Europe Continued: Avignon Day Two - This May Be Heaven cont.

Our next stop was the Chateau Mont Redon.


Felipe and I by one of the many fields of vines.




The tasting room at Mont Redon.


Felipe tasting a Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

Mont Redon is where I had the chance to try my first Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc - and as it turns out, it's one of the best white wines I've ever had. We bought several bottles from the Château and walked around the vineyards a little bit. In France the "terroir" of a vineyard has a great deal of influence on how the wine will taste - and Provence, specifically the Châteauneuf-du-Pape area has a very unique terroir. I could explain it for you, but wikipedia does a better job of it:

The characteristic terroir of Châteauneuf-du-Pape comes from a layer of stones called galets ("pebbles"). The rocks are typically quartzite and remnants of Alpine glaciers that have been smoothed over millennia by the Rhône River. The stone retains heat during the day and releases it at night which can have an effect of hastening the ripening of grapes. The stones can also serve as a protective layer to help retain moisture in the soil during the dry summer months.

Here you can see a photo of the vines with the galets at their base:

It was really interesting to learn about how the land and the climate can really affect the crop and ultimately the taste of the wine.



After Mont Redon, we made a quick stop at the site that loans it's name to the wine appellation. The Châteauneuf-du-Pape, or the new palace of the popes was built in the area, as a summer residence for the popes. Not much of the palace remains today - as it has been many centuries, and was badly damaged during the world war.





Overlooking the valley from the palace grounds. You can see the Rhone river in the distance.

At this point we were ready to stop for lunch. Our amazing guide Mika had arranged reservations for us at Château des Fines Roches, this amazingly gorgeous place. I had seen photos of this place when I was planning the trip, and had even considered staying at the hotel that they operate on the property - but had decided against it, and gone for the Hotel d'Europe because it was closer to the city.

We approached the estate by a winding, cypress tree lined road. I cannot even begin to describe how beautiful and scenic it was. I was almost giddy about it!

Here is a photo of it as seen from the main highway/road that passes by it.


The towering cypress trees along the drive.

We sat out on a terrace in front of the château. There were tables with white linens, and it overlooked the whole valley. I could not have imagined a better place to sit and have lunch.



Felipe with his entree, a croustillant de canard (almost like a duck confit boerek wrapped in phyllo). It was amazing, so delicious.




I had a terrific steak au poive with ratatouille and potatoes, and a dessert of white cake with creme and strawberries, sprinkled with lavender sugar (that was so delicious it was gone before I could think of getting the camera out).


The view from where we sat.


So picturesque. I wished I could stay there forever!

They had other dining areas inside of the hotel, as well as the guest rooms. It was such a lovely place - I do hope that sometime in my future I will find myself visiting there again. Another one of the dining rooms:


After lunch Mika took us next door to the Château Le Nerthe, one of the oldest vineyards in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. It was built in the 12th century, around the times that the pope moved to the area.


So another breathtaking long road, lined by cypress trees led past the vines to a smaller drive lined by plane trees, which led to the main Château.


Mika knew this winery well, as I am sure she takes many of her tours there, and was able to take us into the cellars to show us around. We saw all of the newly filled barrels, and the cages where they keep bottles for the hotels, restaurants and patrons that purchase from them. It was quite impressive.


We had another tasting of the wines, and I must say they were amazing. Felipe and I were getting to our limit of wine intake...after two previous wineries and a glass with lunch, added to the fact that we are not experienced at spitting our wine when tasting (seems like too much of a waste!!!). But none-the-less, it was terrific. We bought another couple of bottles. I should note that we took home a total of 8 bottles - including one for Felipe's dad and one for my mom.


In the tasting area at Le Nerthe they had a cross section of the ground and soil. Here again you can see the galets.

From the patio outside of the Château you could see Château Fines Roches (where we had lunch) very well.



We stopped for a moment, looking over the land, the vineyards...with the light shining through the clouds. It was as if God was putting a spotlight onto the scene in front of us, saying...this really may be heaven...

After Le Nerthe we were just about finished with the days tour. Mika was quite generous and took us to a chocolate shop nearby where we were able to purchase some goodies to bring home to share. And one last stop in Villeneuve les Avignon, a small village across the river from Avignon. We stopped there to shop for a few little souvenirs and happened upon the Olive oil festival there. There were vendors set up on one of the main streets, and musicians. It was quite lovely.

By the time we got back to the hotel I was exhausted! We took a bit of time to rest and clean up, and had the front desk make reservations for us for dinner at Le Brigadier du Theatre. I think that when I say the provençale food just kept getting better and better - this was the culminating meal. Absolutely delicious in every bite. I had the prix fixe meal, traditional for France - it comes with the entree, main and dessert.

A view of the restaurant. We must have been early - it filled up later in the meal.



Entree - Andalusian Gazpacho with Jamon


Main - Tian aux 3 légumes et 3 fromages (Eggplants, Zucchinis, Tomatos, Gruyere, goat cheese, Mozzarella)

A photo will never do this dish justice. Whoever came up with this recipe did right by the world.

Dessert - Composition de crèmes glacées saveurs de provence (Ice Creams in the flavors of Provence)

Violet flavored (YES, VIOLET FLAVOR!!!), melon, and tomato and olive oil. Amazing. Violet of course was my favorite. I might have died if they had put violet, lavender and rose flavored ice creams in front of me...but maybe that's asking too much!

Felipe and I managed to walk ourselves (stuffed with food, full of wine and tired from all the fresh provençale air) back to the hotel where we retired for the night. Everything about our visit to Provence was perfect. The history, the climate, the culture, and the people were all amazing. I cannot wait for the day we can travel back there, and could not recommend it more highly to anyone wishing for a memorable vacation.

Europe Continued: Avignon Day Two - This May Be Heaven

Day two in Avignon started perfectly. Felipe and I had breakfast in the hotel. What a spread they had, delicious pastries, fresh fruit, yoghurts, fresh squeezed juices, coffees and teas and so on.


I know it looks electric, but that's blood orange juice. yum.

After breakfast we met our tour guide Mika in the lobby of the hotel. Mika works exclusively for the Hotel d'Europe giving tours and running their conferences. We had scheduled a day long (8 hour) tour with her of the wine country. We wanted to see some of the wineries and the cities around Avignon, and since Felipe does not drive and we wanted to taste the wine, so hiring a guide seemed better than renting a car. Plus, having someone who knows their way around is a good idea!

We started out towards a town called Séguret (see the photo below). Our first winery was at 10:30am (yes, we started drinking wine that early!)


We took a winding hilly road, past patches of vines to the first winery, the Mourchon Winery. It's a fairly young winery compared to many around the area, it was established in 1998 by a British man named Walter McKinlay. We met with the owner's son-in-law Hugo, and he took us on a tour of the winery including the fermentation tanks, the bottling area, and we did a tasting as well. He could not have been any nicer or more welcoming - and we came at a busy time too! Because we were there in the middle part of October, they were in the process of just finishing the primary fermentation of that years crop, and it was the rugby world cup - so Hugo was properly anxious to check who was winning (Wales vs. France, France won...). We had a splendid time touring the winery, and learning about their vintages.



Some of the vines in the hilly countryside near the winery.

After purchasing a few bottles from Mourchon, we climbed in the car and drove back down the hilly, winding drive to the town of Séguret, where we walked around the medieval village taking in a lot of historic beauty.

(you can see Mika here, no formal photos of her...which is not to say she wasn't a terrific guide - she was!)








Unfortunately for us this little atelier was closed. The pottery miniatures are called Santons in Provence, and are typical of the area. I wish we could have gone in to look around!


I'm not sure what this was, but the cast iron detail really caught my eye. UPDATE: my Friend Sylvain, a native Frenchman informed me in the comments that this little guy is called a "tête de Bergère" - literally head shepherd, used often to keep the window shutters in place. Thanks Sylvain!


Here was a seriously weathered, fantastic old door on the ramparts at the outskirts of the old village. This door has been there since the 1400s! Just the texture alone was beautiful, not to mention the imagining what that door kept in or out of the village.

Europe Continued: Avignon Day One - The City

Lou Mistrau Bar and Restaurant at the Place de l'Horloge

After we got situated in the hotel we wanted to take the rest of the afternoon/evening to walk around the city of Avignon. We were very fortunate to have a beautiful day - and so it was quite pleasant. We walked about ten minutes from our hotel to the Place de l'Horloge in centre-ville where there were many restaurants and several historical buildings. We decided to sit in the outside area of the Lou Mistrau Restaurant. We were ready for our first taste of Provençal food!


Felipe ordered the duck confit - and enjoyed it too!


I ordered the Daube de Boeuf - a traditional Provençal beef stew. It was delicious!


Click here for a recipe from Saveur - it's delicious!

After lunch we walked around the town a bit, taking in a few of the sights. The Place de l'Horloge had a beautiful old building which housed a theater, and a double decker carousel in front of it.


Along our walk we also saw some of the typical painted window façades in Avignon. Every year Avignon has a film festival and many of these window paintings are of dramatic characters. It was a lovely surprise to see bits of art here and there.






For the afternoon we decided we'd go to the Palais des Papes (Papal Palace) which is one of Avignon's main attractions. Contrstuction of the Palais was begun in 1252, and was the seat of the papacy until the 14th century (the popes moved back to Rome in 1377). It's one of the most important Medieval Gothic buildings in Europe.


Of course, being in the presence of such an impressive and historical building, we wanted to see the inside. Admission was surprisingly cheap for such a large and historic monument - it cost only 10.50€ to get in, and admission price included the audio guide - which was tremendously helpful in explaining history of the different rooms.


Even the entry to the palais was beautiful - the ceiling above the admissions booth.


A beautiful stained glass window in one of the chapels.




The Cloister.


Felipe listening to the audio guide in the Grand Tinel (dining hall). This room was more than impressive. I can only imagine what the hall looked like in it's glory days. The palais website describes: "The decor was destroyed by fire in 1413, as were the frescoes of religious subjects which once adorned the walls." The audio guide described that all the major banquets would happen in this room - with tables lining each of the walls, and people were served massive banquets. An interesting fact - only the Pope and the Master Carver were allowed to have a knife...


Listening to the history, while looking out on the Avignon countryside. Just wonderful.


Here is Felipe in the large "kitchen" adjoining the Grand Tinel. It was amazing to hear of the size of the feasts they would prepare in this small room!


This here was the view looking out over the Cour d’Honneur (Courtyard of Honor) - where the crowds would gather when addressed by the Pope. He would stand at the window of Indulgence and look down upon the people to give his blessing.


The Great Chapel was enormous - 52 meters long, 15 meters wide and 20 meters tall, and was where all the major pontifical ceremonies took place. Here they were cleaning it up...it's not often that you see people vacuuming dust off of the floor of a medieval chapel!



Our tour ended there, it was surprisingly not as long as one would expect. There are many smaller areas that are closed off to the public, and if you hit many of the main points only, the tour only takes about an hour and a half. I would love to have taken many more photos to show, but there are several areas where the friezes and paintings on the wall prohibit the taking of photographs - so as to preserve them.

One more photo taken later of the Palais at night.


After the palace, we went back to the hotel for a bit of rest...and then, poor Felipe - I dragged him out of the hotel room because I didn't want to miss the sunset over the river! Our hotel was only about a 15 minute walk to the bridge that crosses the Rhone river, and so we walked there just in time!


A view of the Palace from the river. In the foreground you can see the ramparts that still surround the city.




Behind us you can see the Pont d'Avignon which used to span the entire river, but over the centuries has been reduced from 22 arches down to only 4 remaining.


We walked back to our hotel and got ready for dinner. We went to a terrific little restaurant that is frequented by many locals (and probably tourists alike) called La Fourchette. It was an amazing dinner! God I love the food in France, and Provençal food just kept getting better and better. Felipe had the Daube de beouf (I passed since I had it for lunch).


A postcard from the restaurant.

Entree - Heirloom tomato and mozzerella salad dressed with basil coulis, balsamic vinegar and black salt.


Main - Salmon with braised leeks in a saffron sauce.


Dessert - A Cheese plate - so good that I couldn't help but dive in before I remembered to take a photo.


What a day it was. Amazing sites, amazing food and amazing drink. I couldn't wait for what would come the next day. Saturday we planned on taking an 8-hour, daylong tour around Provence to become more acquainted with the wines that the area is well known for - Châteauneuf-du-Pape . Look for that post next!