Shopping day

Bonjour again.  Today was a great day for me, not so great for Jerry.  He was feeling a little punk (all that rich food and wine maybe?) so he decided to stay at home in the apartment and I went on a fun filled day with Laurence.  So I left my darling to rest and got ready for adventure.  She picked me up at 9:00 and we headed to a little town north of here called Uzes.

Uzes is famous for it's Saturday market, and boy I can see why.  Uzes is a less - trampled town that was important from the 5th Century to the 1800s.  It is traffic free, and the market takes up most of the town.

Wall around Uzes

Truffle shop

It was hard to pass this place up

bought some olives made with saffron

tablecloths

The Palace is beautiful but cost 12 Euro each to get in
 so we just took some pictures of the outside.

11th century part

14th century part

After the market Laurence had found a little tea shop in which we had lunch of eggplant and seafood quiche and salad.

From Uzes we went to Lirac which is where Laurence lives.  We had time to taste wine at the Lirac wine cooperative.  This is just like grain coops in Iowa, Farmers bring in their grapes and they are crushed and then bottled there.  Really nice people.

on the way

country cemetery

vineyard.  Look at the soil?

there is no soil as we would call it.  Very rocky

grapes and grapes and grapes

this is Cote du Rhone region

You can bring in a container and fill it up with the different kinds of wine!!

Gotta love this country!

10 liter box of wine!  ours are 3 liters

that is only 3.75 a liter!

This is what we tasted.

Gotta taste before we buy.

I bought a bottle and she gave me one.  They make white, red, and rose.  The rose is not sweet stuff like in the US but very dry and refreshing. 

 Then we walked around Lirac, which is charming.

Model inside the TI that showed what the town looked like from 1100-1400

We toured the center big towers

The castle keep (Where the duke lives)

The church - 11th century

This was built in 2 parts - 10th century and then 12th century

Our guide and Laurence

Look outs from this hill would light a signal fire if danger was coming

I climbed up all these scary steps

People didn't read in those days, so the signs mark what business was 

where.

an hour candle so the lookouts could keep track of time

1 hour per ball

real swords

We were way up at the top

Look closely at the stone.  There is a fossil

Now it is about 4:30 and we are off to Chateauneuf-du- Pape
which is one of the premier wine regions in France to taste.  Yum!

The old Palace

The restaurant that has a great view

The cave where all the good stuff is.

an old well where they put the corks.  Maybe we should have one 

in our kitchen

These are Roman cellars

This is really expensive wine,so getting to taste it is a real treat!

We tasted 6.  I learned a lot from the guy.

Bought some wine, then one more stop on our great day.  The Chocolate factory!!!!!

OMG!  and they have girls walking around with trays of the stuff to 

sample!!!

Laurence brought me home then....so tired....so happy.  What a fun day.  Jerry is feeling better and I am ready for bed.  Bon Nuit!