Dinner and a lesson in cork

Today I tackled the linen closet and bedroom. I put the new mattress pad and all of our beautiful new sheets, pillows and duvet cover on our bed.

I also washed and put away all of our new towels and extra sheets. Jerry quickly established his spot on the bed and is happily napping on it already.
After all of our work to set up our kitchen this weekend, we thought it would be nice to have a few friends over and share some of the wines we had purchased as well as the dishes we’d enjoyed in France. So we invited Mike, Becky & Aaron and Goodie for dinner.

I was very excited to use our new dishes and the linen tablecloth we picked up in Vaison.

David made scallops on a warm salad with shallots, mushrooms and the truffle oil we got in Tourette. He worked really hard all day on his 3-potato gratin and the rest of our amazing meal.

Dessert course was taken care of by our guests- Goodie brought over a huge assortment of cookies, and the Baeckers brought a raspberry chocolate cake.

We planned to drink the wine we bought at Mont Redon, but just after we opened the bottle, we realized that it unfortunately was corked. Corked wine is basically a bottle of wine that has gone bad. Corks are natural products- and they may have imperfections or traces of a fungus contaminant called Trichloroanisole (TCA). The wine industry estimates the incidence of bottles with some traces of cork taint to be between 1 -15 % but only 3- 7% of all wines have TCA contamination at levels that can be detected by consumers. Still- there was no denying it in this bottle. TCA causes flavors and aromas of wet cardboard or a musty, wet basement- and that’s just what our bottle smelled like. Pretty disappointing.

In recent years, the prevalence of TCA has spurred the growth of alternative enclosures such as screw caps and synthetic corks. Many fine winemakers are making the switch. Synthetic corks have a lot of great features- they don’t crumble or break inside the bottle and replacing natural corks with synthetic is no additional cost to wineries since they are mechanically the same device. Additionally, it’s a matter of sustainability. Cork comes from the bark of a specific species of oak tree found in the Mediterranean and Portugal. While the trees have an average lifespan of 150 years, the cork can only be harvested every nine to twelve years. There are about 17,000,000,000 bottles of wine produced each year, and the current natural cork production just cannot meet that demand. So I say bring on the synthetic cork and screw caps!

Still, all was not lost in the wine department. We had a Cambria Chardonnay, Pinot Noir by Acacia and a Zinfandel by Chateau Montelena. Oh, and Aaron & Becky had brought over a really wonderful sauterne- boy do I love that stuff!.

It's like a brand new kitchen!

First weekend home in 5 weeks- boy does it feel good. Today we started changing over our kitchen.

We emptied out all the cabinets & drawers and cleaned them. Then we took all the labels off of our new dishes, glasses, flatware and serving pieces, washed them and put them away.

opening our new flatware
dishes all put away

David was very excited to open all of his new pans and hang them. He can't wait to use them all!

Jerry loves boxes. He had a great time exploring all of the boxes around the house, napping in them and being totally adorable.
Tomorrow I will unpack and put our new dish towels, pot holders and baking trays away.

There's no place like home

It couldn’t end that neatly, could it? We got up, packed the car and left Justine de Provence by 6:45 this morning. We arrived at Aéroport de Marseille Provence, returned the rental car and checked in for our flight without a hitch. Of course, this was all before we found out about the impact of La grève (the strike). Transportation workers across the country were striking in protest of President Sarkozy’s proposed changes to their retirement and pension plans. Consequently, our flight from Marseille to Paris was delayed by 2 hours and we missed our connection to Dulles.

After a stop at the connections desk in Paris we learned that all flights to Dulles as well as Boston, New York, Newark, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Atlanta, Miami were full. I was ready to sit with the cargo on any flight to the US at this point, but with a calm and level head, David politely asked if there was ANY way we could get on the Dulles flight. One call to a supervisor later and we were on our way home. (I really love my husband!) The seats weren’t together but I didn’t care.

We arrived at Dulles around 8 PM (2 AM France time) cleared customs and met Goodie outside. We dropped him off and took our car home. The folks at Air France promise they will deliver my luggage tomorrow- its fine. They can have the laundry…I’m going to bed. It was an amazing trip but its also so good to be home.

Towns along the Luberon and horseback riding

Last day. Isabelle’s sister served us breakfast this morning. I don’t think she speaks a word of English but it’s all good. We took a few pictures of our lovely B&B and headed out to see as much of the Montagne du Luberon we could fit before horseback riding.



The Luberon is composed of three mountain ranges, and the valley between them contains a number of towns and agricultural land. We drove through the countryside of vineyards, orchards and villages until we reached the tiered beautiful village of Gordes. Perched on the southern edge of the high Plateau de Vaucluse, the stone buildings were filled with people celebrating Fête du Oliver, and annual traveling festival celebrating the olive harvest. The streets were jammed with olive oil makers, musicians, artists and what looked like and olive bake-off.

We strolled and tasted our way through the city for a while before heading towards the village of Roussilon. The soil, hills and buildings Roussilon are all this red/brownish color, and the town is known for its pottery. Many of the charming shops were closed for lunch, but we still were able to visit a number of pottery galleries and shops. We had a very quick lunch in a bar in St. Didier and made our way to the Ranch du Vallee Vert for some horseback riding fun!

At first it was a little awkward, they speak no English and it was hard to teach us anything about the horses. But the international language of signing got us on track, and soon we were saddled up and ready to ride.

I was on Geronimo. David hadn’t asked the name of his horse, so we called him “nice old horse” due to the fact that he was everything David wanted- slow and sweet. We walked, trotted and even galloped a bit through pastures and orchards, we climbed rocky hilltops and around gorgeous tree-lines paths of the Luberon for two hours.

We went back to Orange for some hot showers, packed up our things and went back to Courthezon to the Table du Princes for dinner.

I’m sad our honeymoon is over. There have been a few bumps in the road here and there- some wrong turns on scary roads and confusion about where exactly we are or what direction we should be headed in- but this has been a dream trip. We’ve tasted great food and wines, seen great art, enjoyed amazing landscapes, toured historic cities, relaxed on famous beaches and tons more. I know this is going to be the first of many incredible adventures with my husband. I have to say that married life ain't bad at all and I can’t wait to see what comes next!

Beaucastel, Domaine de Cristia and the Arc de Triomphe

I don’t know what the banging in our room is- could be the heater or something like a branch hitting the roof- but I’m going to lose my mind if it doesn’t stop. tap…tap tap….tap tap tap…tap. I’m going mad! Maybe I’m just tired from waking up so early this morning for Beaucastel.

We got up, showered, had breakfast and were at Beaucastel for our 9 AM appointment with Fabrice. Our group was a couple from Israel and a couple from the UK- Shirley & Vivian. Shirley wasn’t very into the tour as much as we were- I found it interesting to learn about their philosophy, history, winemaking process and business.





The schpeal was somewhat scripted, but I still had a really great time. We walked through the enormous cellar, past the bottles of expensive and fine vintage wines to the tasting area. We tried some really wonderful wines. Vivian was annoyed we weren’t allowed to buy them- as Fabrice explained, this was for the memories, the experience of being at Beaucastel and not to make a sale.

We didn’t buy any of the wines they were allowing purchase of, but we were happy to hear that ’07 looks like its going to be a monster vintage. We’re hoping to buy a few bottles from some of the vineyards we visited when they are ready and drink them on future anniversaries.

The Danish guys we met yesterday told us about one of their favorite places, Domaine de Cristia in nearby Courthezon. We figured that anything they loved and recommended merited a visit from us. It definitely didn’t disappoint.

Although we didn’t have an appointment, Baptiste let us come in. We sat with him for an hour, tasting and talking- and we got our very first barrel samples! The first was his 2006 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Vieilles Vignes (old vines) and the second was what he had intended to be his 2006 Cuvée Renaissance but subsequently decided that it was good but not amazing- and plans to blend it into this year’s Châteauneuf-du-Pape. It was kind of cool that what we were drinking would never be produced. It was also cool to hear his thought about how the wine didn’t meet his criteria as a special standalone wine.


We bought two bottles and walked up the road to the Table du Princes for lunch. Of course they served Domaine de Cristia wine so we got a bottle and enjoyed it with our meal. This place had the most hysterical bathroom sign. We went back to the B&B, napped and headed back to orange to see the 1st Century Arc de Triomphe. You can still see the elaborate carvings commemorating the Roman’s victories over the Gauls in 49 B. C.



We took some pictures and walked past the old theater which looks incredible lit up at night. We had dinner at this nice little place nearby, Le Rom’Antique and then headed back to the B&B. It’s so dark out here in the countryside and the stars are really clear. Its one of our favorite things to look at when we get home every night.

Dentelles de Montmirail, Gigondas and more Chateauneuf

Two families checked into the B&B yesterday while we were out. We met them at breakfast this morning- a German family and a Swiss family. We finished up and went to the market in Orange. It was a very windy day, and we didn’t get anything but David really enjoyed seeing another little piglet for sale.

After the market we drove to the mountains and the limestone spires of the Dentelles de Montmirail. They are foothills of Mont Ventoux and their name (dentelles means lace) refers to the jagged shape of their peaks. Formed by horizontal strata of Jurassic limestone being folded and forced into a nearly upright positions, the highest peak of the Dentelles is St-Amand, at 734 meters (2,400 ft).




We drove the entire length of the range- along farmland, lavender fields and vineyards before arriving in the town of Gigondas. In Gigondas we had an interesting lunch on a restaurant’s enclosed patio. We ate a little and learned that David doesn’t like pigs’ feet while listening to the wind slam into the thin walls.

After lunch, we went to the village cave and tasted a few wines. This is the tow’s cooperative cave, so they basically give you a list of 75 wines and tell you to pick whatever you want without instruction of advice. So we had a few pretty decent wines (as a warm up I guess) before heading back to Châteauneuf-du-Pape for some more wine.
We first tried to go to Clos de Caillou, but nobody was home so we found our way to Domaine de Nalys which co-brands itself with Costco’s Kirkland brand. The wine there was pretty good. If you want to pick up a bottle of Kirkland Signature Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée, it is produced here at Domaine de Nalys.
We then went to visit the other Osseglio, the Domaine Raymond but he had just moved his cave and we didn’t feel that into finding it. We were however, really into discovering the cave of Domaine du Pegau in the old city of Chateauneuf. Delicious.


We went into a few more caves (actual caves!) and tasted a few more wines. My favorite place was the vinoteque.
Then it was off to the much anticipated Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe which gets its name from an old telegraph station, one situated where their domaine now stands. The station was one of Claude Chappe's optical telegraph relay towers, erected in 1792, part of a system of such stations spanning all of France.



We had some wine, took some pictures and left to go visit to Chateau of the Pope. Built in 1317 as a summer residence for Pope John XXII, it was burnt during the wars of Religion in 1562 as well as WWII. Not much of it left today, we were still excited to see the actual building depicted on so many bottles of wine we’ve enjoyed together.



We finished up our wine tour at Domaine Bosquet des Papes. There we met a group of very serious wine lovers from Denmark. All men, all very tall. We were lucky to have them translate for us as we tried a ton of really amazing wines.

Tired but very happy, we had dinner in Orange at Le Beq Fin. Its warm fireplace was a nice refuge from the cold and windy night. We ate and returned to the B&B, chatted with the German family a bit (who had made an amazing looking dinner from their purchases at the market today). Then we had some more of the strawberries and a little cheese before going to bed. Oh- and David let me drive a little bit today. Just around the parking lot and road leading away from the house, but for the record, I drove stick shift today. No stalling. Woo!