Can You Say 'Wine-Tasting' or Trial by Wine Purchase

As noted in the earlier verbal post, as soon as we got to our rental outside of Avignon we headed out to Chateauneuf-du-Pape for a serious wine tasting. We found our way into the town without too much problem. We found plenty of street parking. There is a huge difference touring these places in late October/early November than coming during the peak tourist times of May through September. The town was very quiet. But literally virtually every block we walked on (we didn't go that far into town) had a Cave dedicated to wine tasting and sales. This is a town dedicated to the wine business.

But yes in fact there is a chateau fort in Chateauneuf-du-Pape

We were pretty hungry after the long drive from the Cote d'Azur and then getting here.

Sorry no food pictures, we were in such a state but we had a great meal of a first course of salmon cooked in puff pastry and then half of a small chicken poached and served with a very classic veloute sauce. It was a hell of a meal for under $40. If you by the daily menu, particularly at lunch in France and Italy, you can do very well and not spend all that much.

Where we had lunch

But let's not kid ourselves.

We came here for wine!

Shipping wine back to the US is exceedingly expensive but I said if I could fine some wine that was as good or better than anything I have in had in the US and was something that I could not get in the US and was at a price point with the shipping that was no more than what I would pay for that quality in the US, I would make the purchase.

It didn't take us long. The very first place we went to had some exquisitely yummy wine that fit all our criteria.

The scene of the crime

Then we headed out into the countryside. The folks at our rental had extolled the virtues of the wine country and we were in search of the elusive 'good light' the light that comes in the hour or so before sunset.

There is so much history here, I unfortunately have not read up on it as much as I should because their are castles and fortifications just about everywhere.

This was just some small town along the road, not even a name site.

We went through two well known other wine villages, Vacquyeras and Gigondas. 

Wife (of all people) said we should really maybe get some more wine. We had room in our luggage for another four bottles. So we stopped at a winery in Gigondas and did another tasting.

This winery has been in the same family since 1806. The wine on the far left was a limited edition wine. It cost $27 a bottle and was I thought a fabulous buy for the quality. 

Then it was on to trying to catch that illusive light

It was hard because when we'd find a scene we liked we usually couldn't find a place to park.

But we hit pay dirt as the sun was really starting to set and we went into a town called Vaison-la-Romaine where the combination of shot, light, and parking all came together.

We tootled home in the darkening light happy knowing their was no hill climb of death awaiting us.

De-I and Wife vs MUPGT on the Streets of Paris!

Yesterday was a travel day. Because of our little sojourn in Avignon, we were faced with driving back to Nice, a 2.5 hour drive) to drop off our rental car and catch a train to Paris. Fortunately the train was not too early and we gave ourselves plenty of time. That was good as it took longer to turn the car in than we thought and we didn't have very long to wait until we caught our train.

As we were the first stop for this train we had no problems with space for our luggage. I'm not quite sure why but the TGV (high speed train) in France has relatively little room for luggage. When you consider these are long distance trains and people going long distances are going to have luggage, it is a bit of a mystery why they don't do something to add more.

It was a bit of irony that this train went back through Avignon. I joked with Wife that we'd been traveling for 6 hours just to get back to where we started. But it would have been difficult and expensive to change all the reservations particularly without internet access at the Avignon rental.

So we got to Paris without problem, got our cab, went to the new rental apartment, one that is a number of apartments in a building owned and operated by a friend of ours in Albuquerque. We'd communicated just days before and I'd sent our arrival time. Got there, rang the door bell. Nothing. Rang the door bell, nothing. I'd texted that we were on our way in the cab. I called the owner's cell, right to voice mail. It's cold, it's starting to rain. I get out my computer and call the office number. No answer. We see a light on upstairs on the third floor. We ring the door bell many more times.

The Magical Unicorn Pony God of Travel is quaffing mead and laughing her horn off. Surely now she has defeated de-I at last. He will die miserably of exposure among his bags on the streets of Paris. How sweet. But her glee and ecstatic joy are interrupted. "What? Not the use of technology again?" De-I, he is using Booking.com to make a nearly instantaneous last minute reservation! He is using Uber to get picked up exactly where he, Wife, and bags are. In less than an hour from the time to bail, he and Wife are installed in a warm, nice comfortable hotel! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

We were exhausted and went to a bistro right next to the hotel to eat. While eating the apartment owner called, profusely apologetic. His partner was in the building and for whatever reason he did not hear the bell (Did he have headphones on or what?). He said he would reimburse our hotel cost (without my even asking) and we will be back at the rental this morning.

Momentary Disruption in Avignon or Trial by Lack of Internet

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The last few days have been busy and eventful. Plus, we without internet. One of the things I always search for when I look for a place to stay is if they have internet. In fact today, it is extremely rare for me to find anything without it.

We had decided to leave our long-term rental a couple of days early because we wanted to see the city of Avignon which was a three-hour drive away. Plus, we’d really done everything we wanted in the Cote d’Azur that we’d wanted to. So we got another two day Airbnb rental. Parking in Avignon is a problem and we had all our bags with us so I opted for a house about 30 minutes from the city center with parking at the house for the car. We were also able to get into it early so we could drop our bags off. Unfortunately, this was a relatively new place (we surmise). It didn’t have a router on site and was using some kind of hotspot service that never showed up on any of our devices. Fortunately, I was able to use my phone for a hotspot at least to get and send email.

But on the positive side we had a great day and a half. On a whim we went to Chateauneuf-du-Pape, a town and major wine designation. We did a tasting and we’re very evil and bought not a little wine. Then we drove through the countryside and looked for pictures. We were in a town when the perfect end of day light was in full force which we were always afraid to do in our other rental because we didn’t want to make the scary drive up in the night.

In the process of doing this, we went through another name wine town, Gigondas, WERE WE TASTED AND BOUGHT EVEN MORE WINE! And Wife was the initiator of that idea! We had a great meal in Chateauneuf-du-Pape too.

The next day there was a walking/touring of Avignon and the two big attractions, the Palais des Papes and the Pont d’Avignon.

There will be a scad load of pictures coming up hopefully as we are now in Paris and with internet again.

Ciaorevoir Frantaly

Hard to believe that it is time to move on. We are leaving tomorrow for Avignon and the heart of French Provence for a couple of days before we go on up to Paris, the French cultural heart (at least if you hear Parisians talk about it!)

After the ordeal getting back from Antibes on Monday, we completely collapsed yesterday, did laundry, took naps, I cooked our midday meal, and started our packing. Today we went into Menton to enjoy the sun and sea one last time.

We spent a lot of time in a cafe and on a park bench just talking and reading.

One Last Med Panorama

I went and got a haircut. Then we went to lunch. We talked about driving back to Ventimiglia for pasta or pizza but in the end didn't want to put out the energy. Even though we've had mostly just okay meals in Menton, we spent some time to find a place that seemed to resonate. We liked this one because they were offering four kinds of whole fish...the kind that are big enough you need two people to share them. We were very happy with our meal.

To start with they had a nice tapinade on the house

 Then we had a green salad

The bread was much better than average

Then came the fish. 

It was steamed with olives, artichokes and fennel. 

It was brought out whole to us and then they boned and plated it.

There were five vegetable accompaniments including spinach, carrots, eggplant, potatoes, and some mystery vegetable potato puree. With the exception of the latter, all were very good.

(p.s. sorry for the pictures - done with phone and the lighting with the shadow and brightness were a devil! Yes we were eating outside again :)

We did some final shopping for things we need the last couple of days and climbed the crazy ass road one last time. We were rewarded with a final sunset and watched the Italian Coast as night fell.

Antibes or Old Town/New Town

We're almost finished with our time on the Cote d'Azur. We're actually leaving a couple of days early so we can fit in a couple of things on the opposite side of the Provence that we wanted to see. I spoke in yesterday's post about our ordeal getting back from Antibes. But up until then we had had a very nice day.

When one visits an 'old town' in a European town or city, one might expect one is seeing the same thing. But that is not the case. For many cities, particularly those that were damaged a lot during the wars of the 20th century, the old town may be mostly reconstruction along the lines of the streets as they were, trying to use as many buildings and facades that survived. Nice's old town would be an example of that. Then there are those that survived with a new town growing around it such as the one in San Remo Italy. Finally their are those where it looks as if the old town has hardly changed at all such as the one in Cervo, Italy, and the one in Saoge, France. Antibes is definitely in the first category.

Antibes has been occupied for well over 2600 years. Like Nice and Marseilles and a number of other places one the Mediterranean coast, the Greeks or Phoenicians were there, followed by the Romans, followed by various barbarian conquerors, etc. Whereas Nice and the towns to the east were primarily dominated by the Duchy of Savoy in Italy until the 19th century, Antibes was French. It was the military bastion on the edge of the border. When you see the pictures below, you will get the feeling that this was a place of business, no nonsense military business. It was only after WWI that the military moved out and it joined other areas on the Cote in becoming a playground of the rich and famous. It did that in spades though and is now considered the place in the world for the super rich yacht spot.

Let's delve into our visit.

Don't believe it's been 2600 years?

Read and believe - 26 Centuries

If you can't believe the signs at a French archaeological dig, what can you believe?

Fortress City?

I present to you Exhibit One

A crapload of big fortified walls and bastions

The 'old' in Old Town

This is like a building from who knows how long ago that clearly made it through the WWII bombing

Antibes has LOTS of museums and a cool market

All closed on Mondays

(Actually we knew that but we needed something to do on the 31st)

Evidently Halloween is now a thing in France. It wasn't when I was a student with Charlemagne.

Historical border fortress town = Church that wasn't so great (or it got bombed out). The church in Cervo was much better.

But there was this piece of interesting late Medieval church art

Of course there are always the narrow streets with various sorts of action in them

And each 'old town' seems to have some interesting architectural thing going on.

I loved this door and windows

And their were lots of houses with these decorative trees which we've not seen elsewhere

And there was this modern art statue

I especially liked the way it framed Nice across the bay

Time to get serious

Let's Talk Yachts

Lots of companies selling yachts and offering all kinds of services for the yacht owner

But their are yachts and their are yachts

There is a big market for selling 'sports yachts', fast boats that don't hold that many people, maybe  8 passengers with a crew of two or three.

Sorry, that's just a glorified pleasure boat.

You can tell in Antibes harbor because of the strict segregation about such things.

Now here we're getting to something a bit more serious.

And now we're getting to the real deal

And I will conclude with this exclusive find.

Dilbar happens to be the most recent and biggest super yacht yet built according to my internet research. At first we thought it was a cruise ship. It is supposed to have over 41 thousand square feet of living space.

Well if that didn't make you hungry, I don't know hat will. Let's talk about FOOD!

We were both in the mood for street food.

We decided to start with dessert first so we had sweet crepes

Wife's salted caramel crepe followed by mine with chestnut puree

In French cafes they serve flavored syrups which you dilute with sparkling water. Sort of a make your own soda.

The only problem is they give you tons of the syrup and their is not a lot of room for the water and because of the difference in densities it is hard get them to mix.

Wife demonstrates the approved technique for dealing with this.

First take a small sip of the syrup on the bottom of the glass

Then move the straw up so you can dilute it with the bubbly water at the top 

By total fluke luck we fell into a food find.

We were looking for something portable to take to a park.

We saw a number of things but Wife wanted chicken and we went back to a place she said smelled the best. After we ordered our sandwiches, I saw a bunch of TripAdvisor emblems on the side of the hole-in-a-wall place. The reviews extolled the virtues of the gal who ran the place for sourcing all the ingredients directly and making most things from scratch.

Voila 

Looks like a Belge right? Bread with Fries. 

Mais Non!

Below is chicken that was in a rotisserie that she has cut to put on this fabulous French Bread (maybe the best on our trip) with a homemade slightly pickled vegetable salad.

A satisfied customer