We segué to Séguret, just for today

The hill town right near Sablet is Séguret, and it's been listed as one of the Plus Belles Villes de France (Prettiest Villages in France).  The village is also on the Côtes du Rhône wine road.  At Christmas the entire village becomes one big Nativity scene.

Séguret with castle ruins just barely visible at the top

We packed a picnic lunch and drove over to check it out.  At the very top of the hill sits the ruin of a castle, and we decided to hike up.  I had read that there are too many trees to see much from the very top, but  that there were some nice viewpoints on the way up.

View from the trail above Séguret

The hike up was on rocky trails.  Not too difficult, but we had to watch our steps, and it was a climb.  When we passed senior citizens in their church clothes coming down though, we thought better of complaining about it!

Rocky trail up to the castle ruins

No, this picture isn't on its side!  Rugged hillside around the village

At the top the castle ruins were a disappointment.  Only a few walls are left standing, and you can't really climb around on them.

One of the issues with old castles, forts, bridges and aqueducts is that once they aren't occupied or guarded the locals start carting the stone off for other building projects.  I'm thinking we'll probably see parts of the castle down in the village.  We just won't recognize them as such. 

The village was very picturesque - a photo op around every corner.

One of the entry gates to Séguret

Community washbasin or lavoir, gossip central

Another entry to the village

Cute

Single-handed clock dating from 1680

Linda standing next to what looks like an original gate

Tim and Rick walking down a village street

Branches of ancient plane trees (sycamores) trained and supported to form a canopy over the parking lot

Check out Michel's blog posts for lots more info about the food, wine and history of Séguret. 

We had a drink at one of the restaurants in the village, and headed home. 

Dinner tonight would be French onion soup.  It's really a winter dish, but it's been cool enough to enjoy it now.  The recipe called for a splash of cognac in the bottom of each bowl before adding the croutons, broth and cheese.  The cognac added a distinctive flavor, that's for sure!

Rick preparing French onion soup

The day ended with another pretty sky over the countryside

The Wheels of Isle (Sur la Sorgue)

Each day that we're within walking distance of a bakery, we have fresh bread and croissants for breakfast.  Well, I guess that would include each and every day, since there's always a bakery within walking distance!

We knew that the fish vendor would be in Sablet today, so Rick and I were out fairly early to shop for dinner.  Rick chose some filets that looked like sole, but we honestly didn't know what they were.  He's also been anxious to get some fresh squid to make calamari, and we were able to buy it here too.  I told the fish lady that we're en vacances, and we have to take photos of everything.

Our friendly fish vendor

We were off to Isle-Sur-La-Sorgue (literally an island in the Sorgue River) today, since it was one of their weekly market days.  There are nine waterwheels around the town, remnants of a time when there were 70 waterwheels powering the flour mills, as well as paper and textile mills.  The town was a major economic force in the mid-1800s, and waterwheels have been in use here since the 12th century.

Tim and Rick inspect one of the waterwheels

This moss-covered one doesn't move around too fast, but it still works!

We needed some vegetables for dinner, and bought those and some cheese at the market stalls. 

Market day in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue

We bought sandwiches at a take-out place and sat on benches along the river to eat our lunch.

There are lots of pedestrian-friendly areas along the river.

We also stopped to look inside the church.  It was very ornate for such a seemingly-small town, but I guess it shows how prosperous the town was over the last several hundred years.

The church in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue

 
On the way home we stopped at two wineries to do some tasting.  The nice, young lady at our local Tourist Information office said she didn't know if any of the wineries would be open for tasting, since it was harvest time and they were all pretty busy.

The first place we stopped was Le Gravillas.  It was right outside of Sablet, and they had people on duty in the tasting room. They took plenty of time with us, making sure we tasted anything we might be interested in. 

We bought several bottles and headed down the road to Domaine Chamfort.  The door was unlocked to the small tasting room, but there was no one there.  We saw a buzzer on the wall and rang to see if they were open.  A 30ish young man came rushing in to help us.  He was very friendly and spoke great English.  He described the wines in great detail.  We noticed that his hands were purple up to his wrists.  He had stopped working with the grapes to come in and let us taste!  When we commented on it, he said inside he was frantic, worrying about getting everything done.  Weather conditions might mean that a certain field should be harvested right now, or tomorrow, or not until next week.   He had no idea how long the harvest would go on.  In spite of the great pressure he was under, he took lots of time with us.  We wished we could buy more wine than the 6 bottles we bought, but we were headed out of town in two days and would be turning our car in.  We had no mule to carry our wine.

We headed back home.  Rick was anxious to try preparing the calamari, and we were happy to oblige him.

Tim was starting to feel a bit disheveled after three weeks on the road.  He sports a buzz cut, and thought it was getting long.  We didn't notice.  He went down to the nearest salon and tried to make an appointment for later that day.  They were booked, but sent him down the street to another salon.  They had an appointment available at 5:30.  We would have all loved to go and observe this whole process, but Tim went off on his own.  He came back with shorter hair, and had had a fine time.  He took his trimmer to show how short he wanted his hair cut. He said they washed his hair before cutting it, which they don't do at home.  The stylist, an attractive young woman, didn't speak English, so no chit-chat during the haircut.  She did a good job of cutting his hair, massaged his temples, and charged him 15 euros, about the equivalent of what he would have paid at home. 

Tim's French haircut

Rick prepared the squid by skinning it, cutting it up and dredging it in egg and then flour with salt, pepper and some herbes de Provence.  Sauteed in butter and olive oil it was a tasty appetizer.  Even with the fast shutter speed, we could hardly get a picture before it was all gone!

Fresh squid makes great calamari, with Rick's help

Dinner was the fish from the fish vendor, baked with zucchini and tomatoes.  We took a photo of the recipe so we could duplicate it at home.

Fillet of fish with zucchini

A picture of the recipe for our dinner

After dinner we could see the sunset turning the sky red, so we dropped everything and raced down to a nearby overlook to enjoy the scene.  The neighborhood looked nice all lit up too, with the lights from the village of Séguret in the background.

Sunset in Sablet

A Sablet neighborhood with the hill town of Séguret in the background

Dodgy weather in Provence

No rain came during the night, but the weather this morning was still dodgy.  Dodgy is my new favorite adjective.  We've run into so many Brits on this trip, and within minutes of conversing with them, they all have something they describe as "dodgy": the weather, a B&B they've stayed in, their knee or ankle, their daughter's former boyfriend's profession.   Anyway, I'll be interjecting my new favorite word as often as I can, while hopefully still maintaining the integrity of the blog.

So it wasn't looking too promising outside, and we were wondering if we should venture out.  I suggested we go out for lunch, to a place written up by our host Michel.  He did a nice blog post on the restaurant and it sounded like a great place for us to try.  Our little village doesn't have much to offer in the way of restaurants, and this place was nearby.

Les Genêts is a restaurant and wine tasting shop.  It's known for creative local cuisine, and they were serving a nice 3-course menu for lunch, which we all tried.

First course was a paté de campagne

Second course was a beef brochette with veggies and couscous

A caramel éclair for dessert

 

We had wine and bread with lunch, and the bill came to 64 euros.  That's about $80 for the 4 of us.  The food was great, and there was nothing dodgy about it!

On the way back to the house we saw grape-harvesting machinery going through some of the vineyards.  We saw tractors pulling wagons heaped with grapes headed to the wineries.

It's hard to see in this picture, but the tractor is shaped kind of like a catamaran. 

It drives over the plants and harvests mechanically from each side of the vines.

A wagon full of grapes headed to the winery

We got back to the house before the rain started, and once again it was quite a storm.  We monitored the places that had sprung leaks the last time, but didn't have problems this time.  A few drips maybe, but nothing like before.  I'd been in contact with Michel, and he wasn't too happy about the flooding with the first storm.  They'd already had some extensive repairs done to the house to fix some of those problems.  I let him know all was well this time. 

Thank goodness we had a good selection of movies at the house.  We were stuck inside for the rest of the day.  We watched Kevin Cline and Meg Ryan in "French Kiss", and some of "A Year In Provence". 

Dinner was a pork roast marinated in olive oil, thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper.  One of the great cookbooks at the house provided a recipe for tomato gratin, using bread, tomatoes, eggs and cheese.  It turned out well, and we wish we could remember where we got the recipe!

Tomato gratin was a hit!

Having nothing to do with dinner, or our day, here's a photo of Rick with his dream car - a Twizzy.  I don't think there's room for me!

Rick in one of his signature Hawaiian shirts, next to his dream car.

The Pont du Gard for our Christmas cards

In spite of what our B&B host in the Dordogne told us, Provence isn't just a pretty face.  There is lots to see and do here.  Much of it is outside though, so you need good weather to really experience the area.  Most of the buildings are light stone, or stucco painted in light colors.  The roofs are red tile.  It's really a beautiful place in the sunshine.  In addition, the area is chock full of Roman ruins.

A sunny day in lower Sablet

We woke up to some clouds, but decided we'd better go see the Pont du Gard anyway.  It was on Tim's "must see" list.  Rick and I had been there before, and we knew it was worth another visit.   It's a remnant of a Roman aqueduct that spanned 30 miles and provided water to the city of Nimes, one of the biggest cities of ancient Europe.  It was built in about 19 b.c., and the aqueduct supplied 9 million gallons of water per day to the city.

The Pont du Gard spans the Gardon River.  It's an amazing sight, and warrants a photo every few feet!  Here are a few of them.

Pont du Gard from the trail above

Rick and I with Pont du Gard in the background

Another view of the Pont

Possible Christmas card photo of Tim and Linda

Rick, helping support the 1,000-year-old olive tree near the Pont

We had a picnic lunch within view of the Pont, and toured the great museum. 

We drove home and did some shopping for dinner.  Rick made duck breast again, but made a fig sauce to go with it this time.  He used fresh figs, and just experimented.  It was dee-lish.

Duck breast with fig sauce, polenta and salad.  Food stylist presentation by Linda and Kathy.

It was cool and windy outside, so not a night for an after-dinner stroll around the village.  Luckily our house came with a good selection of movies.  We watched "A Good Year" with Russell Crowe.  It had some great Provençal scenery.

It felt like rain was coming, but we won't be caught off-guard this time! 

The rain in Sablet is mostly in the house

Our little village of Sablet is an 800-year-old hill town in the part of Provence known as the Vaucluse.  It wasn't possible to park our car right near the house, as the tiny lanes are too narrow.  We were able to find parking within a few minutes of the house.  Our first few days there, as we'd be sitting out on the terrace, Tim and Rick would hop up each time they heard a car going by.  They'd look over the wall, 10 feet below to the street, to see whether the car could squeeze through the narrow lane by our house.  As if it wasn't hard enough to drive through here, to have an audience made it even more stressful, I'm sure!

Our local Tourist Information office also had wine tasting.  Rick and Tim had stopped by there soon after our arrival and said the "tastes" were healthy pours.  Plus, of course, we could get lots of info there too.  It was a nice combination of services for the lucky tourists!

We'd been on the road for almost three weeks by now, and we were exhausted!  We'd had non-stop activities over that time and were looking forward to a little slower pace out in the countryside.

On this day, in the little square in town, they were holding a Marché Aux Puces, or a car boot sale, or a flea market, depending on your nation of origin.  The town was busy with visitors coming in for this activity.  We walked through, but didn't buy a thing.  The one thing I coveted was a huge wine jug covered with a basket. 

I could have carried this home on the plane!

The Marché aux Puces in Sablet

It was laundry day again for us.  At home this activity happens coincidentally with the rest of our lives, but on the road it's a major undertaking.  There's a different machine to figure out each time, and with no dryer, at least a day of hanging clothes on racks around the house to dry.

We were happy to lay low for a day though.  The bakery was open for part of the day and we bought bread for happy hour and pastries for dessert later.  The butcher was open too, and Rick got rabbit for dinner.

When Rick started the dinner prep, he noticed the kidneys were included with the pieces of rabbit we'd purchased.  He decided to fix them as an "amuse bouche".  He sauteed them with onion, garlic, butter and olive oil.  I think most of us are a little skeptical about eating organ meat these days.  We all tentatively had a taste, and when we realized how good they were, ate every last morsel!

For our main course, Rick cooked the rabbit in a mustard sauce, and made some polenta the slow way.  With a salad on the side, we had a great dinner, once again.  Pastries for dessert topped off the meal. 

Little did we know that we shouldn't have wasted a day of good weather hanging around the house. 

At about 5 a.m. we started hearing thunder, and it was booming!  We were all snug in our beds, so not worried about the impending storm.  We were having our coffee and tea in the kitchen about 7 when the torrential rains started.  We started hearing water falling in the other room, like a little waterfall.  It was leaking through a skylight in the hallway.  We raced around gathering buckets and bowls to catch it, and then noticed water running from a ceiling vent down a wall in the sitting area next to the kitchen.  More buckets and bowls were quickly collected.  Water started seeping in under the doors from the terrace into the kitchen and living room.  We tried to stop it with towels and newspaper.  When we checked upstairs water was spraying from a corner of the ceiling in an extra bedroom and had totally flooded the floor of the bedroom and run halfway down the hall.  Luckily the floors of the house were mostly tile, so no ruined wood.

The rain lasted less than an hour, but it was rushing down the streets by the end of it.  We called the caretaker to see if there was anything we should do.  No, she said, there's really nothing you can do about it now!

The rain stopped, and we'd mopped everything up, so we decided to drive to Vaison la Romaine and look for a supermarché. 

We walked around town for a bit and bought sandwiches to eat in the square near the fountain.  I had brought the picnic supplies, of course, but I hadn't rinsed the plastic cups out so I went over to the fountain and swished them around in the water.  It wasn't until later that I noticed pigeons frolicking in the top level of the fountain I'd just used to wash our glasses in.  Yuck!  We all survived, and maybe I should have just kept this bit of info to myself!

Fountain in the square in Vaison la Romaine

We stopped at a tasting room on the edge of town and bought some wine.  We saw a sign over a display of boxes of wine that we'd tasted, and I translated the sign to mean, if you buy 4 boxes of wine you get them for 7 euros each.  Their regular price was 11 euros.  We thought that sounded great.  When we got to the checkstand we discovered that the sign actually said, if you buy 4 boxes of wine at 11 euros each, you get a 7 euro carafe for free.  Geez.  It's those little subtleties that get you in a foreign language!  We're just lucky they didn't send us off with a free puppy!

The wine tasting and fill-your-own bottle area

We picked up some escargot in a can at the grocery store.  For you skeptics, this is a perfectly legitimate way to buy your escargot.  You can buy the shells separately, and then you stuff the shells with the snails, garlic, butter and seasoning and bake them.  But you don't really need the shells.  They're just for show.  So we had escargot, minus the shells, for our appetizer before dinner that night.  Yumm!

Dinner was a simple spaghetti, but you can imagine that chef Rick never buys canned sauce.  He always, always, always makes it from scratch.  My mother would have loved him.

We were pooped after our exciting day of fending off the flood.  Hopefully, tomorrow will be better!