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Published: September 27th 2007
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AVIGNON 18th May 2007 (Friday Sunshine and 27º)
A lovely day is on the cards if the sunshine sneaking through our shutters is any indication. Today we are staying out of the car (which is parked some blocks away in a long stay car park). We enjoy a continental breakfast in the leafy courtyard with one eye on our croissant and the other on the pigeons cooing softly above.
We visit a shoe shop around the corner where the shopkeeper teaches me the difference between saying ‘just looking’ as opposed to ‘searching’ or ‘looking’ for something. I want to make sure that when we next walk into a shop and are browsing that I don’t say that I am searching for my wife’s shoes.
We wander around the streets and get our bearings. The old cite is very compact and easy to navigate - there are numerous hip & happening shops which are located in heritage protected buildings and it all works together very well. There are a ton of tourists around and yet the locals still go about their business - for some reason this ‘business as usual’ approach makes you feel accepted and not like a
Street scene - Avignon
A picture perfect place with all the elements one would expect to find in a typically French town. foreigner or blow-in.
As we move in and out of the main square in the shadows of the Palais de Papes, we notice that there are stalls being set up around the perimeter of this large public meeting place. We soon discover that we have stumbled into the middle of the annual Avignon Fete de la Vignes et la Vins (in other words it is their annual wine fest - oh me, oh my).
Right in the middle of the square is a chap making barrels in the old fashion way. Yes, he is a cooper and it is wonderful to see that something with perfect symmetry (i.e. a 40 gallon barrel) can still be handmade. He wets the planks and lights are fire in the middle of the barrel to allow the timber to bend and form to the right shape. Once he has finished to go in search of the grape juice that will one day fill that barrel.
There are at least 50 stalls and 45 of them have wine to taste. We buy the official tasting glass (plastic glass on a rope) and move to stall number 1. The wines from the region
Avignon Fete de la Vignes et la Vins
Major piss up in Avignon and we are special guests (or so we reckon)! are predominantly Grenache with small quantities of Syrah and Mourvedre.
By the time we reach stall number 4 we are well into the festive mood of the Avignon Fete de la Vignes et la Vins. In fact the red wine has delivered to me a belief that my French has improved to the point where I can conduct a conversation with just about any winemaker or cellar master. This newfound confidence backfires when I point out to one friendly purveyor that an Australian invented the aluminium foil wine sac (as found in cardboard casks around the world). As I gesture to a nearby cask (which carries premium wines in France) my explanation is mangled in the translation and he interprets that it is in fact ME that invented said wine bladder. He calls this news to nearby stalls and passer-by’s that gather around to toast me and slap my back for my great achievement. No amount of explanation can dampen their enthusiasm and so I resign myself to the fraud and bask in the glory of someone else’s hard work.
There is a Jazz Band in the middle of all this degustation pumping out some great tunes and
Palais de Papes
The red wine flowed in the shadows of the Palais de Papes. we share our knowledge of the Australian Wine culture with the local winemakers. They are well aware of the quality and range of grapes that Australia cultivates and one winemaker had been to Australia to learn how to make wine!
By the time we hit stall number 14 my French has been replaced by slurred English and “Nous etre booray!” (Roughly translated to mean we are happy or slightly pissed). We find the Restaurant De Villa (again) and enjoy a good meal.
Home to bed to dream of the riches associated with inventing a wine bladder.
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