Last day - wines, Arles, Marseilles

Day 7 - wine tastings and vineyards

Domaine Banneret - private tasting

Wine Museum visit

Chateau La Nerthe - tour of caves and vineyard

Driving around vinyards:
Chateau Gardine
Chateau Mont-Redon
Chateau Vaudieu

Dinner again at Le Pistou

absolutely delicious melt in your mouth foie gras poelee

Pork cheeks

Day 6 - Avignon, Pont du Gard, wine class

After a lovely breakfast on the terrace at Wine B&B, we headed out to Avignon to visit the papal palace which was used by 9 popes during the 14th century. 

The palace wasn't too mpressive. It's well preserved on the outside but the inside had been remodeled so many times after the popes left that almost none of the castle or cathedral qualities were remaining.



We attempted to photograph the Pont du Gard without actually paying to visit it but it is carefully hidden away to prevent that.

 In the evening the master sommelier who runs our B&B (wine B&B) gave a little course on chateauneuf du pape wines. We learned a lot about wine growing and the particularities of the region. We also tasted some yummy wines. We learned that the nearby region of Lirac makes yummy reds similar to chateauneuf du pape for much less.

Day 5 reprise

We stayed in Roussillon and started the day with a walk through town.  I know that the area is famous for the mining of ocre in the past and now has become mainly a tourist attraction as the mining has stopped but had no idea how beautiful the ocre landscape was.  I have included a couple pictures below but honestly, none of them do justice to the magnificent panorama of colors we saw.

Here are some pictures from my camera.

It was like being a in a wonderland of color.  I couldn't believe such colors could be natural.  It's no wonder the area has been significantly mined for paint pigments and other decorates arts.

They also had some really interesting pottery techniques in the area and I bought a couple samples (pictures to come at conclusion of trip).

We then drove to Saignon which I think is a ridiculous name since it sounds like saignant (which means bleeding) but maybe you'll tell me it looks like Saigon. In any case, we went for the medieval castle ruins overlooking lavender fields. I love castles.  The panorama was beautiful.