Wine and Olives

Being here you understand why Provence is so famous for both it's good food and wine. This region produces reds, whites as well as rose. We drove up into the Chateauneuf du pape region famous for it's deep red wines.

This hilly region is full of small picture perfect villages. It feel like you are in a story telling book as you drive through them.




Chateauneuf du pape is actually a quite small region. The village itself has all of that charm that you imagine. You pass endless numbers of fields with grapes growing on the slopes of the hills. In the small village the different wine houses have their stores open for tasting and buying. You just park your car and walk around. On almost every other street you will find wineries.

Olive trees is another thing that you can see growing in neat rows on the slopes of the hills. I had never seen an olive tree before so I was thrilled to make this discovery. Actually I had never really thought about how olives are grown until know. Suddenly I understood why olives are sold everywhere around here. on all the market places you go to.

Walking up to one of the olive trees I could see for myself how these round little goodies are growing.

There are a number of wine estates outside of the Chateauneuf du pape town. We drove up to one of these called Chateu De Vadieu. There we tasted both red and white wine as well as one rose and bought some more red and the rose that was surprisingly good. I wish I knew more about wine. I realized as I was here trying different kinds that I really don't know much at all. However, it still was fun to taste the different kinds. Since neither me nor C know so much we just went on what ever tasted the best to us. Maybe that is what matters in the end anyway.

Different kinds and their prices. The prince range spans quite a lot depending on what you choose. It was interesting that the ones we liked the most were not per default the most expensive ones.

Our rental car, a Peugeot. In France of course French cars dominate. Small narrow, winding roads taking us up the slopes into hill and wine country. This day was really nice. This is the way at least I imagined Provence. Driving around hills with neat rows of grapes, tasting wine and buying your favorite ones. This is perfect activity for any vacation.

The wine estates you pass by are huge. The houses are impressive and many times looks like small castles. You can tell they make a good income on the wine they make and sell. Most of the wineries have been in the same family for many generations.