Wine country with giant glacial boulders and short vines

There were many rules about how to do this tasting but my wine ran out before all of the rules were rolled out. Sniff swirl swish inhale….

The French Pope hung his Pope hat here for quite a number of years. Yes, so much Pope-ing needed to be done that there was more than one Pope for quite some time.

The Rhone River.

This tower was used as a prison, and was in use until relatively recently.

Here we see evidence of The Great Zombie Wars of 1595.

We enter the market. Here’s a box of crabs.

Escargot of various types.

Fish!

Notice that when they sell duck they leave the head on so you can tell you’re really getting a duck and not a chicken.

Flea market, somehow I managed to restrain myself.

Candy shop!

City Hall. We were warned to avoid the cafe places there as they have the worst food.

Viviers, a really nice place to raise your kids up! Another labyrinth. Many of the homes are not occupied as it’s not so convenient to live like this in our modern era. You’ll get lots of exercise walking from your parking space with the groceries, and it’s not simple to renovate these old buildings. We are told there are generous tax breaks for those who take it on.

Cheese tasting on board! Yes, it was very yummy.

Steve from Lenee Winery has a birthday on our ship. Somehow they brought their wine which they’ve been sharing during the voyage.

Yes, in the lost and found, a Tasty Bite. Who leaves something like this lying about on a river cruise boat?

Jana is a Jill of all trades. Here we prep for our cheese journey.

Vineyard tour on a very steep rocky hill. And I cant grow much on my flat glacial till. Wines here are lovely and Croze Hermitage is where the olive tasting wine we had in Lyon comes from.

Another medieval town but well preserved and charming. We were treated with an organ concert in the cathedral. Quite a nice sunny warm day.

Here’s some more photos for you. Around here they play the game of “confuse the tourist” by closing in the afternoon and closing for holidays.

On the other hand, people so far have been very kind with our lack of much palaver in French. Gotta like that.

The menu read “minced meat over frites” to which I wondered “what the heck is that?”

Turns out it’s a hamburger with gravy over French fries and white asparagus.

It’s also quite tasty! Definitely the addition of the asparagus really is a fine way to do it.