Rousillon

In Avignon, I signed up for a full day wine tour with a local guide. Francois was the perfect guide for me - he speaks English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. In addition, he had worked for 15 years as the Maitre D' for a top restaurant in Avignon, (until he and his wife started a family together, and he didn't want to miss her childhood while he was working long hours,) so he knew all of the domaines from his business interactions with them, purchasing their wines, etc... On top of that, his wife is an Oenologist and works in sales for a French firm that sells winemaking supplies to wineries, so he is very well versed in the technical aspects of wine as well.

Francois already had 2 clients lined up, a very nice retired couple from England. They were not hugely into wine, but they did want to see the region, so Francois apologised that we would be spending the first half of the day sightseeing around some of the villages in the area, and then we would go to Chateauneuf du Pape for the afternoon.

This was fine with me, and I loved streaking along the Durance River, seeing the Cherry orchards being harvested by men on tall ladders, seeing fields of lavender not just yet in bloom.

One of the villages that we visited was Rousillon, located high atop a hill. As we drove through the pine forest up to the village, quarries could be seen on the side of the road, bright, chocolate red with Ochre, which has always been mined here - in fact it is traditional for the people to plaster their homes with it, and as we gained the village at the top of the cliffs, it was a mass of reds, oranges, yellows, and other rich earth tones of ochre.

The view from the top was beautiful, the mountains, the rivers, the fields and vineyards that stretched out below. The tiny cobbled streets, the churches, and the windy gardens at the very top of the town.

More photos click here