My French Adventures: Séguret

Now that Greg is here (we picked him up at the Lyon airport Tuesday), we have begun to explore more of the countryside, nearby villages and wineries/caves of course. Although it is cool with the prevailing Mistral, the sun is bright and warm and the sky is a beautiful blue. After breakfast and coffee on the front deck yesterday, we went to the Valréas market to pick up provisions for the day.

It is interesting to see the differences in markets in all of these small villages. This one had many more stalls of trinkets, clothing, gadgets for the kitchen etc. We managed to find everything we needed including a cup of coffee at one of the local bar/restaurants. Years ago, when we were travelling in Australia, we learned that a coffee break was called "smoko". Since then, we have coined the phrase "smoko" as that most important break mid to late morning to stop, have a coffee and simply enjoy one's surroundings.

Once we unloaded the groceries back at the gîte, it was time to have lunch. On one of Keith's walks, he had found a restaurant overlooking a small lake near our gîte. That is where we had a lovely meal.

After lunch, we headed south of Valréas. Our first stop was the very small village of Buisson. We only spent a short time there to take a few pictures of the pretty landscape and buildings.

A couple of days ago, at one of the caves, the caviste explained to us that the thick 80 year old vines that are not supported by stakes and wires are carignan and grenache varietals (seen below) These must be picked by hand. The newer vines like syrah and mourvèdre are thinner and have wires supporting the branches which apparently allow for machines to pick the grapes.

This is a picture of Mont Ventoux which according to Brian is one of the most difficult legs on the Tour de France.

Below is the village of Vaison-la-Romaine. It too was a beautiful old Roman village where we spent an hour climbing among the ruins....

.....and then ending our visit at a local cave aptly named Domaine des Roches Fortes. The kind proprietor gave us a taste of the white Côtés-du-Rhône - a blend of Grenache blanc, Clairette et Viognier which we all thoroughly enjoyed. He suggested that it would be a perfect accompaniment to the fish we were having for dinner. He was absolutely right! We also purchased a bottle of 2009 "Les Andoilles" which is made with grapes from the old grenache vines. I'm looking forward to trying that one too.

Our last visit of the afternoon was Séguret. This was one of the places that was listed as a must see village and I can understand why. Below you can see the lovely archway and stone Roman road at the entrance to the village.

Greg and Keith just ahead on one of the narrow streets.

This charming artist was painting a scene to his right. He was quite passionate about his work and he said it was most difficult to choose just the right colours. He had a nice old dog too and you can see him at the bottom of the picture underneath the easel.