Day 8- Wineries!

Well, it's our last day in Avignon, Provence. We returned the car and not gonna lie, it's a little sad to leave here tomorrow morning. We have loved it! What a wonderful place that really feels like home in a way!!! Everything about our time here has been amazing. 

But, I'm sure the next leg of our journey will be amazing also.. We will miss that little car though! That was fun. I DROVE IN FRANCE!!! 

Even if French drivers are maniacs!!! 

 Today we had two awesome winery tours in Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

 That was where the Pope's wine was grown 700 years ago! It is one of the best wine growing areas in the entire world and we got to taste our little hearts out!! It was a blast. Both wineries were run by amazing interesting people.

And while people here are very unhappy and uneasy about the election results in America and keep talking to us about it, the wine business, especially in this region is fascinating.

It's amazing how much these gnarled vines some of which are over 100 years old, are worth. Just an acre of land in this region is worth so much money, where if you go across a dirt road that is the border to another region, the same grapes that are grown in virtually identical soil are worth so much less!

Just as an example. A hectare of land in Chateauneuf-du-Pape costs in the area of $175k if you could find one for sale. Yet across the road in another region that same hectare may sell for around $10k. How crazy is that???

The wine is wonderful. Unfortunately, it's so late in the season we couldn't buy any wine from either winery. . It's all been shipped off for the rest of the world to enjoy. But we still learned a lot, met some amazing people and drank amazing wine! 

 Between our visits we drove to the city of Orange. It has one of the finest preserved Roman Theaters in the world. It's stunning. Unfortunately we didn't have time to visit it, but it looked incredible from the outside. 

Trip Advisor Rocks!

We really only went to Orange for lunch because it's close to Chateauneuf-du-Pape. We checked TripAdvisor for a good restaurant and the #1 rated restaurant in Orange is a burger joint!!! It's run by two young guys who realize that good ole American hamburgers and fries done right are a big thing in Paris, so why not try it in Provence? It had a real diners, drive-ins and dives feel to it. They had loud music playing and it was just a funky little joint! But WOW was that burger good. They were SO interested to see what we thought of it, being from America and all. 

And when we told them how much we enjoyed it, they were just beaming with pride!!! It was a great moment and really cool to see people doing things the right way, like we always try to do! 

Great ingredients prepared great! Always a winning combination! 

 DINNER TIME!

Tonight we ate at a fantastic restaurant, what else is new? We haven't had a bad meal this whole time in Provence! This was at a restaurant called Fou de Fafa. I had a steak and Emily had a beet risotto. We had amazing wine, of course and it was the perfect way to end this great adventure in Provence!! 

Talk to you tomorrow from Mont St Michel!!