European Dreaming

It rained all night but when I woke up to shower early in the morning the clouds were clearing up to give me a beautiful view of the moon in the light blue sky.

We stopped at a McDonalds for breakfast since we did not see any pastry shops near by and I was hungry for some protein. These meals of baguettes, cheese and ham are really starting to get old. So of course I order the only protein on their breakfast menu a bacon, egg & cheese Mcmuffin hehe not much different then the ham and cheese I was just bitching about. But bacon does taste different then ham. Let me tell you that I have never been in such a nice McD's. I ordered my breakfast at the regular counter but Mark wanting pastries gravitated over to the McCafe counter and order his morning pastries. Yes those are macarons in the second pic.

Yes macarons at McD's

After filling up the RV and our bellies we hit the open road. Today we were heading the 2 1/2 hr's north up to Avignon France the City of Popes. A little history that I copped from Wiki....
"Often referred to as the "City of Popes" because of the presence of popes and antipopes from 1309 to 1423 during the Catholic schism, it is currently the largest city and capital of the département of Vaucluse. This is one of the few French cities to have preserved its ramparts. In addition, its historic centre, the palace of the popes, Rocher des Doms, and the bridge of Avignon are well-preserved."

Upon further reflection maybe we should have stayed on the coast as it was sunny and beautiful and as we progressed away from it, it got cloudy and started raining. None the less we had pretty scenery to admire on our drive.

It was a quick drive to Avignon and Tomtom took us exactly where I wanted to park the RV. Yay team. It was a parking lot right next to a campground we were going to stay at that night and had a great view of the bridge of Avignon. When we arrived it was raining pretty steady but we had an umbrella and made a quick walk across the river to the ramparts of the city.

Immediately inside the ramparts

Once inside the city and seeing it deserted and realizing we are getting wetter then we thought Mark made the executive decision that nothing was going to be open on a Sunday afternoon and lets get out of the rain. So back at the RV we discuss further options. Mark wants to check in to the campground and I want to head up to Chatneuaf du Pape for some wine tasting. I wasn't relishing the idea of sitting in the RV all afternoon while it rained, we did that yesterday late afternoon & evening. I win out and we are soon back on the road. As we pass a McD's Mark wants to stop for lunch but there wasn't an entrance from the road we were on so.....on he drives.

Chatneauf du Pape is only 15-20 minutes up the road and we're there before we know it. I had wanted to go to Chateau Beaucastle but with all of my pre trip research I was unable to find an address. So once in town Mark was looking at me to tell him where to go. My best plan was to show up in town and find a wine store or bar to do local wine tastings. Of course once in the tiny town we realize most everything is closed. We see a big white information board and pull up to it. With the rain coming down even heavier I get out to take a look to see what might be open and could not find anything. So back in the RV I come up with an idea to get out a France Passion book to see what might be nearby. France Passion is a book that list area farmers, vintners, business owners that allow camping on their grounds with the caveat that you purchase some of their product. But hey wine was why we were here any way so we'll purchase it. After figuring out how to read the France Passion book we discover 2 local vintner who were listed and one them advertised a restaurant and being open 7 days a week. We follow the directions in the France Passion book and find Chateau Cabrieres exactly where it said.

Chateauneuf du Pape Castle

When we pull up it does my heart good to see the signs for French Passion RV parking . We park in one and I walk up to a window that I was only assuming would have someone inside. Sure enough with in steps of the window I see a smiling face looking out at me. She speaks English and is saying that yes we can park here over night but no they don't have a restaurant. She then asks the most important question of all are we interested in doing a degustion my answer was an affirmative hell yeah...actually it was rather a meek sure if you have time. She grabs the key to the tasting room and I get Mark and we meet her for our tastings. She explains several wines and proceeds to pour us what I would call a small glass of wine not just a tasting. As I taste this first everyday table wine it soon becomes apparent why she was so generous with her pours. I pour the rest of my first glass in the spit jar. Now the next 2-3 wines were OK but I'm starting to wonder why Chateauneuf du Papes have such a great reputation for being so good. Then she pours us the next two wines...holly mother of god are they good. This afternoon just keeps getting better. As a french couple walk in for a degustion we make a quick decision and order a case split between the 2 wines we loved. They don't ship to the US so we were stuck carrying it with us. We say our goodbyes as we walk out with our bottles of 2001 Select and 1997 Prestige. Now in hind site I wish we had bought 2 case of each. We have since checked these wines out here in Indy and the Prestige runs in the $85 a bottle range and it was a 2007 vintage not the 1997 vintage we purchased. With our case discount I don't think we paid more 23eu per bottle for the Prestige. I'll also admit that we drank 2 bottles of the Select and 1 of the Prestige while in Paris. Let's just say the ones that made it home will be saved for very special occasions.

The grounds of Chateau Cabrieres were very pretty and the rain had slowed a little so we put the wine in the RV and walked around the grounds shooting a view pictures.

Once back in the warm dry RV we have to find something to eat. So we decide to start driving towards Lyon and put it in Tomtom. As he is directing us through the back roads out to the motorway lo and behold what do we come across but Chateau de Beaucastle. So we roll up and take a few pictures as they don't have a tasting room. They don't need one when they have their reputation for some of the best wines.

More ruins along the road

After driving another few hours I am exhausted and can only imagine how Mark feels. So I am practically begging Mark to pull off in an aire for the night. France has many great aires along their motor ways I would compare them to our truck stops or Oasis. Well the one we stopped at just south of Lyon was huge and had 5 restaurants, but do you think they would be open, not on a Sunday in France. When we arrived at about 4:30pm the only one open was the coffee shop offering the same ham and cheese sandwiches we were sick of. It appeared that the cafeteria was preparing to open soon so Mark stuck his head in to ask the non English speaking woman what time they open. He thought she was trying to say 5pm. So we stood around and waited, and waited, and waited. At 5:15pm I tell Mark let's go wait it out in the RV as some of the people hanging around from a bus didn't smell like they had bathed in the last week. At 5:30 we come back in and they still aren't open and the gal working the coffee shop tells Mark 6:30pm so we head back out to the RV and wait for 6:30pm. I must say we were so hungry that I enjoyed the food more then I would have expected. Back to the RV thankful of the sound of the rain to drown out the noise of the semi's idling nearby.

Today we were going to head up to Imperia in northern Italy and do an Olive Museum tour and stay in a campground directly on the beach, but we soon changed our minds. I had not heard back from the campground on either of my 2 e-mails and knowing this was an Italian holiday weekend we decide to just make as much time as possible and head into France.

We stopped at the last Autogrill in Italy prior to passing into France and filled up on gas and to grab some lunch. While we were standing and eating our great Focaccia and Ham Cheese sandwiches I spotted a couple over at the cooler section and made a wonderful discovery. Parmasen & Romano Cheeses Speck Ham & Prosciuto Ham several of the foods we couldn't get in Parma (since we couldn't park) were available here. Bonus...so we picked up a couple of huge bricks of Parm/Regiano cheese and some Speck ham. We brought home the cheeses but decided to use the Speck Ham (didn't want to bring meat product back into the states) for a few dinners or lunches. We really didn't care much for the ham and I am afraid we threw the majority of it away.

Delectable Autogrill lunch with our last real Italian Espresso

We drove past Nice and to another campground in the Antibes that I had researched. The Antibes sits between Nice and Cannes. Our drive took a little over 3 hours and we arrived during their lunch. Of course they were closed so we took a drive around the area and soon found the entrance to the beach side road. Unfortunately it was an overcast day and much of the view of Nice was obscured with low clouds. With the sun shining the next morning it was a beautiful view (sorry no pictures of that).

Nice sits behind these clouds

We stopped and stocked up at a hypermarch next to the campground then went and checked in. We had considered taking the train the 15 minutes into Nice to sight see but it started to rain so we stayed in the campground and spent the next 3 hours doing wash. This was a night we would have appreciated a TV but we made do playing pinball on the tablet.

This is for Barb and her favorite sauce (think 1000 Island dressing)