Time is flying. Rain poured from the heavens today, and cycling was cancelled. Mount Ventoux was shrouded in thick clouds. Peter and I drove into Bendouin, a small village 4 kms from the castle of Crillon de Brave. We walked the streets, admiring local linens, and restaurants. 3:30 pm, we boarded the bus to Chateau Neuf de Pape. We visited the Beau Castel winery. This estate was given to the Beaucastels by Louis XIV for converting to Catholicism! First, we stopped at this winery for some wine tasting...I will need detox after this week! We had a tour of the distillery and saw all of the wine barrels, each costing 30,000 euros each. The tour guide was cute, by the way. We then trounced upstairs for the wine tasting. YaaaaY!!!!!!!!!! First, we had a sweet white wine, which is only 7% of their production. Was it ever good. Then, we had a lovely red beau castel wine followed by a smoky Cote de Rhone. Cote de Rhone wines are from grapes from the other side of the highway...not as good
 |
| The vats where the grapes are fermented |
apparently. Tasted pretty good to me.... We visited Chateau Neuf de Pape, walked along the cobblestone streets, and then ate at the restaurant. The monkfish was fantastic, and they gave every table a casserole of mac and cheese, tossed with truffle oil and parmesan. We sat with couples from Toronto Saskatoon, and Calgary.
Returning to Crillon de Brave ,we all headed (where else but the bar). We were told that Ed and Whitehorse would be resting tonight and then they show up and just start playing. Ed
sang their most popular song that took 2.5 minutes to write
and is 2.5 minutes long "2 weeks". Whitehorse sang Emerald Isle.We then headed to bed after midnight. Peter did inform a fellow biker that he had the picture of Mt Ventoux on his computer screen for the past 2 months, and would love to ride it. Dedication, I'll call it. Tomorrow, we are all bike riding again.
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