Started the morning in Tain L'hermitage/Tournon with a chocolate seminar and tasting by a chocolatier from Valrhona, a world famous gourmet chocolate maker.  We then walked over to Ferraton Cellars for a wine tasting.  These vines are visible from the river up and down the steep hillsides; pretty amazing.  We then had a walking tour of Tournon, another old village from the 13th century.  These two towns are seperated by the Rhone river, and hate each other.  I get the feeling that the people of Tain think their "merde" doesn't stink.  So, again, we were up way too late at the ship's bar, and barely made our  bus for the Lyon tour.  This is the 3rd largest city in France, with ~1.3 million people.  Again, old Roman ruins are prevelant here, as this was the Roman capital of Gaul.  Two rivers, the Rhone and the Saone, intersect this beautiful city.  We are now done with dinner, and heading to Chalon, our last port of call, where we will be visiting the town of Beune, and also two chateaux in the Burgundy wine region (as if we need more wine).  So, bon soir for now.

A Few Pics

Rhone River

T & T in Tain L'Hermitage

T having a small drink at Ferraton Cellars

My new boyfriend

Napping in Lyon

Ivre du Vin (Drunk on Wine)

Yesterday we visited the city of Avignon.  This 11th Century city with it's gothic architecture is completely surrounded by a wall 15 feet thick and is watched over by thousands of gargoyles and is much more modern than Arles.

We visited le Palais des Papes (the Popes Palace), which housed many Popes until it was taken over during the French Revolution and they scurried away to Italy.  It is a little tough to see in the photo above, but after the French Revolution all of the statues and carvings were decapitated as a sign of disgust for the Catholic church. Later in the day we wandered around town, peeked in to a few shops, and stopped at a street cafe for a glass of wine.

After lunch we hopped on a bus and visited Pont du Gard which is a Roman aqua duct built in 49 A.D.  It is pretty amazing to think that they did this just to transport water to the bath houses for the stinky Roman elite.  

In 1956 there was an extremely cold spell that wiped out all of the olive trees overnight.  This was a huge blow to the French economy and some trees were donated by surrounding countries in order to give them a new start.  This tree pictured (if you look closely you may be able to see my little Kermit that travels everywhere with me) was donated by Spain and is over 900 years old.  Damn!  I thought that some of the octogenarians on the boat were ancient, but that is some really old wood!

From here we went the Chateauneuf du Pape winery and sampled some yummy wines.  They were in fact so yummy that we could not escape without buying 6 bottles which we took back to the ship with us and had our own wine gulping later in the evening.  Needless to say, it was a little rough getting out of bed this morning.  We have been traveling up the river for much of the day on our way to Tain L'Hermitage so it is a good day to be lazy.  You may be asking yourself if we do anything besides look at really old stuff and drink more than our share of wine.  The answer to that question should be obvious.

Good morning, Avignon.

Woke up this morning to the beautiful full moon shining through our cabin window.  Looks like it will be a great day to tour the Papal Palace, and then off to a wine taste.  Yesterday,  after Arles, we took the bus to Les Baux, and I must say, this is by far the neatest stop so far.  This is a small village built onto/into a rocky hilltop; cobbled, steep, narrow roads abound here.  Also, this is where bauxite was discovered (huh)!  And, Sir Paul McCartney was spotted buying a table cloth.  We looked briefly for him but couldn't find him for a photo op.  Off to breakfast now.  Au revoir.

Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys!!

Today is our third day in France...  we have spent almost 2 days in Arles and moved on to Avingon this evening.  Arles is so surreal that it almost seems like we are walking around in a movie.  There are parts of the city that were built in the 6th Century B.C. (Yes, that's B.C.) and it is hard to imagine that a structure could exist for 2,600 years.  There are fierce winds ripping through the valley which range between 90-110 kmh.  What the hell?  Where are we? Lehi?  Anyway, we found out that as Van Gogh spent much time in this city, he could not handle the strong winds and they made him quite mad and were the cause of the famous ear-chopping episode.  (I looked for his missing ear, but couldn't find it.  I think that one of the local dogs ran off with it)

After a tour of the city we moved on to an olive farm where we were able to sample fresh olives, olive oil, tapenade, and wine.  The farm was an amazing site and has been past down from generation to generation.   There is a church on the property that dates back to the 1100's and you can still see symbolic etchings created by the builders on the outside wall.

The food on the ship is incredible and I have no doubt that I will gain 20 lbs before we return. We have found that we are the youngest people aboard by at least 20 years.  We challenged our youngsterhood last night as we stayed at the ships bar until 2 a.m. as the geezers slept.  Not sure how often that will happen, but it was a lot of fun.  

We are off to Avignon..  more later.

The Utah Crew: Top - Mr T, me, Dad, Mom, Sissy, Darrell, Bender, Al the Truckers Pal, Cheryl, Phyllis.  Bottom - Dave, Nancy, Darlene, Dick.

We're Out Of Here!

Saturday morning at 8:00 in the a.m. we will be meeting Mom & Dad, Dick & Darlene, and Sissy & Darrell at the Crown Room for some early morning adult beverages before we depart on our 15 hour plane ride to Marsielle France.

On Sunday morn we will hop a shuttle to Arles where we will jump on the boat through the heart of Provence to Burgundy.  Here is the down low on our trip:

Sept 13th: SLC to Atlanta to Paris to Marsielle

Sept 14th: Marsielle to Arles

Sept 15th: Arles - this city has been around since the 6th century B.C. and Van Gogh painted some of his most famous works here

Sept 16th: Avignon - medieval city and Papal Palace

Sept 17th: Viviers - founded in the 5th century with Roman and medieval influences

Sept 18th: Tournon/Tain L'Hermitage - wine tasting and Valrhona chocolate factory (hope Willy Wonka is there)

Sept 19th: Lyon - Julius Caesar founded this city about 2000 years ago

Sept 20th: Chalon-sur-Saone - shopping and tasting Burgundy wines

Sept 21st: hop on train from Chalon-sur-Saone to Paris

Sept 21st - 24th: Paris - lunch on the Eiffel Tower on our 13th anniversary (aw!)

Sept 24th - hop on direct flight to SLC :(

Stay tuned for pics and updates... (they will get more exciting I promise!)