Sarrians - 29 September 2019
Bit of a lazy day. We stopped at the ruins of the Château at Châteauneuf-du-Pape and had a wander around the small town over lunchtime. Then onto Sarrians, mainly because there’s a service station here. We spent the rest of the afternoon reading books in the shade of the adjacent trees.
29 September
Let me revise that word cook - last night I heated up the oven and put in some fish and chips. Surprisingly nice! It was ever so quiet where we were parked, but always hard to escape the overhead lights when the hatches are open due to the heat.
Think the thing that’s made a real difference this trip is the two little fans that Tintin bought, it’s the same air, but feels cooler!
Not much to report today - finally had a lazy day! First off, hair cut day for Tintin. As there was no one about, I could sit him on his perch and cut it outside. Not brilliant, but definitely shorter!
Tintin drove for about 50 minutes to Châteauneuf-du-Pape (population 2,200). The wine from here is the best known of the Rhône appellation - mainly based on grenache, with dashes of syrah and sometimes Mourvèdre added to the mix. The hill top Château after which the wine is named was originally built as a summer residence for Avignon’s popes, but it’s little more than a ruin now. It was plundered for stone after the Revolution, and bombed by Germany in WWII.
It was worth going to just for the views alone. That Mont Ventoux seems to dominate the views around here!
We had lunch, and in that time the carpark filled up. Went for a wander into the quaint little town. Again, lots of people eating out. Actually not only saw three cats today, but even managed to stroke them briefly!
As you can imagine, there were wine tasting places open everywhere - even on a Sunday afternoon. Most Châteauneuf-du-Pape wine is red, only 6% is white, and rosé is forbidden! We didn’t try any. As the cheapest bottles were from about €20, it seemed wrong to try, as we wouldn’t be buying.
I then drove for about half an hour to a place called Sarrians - a quiet Aire with services.
We’ve FaceTimed with family, sat in the shade and read our books. Very nice 👍it’s quite perverse, it’s still hot, blue clear sunny skies, so we spend our time trying to find shade to park Dave in, or for us to sit in!
We’re a day late due to downloading - so chicken curry tonight, with Strictly to watch later on, whilst baking another batch of granola...
Some more photos from today -
Comments ()