Saturday, September 15, 2018

Van Gogh and Picasso at the local museumCamino Symbol under the street sign.Looking out over Arles from the Colliseum. Note the blue shutters are thought to discourage bugs.Miss Rice Queen 2018!

Friday September 14th, 2018

Spent a good part of the morning today working on travel arrangements. Got an AirBnb for Nice, then went to the train station and got a ticket for Arles in the morning and then a ticket from Arles to Nice on Monday. After a quick lunch, it was off to meet the afternoon tour of Chateau Neuf du Pape, one of the great AOC of the Cote du Rhone. The guide took us to a couple of tasting rooms and to the ruins on the Chateau. We stopped in the vineyards and saw the grapes as well as the “Soil” which is actually pretty rocky. The rocks hold the heat at night and keep the grapes at an even temperature. CNP is mainly Syrah and Grenache, but there are a total of 13 grape varieties allowed to be included. Also, all grapes must be harvested by hand. We went to Chateau de Vaudieu and Domaine Pierre Usseglio. Tasted some whites and some reds in both places, CNP doesn’t make any rose. We got to taste one wine that is rated at 100points. As the guide pointed out a lot of this is about its aging potential, not it’s unaged flavor. It was really interesting to see how rocky the soil was, and that the vines are kept very low to the ground. That’s Mt. Ventoux in the distance. Check out the rocks…

Three types of rocks that represent the CNP terroir, River, Limestone and a third type.Concrete holding tanks, lined with epoxy.

Unfortunately out of focus, but one of these was rated 100 points!

Pope’s Palace in the distance.

Thursday, September 13, 2018

Today was a long day. Met up with Francois and the wine tour http://www.avignon-wine-tour.com and 9:00am, and off we went in his Peugeot van headed to Cairanne. After two morning tastings, a stop at a wine museum with interesting tactile and smell exercises, then a stop for lunch at a lovely restaurant with outdoor seating on the terrace. The tour had 6 others plus Francois, so 8 people total. A leisurely but delicious hour and half lunch ensued. Le Tourne au Verre.

Francois, who runs the wine tours has developed a six step tasting model, that is helpful for analyzing the wine. Basically start with a color analysis, a first smell, swirl it a second smell, Swirl, look at the legs, and then taste, taste again and then smell the empty glass after aerating it. I’ll post a photo of the procedure below. After lunch we headed to Gigondas, turns out to be a tiny village, but the scale of the vineyards all around is hard to comprehend. After some tasting at Gigondas, we then headed for Vacqueras, also a tiny place, but surrounded by what seem like endless fields of grapes. Temperatures were just under 100 deg. F, so pretty hot day. Back to Avignon at 5:30pm. I’ll post some pictures.

Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Spent the day exploring Avignon. A visit to the Palais du Papes. The palace of the popes. A huge castle of a structure with not much in it. Then a quick visit to the Petit Palais, which had some Botticelli paintings. A tour of the local market building, which involved a half dozen oysters and then a quick crepe for lunch and a nap, it was off to the famous Avignon bridge. Originally built in the 13 century, it got wiped out by flooding a number of times, and eventually in 1686, they stopped rebuilding it. It was quite a feat though, as it was almost 1km long and had 22 arches. At the moment only 4 survive. Found a nice restaurant for dinner and had an excellent lamb shank and green salad. A brief rain shower came off and on through dinner but weather is forecast to be sunny again tomorrow. See dinner pictures here: Restaurants

Palace of the popes

Live wall of central market building.

Tuesday September 11, 2018

Today ended up being a pretty long day, with a 5:45am wake up to walk down to a 7:00am bus. That took me to the airport in Lyon, at 10:40am, after a stop in Annecy. From there a couple of hour break and then TGV at 12:30pm to Avignon TGV station and then local train one stop to center Ville. From there a 15 minute walk to the AirBnb with a brief wait to be given the keys. The apartment had evidently just been cleaned, or should I say sanitized, as the smell of bleach was overwhelming, so I opened all the windows and went out. Avignon has lots of narrow streets and is quite challenging to navigate. The 90degrees plus temperatures are a show after being in high altitude an cool Chamonix. Glad that I chose A/C as a criteria when selecting my rental. I took the tourist mini train thing around for an orientation, and did some walking but still haven’t got a grasp on it. Tomorrow I have time to explore the city, Thursday I have an all day wine tour booked (Vacqueras, Gigondas) and Friday afternoon another small wine tour (Chateau Neuf du Pape).

Phone charging by pedaling at Lyon Airport TGV station.Gare D’AvignonThis is an amusing pun on the French term for mistress. That being your cinq a sept, or your 5:00pm-7:00pm

Le pont D’Avignon which ends mid river. gazpacho aged beef with pesto and cheese sauce.

Monday, September 10th 2018

Final day in Chamonix, got a late start as I was making arrangements for Avignon. Had planned to do a segment of the TMB but the lift was closed from Plan Praz to Brevent, so ended up on a different hike. First I went up the lift to the mid point and enjoyed a coffee as I watched the para-gliders circle in front of the view point. Apparently there were decent thermals there as one after another came in and circled, gaining in altitude. A glider even showed up and used the thermals as well. After that, went back down and hiked down valley for a few hours. Lovely walk low enough to be in pine forests, came out near the Bossons glacier and caught the bus back to Chamonix. A certain amount of laundry and housekeeping to do before my 7:00am bus tomorrow morning.

You can see the Aiguille du Midi there, little pointy tower on top of that mountain. Lift up is closed at the moment.

Sunday, September 9, 2018

Off to a slow start this morning, town filling up again with shoppers and others. After coffee and some walking around, back to the apartment to say goodbye to Mai and Fabien as they head for Paris. Then headed up to the Petit Balcon Sud. This is a lower level trail through the forests that goes up and down the valley but below the Grand Balcon Sud trail. Still ended up being a rigorous few hours of hiking with the lovely Chalet Floria mid way. Came out in Les Praz and took the train back to Chamonix at the end. I managed to arrange my trip to Avignon on Tuesday, the best routing I found involves a 3:40min bus ride to Lyon airport then TGV of 1:54 to Avignon. Luckily it was a discount TGV, so only 15 euros. Got a response from the AirBnb hosts so have what looks to be a nice apartment reserved in Avignon. Found a wine tour on Thursday that will get me to Gigondas, Cairanne and Vacqueras.

Saturday, Sept. 8th 2018

Started with a buckwheat crepe for breakfast, then off to the Saturday farmer’s market. The whole town has tents up in front of all the stores, and a massive influx of people. Must be the end of season sales. After a quick regroup we headed up to the midpoint of the Aiguille du Midi tram, called the Plan du Midi. The second part of the tram to the summit is closed due to a problem with the cable and reopening is uncertain but they are hoping by Christmas. Mai and Fabien were disappointed to not be able to go to the top, but without summit access, the lines were non existent. From the halfway point we did the North Balcony hike over to the Mer de Glace and its cog train. This was similar to yesterdays hike on the other side of the valley although with much more up and down and took us around 3 hours. Spectacular views with lots of paragliders aloft. The Mer de Glace, or literally the sea of ice is a glacier that has visibly melted a lot. The train is a wonderful old cog railway thing that takes about 20 minutes or so to descend from the glacier. I was pleased as the previous visit this had been out of order.

Looking down at Chamonix.Lots of paragliders, they seem to be able to get enough lift to stay aloft as long as they like.This is the Mer de Glace, sea of ice glacier above Chamonix.

Friday, September 7, 2018

Woke up to a rainy cloudy day, but it seemed to hold promise of improvement. After a breakfast of cheese and sausage it was off to find some decent coffee. Then a walk along the river with Mai and Fabien to the nearest town of Les Praz-de-Chamonix. An excellent brief lunch on the terrace of Le Castel, and then we took the lift up to La Flegere. We walked the Grand Balcon Sud trail, a brisk roughly 2 hr. Hike with fabulous views above the valley. We had to move right along because the last lift down from Le Brevent was at 5:00pm. As it turned out we had plenty of time, but better safe than sorry. Then to the Irish coffee place for a quick apero before heading back to the apartment.

Here is the rental apartment in Chamonix.

Thursday, September 6, 2018

Started the day with a nice hotel breakfast involving cheese, cheese and some charcuterie. Then a morning walking around Annecy in light rain. Took at 12:15pm bus to Chamonix, about an 1.75hr ride. Chamonix in mixed rain and clouds, but the place is just stunningly beautiful. The airbnb I arranged is smaller than it looked, but well located, has a great view and will work for all of us. Here are some pictures of both the morning and the view from the apartment.

Breakfast of champions!

Mai and Fabien

Chateau of Annecy

Old town Annecy with river running through.

This is the view from our balcony in Chamonix.

Dinner at Atmosphere, duck, foie gras.