Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Avignon picnic with jacques.  

Whoa. Jacques is an energizer bunny that never stops. He took us on a tour of the local area, we saw the amazing Roman ruins and traversed across the country side and sampled the local vineyards and got to see these old shelters made of stone but without any mortar or anything to hold it together, just the rocks. Amazing. Our highlighted path through France is nice and smooth and pretty and then it hits avignon and goes CRAY CRAY. Over lay a bunch of figure 8s and that's what you'll get. 

We went and had lunch on the side of a mountain with the villages and shelters dotting the country side. We had this delicious cheese, 4 different kinds, my favorite being the fresh one (I can't remember the names of anything I have no idea how to spell it all). We had sausage, cherries, apricots, and Chateut nuf de Pape (hope I spelled that right). It was my favorite meal of the trip, and just a wonderful, delightful experience. 

Hands down, with out a doubt, THE best wine I have ever had (I haven't had that much wine, but even Jacques, a Frenchman, kept going on about how good it was). The flavors just take over your taste buds. It goes across your whole tongue, and is just this amazing sensation. The flavor was just so rich. I think it might have helped, however, that we were sitting on the side of a mountain, in France, drinking this delicacy straight out of the bottle. I know this wine is expensive (it was like 22 euros for a bottle in the region it was made so I can't IMAGINE how much it would cost in the USA…umm Christmas/Birthday present anyone??? If they have some in the airport duty free I'm totally buying some. Don't care how ridiculous it is. Probably won't taste as good, but I need to bring some back for my family. Mom-you HAVE to try some.). Gosh that wine was so darn good. 

The vineyards we went to were AMAZING! The first one we went to had this mix that was just to die for. The had a chestnut syrup of sorts that was like the syrups you get to put in fancy pants coffee drinks and such but made there. The lady mixed that with the rose wine. AH! I wish I had purchased some. Dumb. If I see some of it anywhere else I will for sure get it. 

We sampled this wine whose grapes had come from 80 yr old plants, didn't know that the age of the plants themselves made a difference, but you could really tell a difference between the younger plants and the old bunch. 

We went to 3 different vineyards, had at least 2 glasses worth at each vineyard, so by the end of it we were all pretty happy.  Jacques, since he was driving he didn't have that much, said that it was funny how talkative we all got.

We ended the day by going back to Avignon and having dinner with Jacques and his parents. We had this pasta dish called carbanara? but it had Dr. Pollini's own family spin on it. oh my goodness gracious it was so good. They made me gluten free pasta too!!! So exciting!!! They were so sweet! Got me gluten free bread and rice cakes as well!!! So nice! We enjoyed the chestnut and rose wine mix over splendid conversation and ended the meal, again, with cherries and cheese. Jacques mom says that every meal must have a plate of cheese in it. She sure does like her cheese.

The only downside to this day was that the mosquitos discovered us. They bit us everywhere. Just the girls though (because we are so sweet!), but these bug bites were so unlike the ones back home.  They swelled up and are still here even a week and a half later (I'm writing this on the 29…I've been really bad about keeping up with journaling recently-sorry!). But it was comforting to be able to stay in a family home with a French family, and feel the love.