Month: April 2018

We returned to Lumiére this morning and it was just as incredible this time as it was all of the other times we have been.  We left Allan watching the show one more time and headed to the medieval town of Les Baux.  Charlie, Patti, Connie and I stopped quickly and had a nice lunch at Bautezar, but we were seated at the last available table so Brenda, Clay, Rick and Allan had salads and sandwiches closer to the Chateau.  We walked up to the entrance to the Chateau and I let the others enter without me.  I went shopping by myself and found some interesting shops, art galleries, a lovely tiny church, and a tasty glacerie.  Some of us purchased souvenirs and we all enjoyed our visit to Les Baux.

Our last stop of the day was to Moulin CastelaS for olive oil tasting and purchasing.  The person who toured us through the tasting puts olive oil on everything.  She has each of the 15 or so oils that they sell and uses a different one for different foods–one on toast in the morning, another one on chocolate tarts for dessert, another one on strawberries and other fruit, etc.

Dinner at home was excellent–legume soup, a scrumptious cauliflower recipe (thank you, Brenda), broccoli and asparagus.

Today, we rested.  Brenda, Rick, Charlie and Patti were still jet-lagged and the rest of us were feeling the effects of lots of wine and too much rich French food.  Rick picked up pastries from the Boulangerie and yogurt from the market and we grazed for most of the morning.  We philosophized, napped, talked and laughed as we moved from room to room, in and out of the villa.  Eventually, we walked into Maussane and had a light lunch at the Cafe de la Fountaine, sitting outside in the town square and admiring the plane trees just beginning to leaf out.

It was one of those incredibly clear, bright days that are so beautiful in Provence…no wonder so many artists took advantage of the colors and painted here.  After lunch we napped and talked some more.  Charlie and Patti explored the five-star country club down the road.  Dinner was another finish-what’s-here kind of event and we turned in relatively early.

 

This morning everyone except me went to Arles for the Saturday market.  This market is the biggest one we’ve been to and I can attest from the last two years that it is huge!  I spent the morning working on the blog, relaxing, and looking for birds. This Great Tit was in the tree outside the big living room window.  It is a very common bird in all of Europe and  has a beautiful song, usually heard from high up in the trees.

We lunched at Aux Ateliers, a favorite spot for both locals and tourists in Maussane.  We spent more than 2 hours eating our entree (appetizer), plat (main dish) and, of course, dessert and shared 3 bottles of rosé wine.  After lunch, we shopped a bit at the boutique there and Allan, Clay, Charlie and Rick played a rousing game of Pétanque.

Next stop was the Domaine Romanin winery.  Just past St. Remy, it is tucked into the edge of a mountain and one of the walls of the cave (cellar) is the mountain.  Because of that the temperature stays at 15 degrees celsius and the humidity at 60% all of the time–day and night.  We toured the facility and it is beautiful!  The winery is designed like a cathedral.  The wine in this AOC is 60% syrah grapes.  Each AOC sets the grapes that can be included in the mixture to be bottled and the wine in this AOC is syrah, cabernet sauvignon, among other grapes.  The wine we liked best is 60% syrah grapes. We tasted the wine and Allan, Connie and Brenda bought some for happy hour and some for bringing home.

Dinner tonight was “catch as catch can” of all of our leftovers and, of course, baguettes and butter.