the land of exquisite wine , food and sun - not to mention escaping work for a while.