Pont du Gard and Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Provence is an area of France that I have wanted to visit for a long time. In fact, we had a trip planned there to celebrate my 50th birthday in April 2020, which had to be cancelled because of Covid. I would definitely say the region did not disappoint.

We used the ancient city of Avignon as our base in Provence, but did many day trips to other cities and sites. Before we actually checked in to our hotel in Avignon, we picked up my sister Karyn and brother-in-law Jim there and drove out to the Pont du Gard, a truly spectacular Roman-era site.

The Pont du Gard was part of a Roman aqueduct that ran 30 miles from a water source to the city of Nimes. Most of the aqueduct was underground or at ground level, but where it crossed the Gardon river, it forms a bridge that survives today, almost 2000 years later.

As you can see, the bridge is impressive, and we learned that the arches measure 80 feet across, much larger than the arches the Romans usually built. We did not visit the museum at the site, but definitely enjoyed a chance to see and walk across this amazing structure.

For our first full day in Provence, Jim and Karyn had planned a wine-tasting tour for us in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, a region whose wines we all enjoy. Our tour was led by Celine, a sommelier who had previously worked at a three-star Michelin restaurant. It was fantastic. Although we had done many wine tastings before, we all felt that we learned something new about the process of tasting and identifying wine. 

We tasted at three different wineries, and the wines were all very good, but guided by Celine we felt able to make finer distinctions on which wines we each preferred. At one of the wineries, Shana posed with a container full of grape skins, which will be used as fertilizer for the vines.

During the tour we stopped for lunch in the small town of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, where we climbed up to the ruins of the city's castle, which was destroyed by allied bombs during WWII.

Lunch was enjoyable, and rather than drinking a bottle of wine, we drank glasses of the wines recommended by the restaurant to pair with the dishes we ordered. Of course, the pairings did a great job, bringing out the best in the various wines (and vice-versa).

Of course, we had to buy some wine to ship home, which we look forward to enjoying.

Adieu,

Jeff and Shana