Princess and I were awarded the top bunks in a six-bunk second class room, fortunately only filled with four people. Regardless of that benefit, we were both cramped, I much more than she. Neither of us slept much, despite being able to lay out flat. We arrived in Gerona 10.5 hours after departing Madrid, and caught another train to Montpelier, FR, a half hour later. The ride was beautiful...lots of coastline and warm sun (thank goodness the train had shades!). We pulled into Montpelier and promptly purchased two tickets to Avignon. I approached the ticket counter and propositioned (WHAT!) the attendant with "Anglais?" She replied "very little." I thought about asking her if she wanted to practice, but instead made myself practice my newly acquired French. I did quite well on my half, smoothly (and clearly) asking for what I needed, however, when she gave me all the rules she did so in French. Duh, you say. Well, I only got about half of what she said. Apparently, I only needed half of what she said and we made the train just fine.We pulled into Avignon Centrale just under an hour after boarding.
We were to be met by my other brother Daniel Haile for this stay, but we lost his phone number en route and were unable to pull up his number from the computer until we arrived in Avignon. He was expecting us much later than we arrived, so we toured around Avignon for a couple hours. We walked through a market, sampling sausages and admiring the many tiny dogs. We walked out to the Rhône for a glimpse and then continued around the old city. Princess stopped for a sweet butter crepe and I responded with a sweet lemon crepe for myself. They were quite hot but also very delicious. We moved into the center of town, arriving at the Christmas market. We watched a merry-go-round do its thing for a little bit, and then headed back to the station just as rain started to come down.
It only drizzled for a few minutes, and then the bright lights of the city reflected marvelously off the clouds in the background. Daniel met us at the station a little while later and then we were off.
Daniel lives about 45 minutes to the northeast of Avignon, in the small village of Beaumont du Ventoux. He is the head winemaker at the cooperative winery Cave de Beaumont du Ventoux, a collection of the entire village's vineyards. One of the downsides of his job is that he has to live at the winery, which is only upstairs from the vats and barrels. I couldn't imagine having tons of wine just below my feet, at my disposal for whenever I wanted. Did I mention that he doesn't pay rent? And that he has an allotment of 1 case of wine per month? It's terrible...
Our first night was very quiet, with a simple dinner of beef and eggplant lasagna and the local wine. We had some Sona Riesling from Germany and some authentic Champagne (the real stuff!) for starters. Before closing the shutters for bed, we glimpsed the countryside by moonlight, and knew it would be beautiful by day! Just like home...
It rained overnight, and on Tuesday morning there was a plethora of white stuff spread across the mountains. Mont Ventoux to the northwest was completely covered and probably only reachable by skis. I took it upon myself to get to know the village, albeit by jogging.
I headed out in long sleeves and a vest, with gloves and warm hat and took to the streets. The wind was brisk and the cold intense, but I persisted and left Princess warm at home (yeah!). I hit the village 15 seconds after departing the winery and left the village 15 seconds after that. It was huge! I ran in and around, up and down and worked up a sweat. I haven't really worked out since departing California, so it felt good to get out in the open. I threw in some pushups and sit-ups along the way to make up for the wonderful food from the night before.
Daniel came home from work soon after and we all headed down the street to Malaucene for lunch. I was very hungry and consumed a mixed grill of lamb, chicken and beef and followed it up with scallop tagliatelle. Princess nearly engorged herself on the escargot (One of my all time favorites! The real reason I love France!), but saved just enough room for her pasta carbonara. Is it me or is there an Italian influence here? 
After lunch, we dropped Daniel off at work and took off in his car (Since the car was standard, Princess got to drive!!! Teehee!). He gave us a route to follow and we took it by the book. We stopped at Chateau du Barroux to take in the gorgeous views and pictures of the castle.
Daniel reminded us to not spend too much time in each place so that we could make it home in time for another wonderful meal. We drove by Le Roque Alric and down to Lafare before heading up through Vacqueyras to Gigondas. We stopped there for some wine tasting, trying eight or nine samples. The cellar had ALL of the wines from the 68 local producers available for tasting and purchase, and we purchased three reds and a rosé. After the tasting we took some pictures of the sunset and then drove on to Sablet and Seguret on the way to Vaison la Romaine. We stopped in Vaison la Romaine to look at downtown for a few, and then turned around and went home.
Our dinner that night was simple again, with pasta and ham and cheese, though we only consumed two bottles of wine.
We started out with the 2008 Chateau la Nerthe Blanc, a very nice and simple white. The second white was the 2004 Clos de Beauvenir, a very warm and buttery (but not malolactically fermented) wine with lots of flavor continuously exploding out from the glass. We would have bought some but it retails for 50euros. We then moved on to the Rouge, starting with the 2006 and then following with the 2004.
The 2004 was the one we had in Vegas, and it was just as wonderful as before. We finished the tasting with a 1992 Cuvee des Cadettes, their top-of-the-line red, only made when the vintage is absolutely perfect. They didn't make one in 2007 because the yield was too low, so what was available was put in the regular rouge. I can only imagine how wonderful it must be. Once the tasting was complete, we headed out into the garden and then down to the vineyards. The soil is extremely rocky, from when the Rhône once passed through. Most of the vines are head-trained, meaning they are little bushes that are pruned back every spring. There are a few vineyards of tussled vines, but they make up the minority.
We met a few of Daniel's co-workers from his work time, toured his apartment at the winery (fit for a king! {or maybe just me}) and then drove back to Beaumont du Ventoux. Enroute we found a Chocolate factory/store, of course we had to stop! We did a bit more wine tasting, grabbed one bar of chocolate and a make at home hot chocolate mix (with hard dollops of dark chocolate!)Our last supper was a special one, with pan-fried steaks and a mélange of vegetables, paired excellently with a 2006 Gigondas. Dessert was camembert and pear with la Nerthe's second label, and for a treat we tasted Knockando scotch against Marc de Gigondas, an eau-de-vie made from the skins of the Gigondas grapes (very similar to grappa). And Princess had cocoa!
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