Looking online last night I wasn't able to find any reasonably priced places to stay further North, so I knew that I'd end the day in Orange. There were no youth hostels, no campgrounds I could find that were open this time of year. The best I could find was in Orange, which is a single room place for 32 euros. Not the super cheapness of hostels, but it won't break the bank either. The only annoying thing is that Orange is only about 20km from avignon. Not a very long ride at all, so I figured that I'd either be dropping my stuff off in Orange and taking the lighter bike out for a loop, or I'd be just vegging out and relaxing for a day. So, the short of it was that I wasn't very fast getting out of bed.
Of course, that may not have been a bad thing. The day started ominously since I knew rain was in the forecast. I was even woken up at one point during the night by the heavy storm outside. Fortunately, it turned out that by the time I got moving, the rain was basically over and the clouds opened up to the sun and a chilly northern wind.
I knew that I had to stop in Chateaunef-De-Pape because it is THE place that the AOC system started in the Rhone valley. Basically making it the first named Rhone wine. It's also the most famous which is why it's so expensive (~20 euros a bottle on average compared to between 5-10 for other areas) and why you can easily find it in the US.
It's a small town on the top of a hill surrounded by tons and tons of vinyards. As in your wasting space if you have a tree or two. Since wine from the region is so popular (and fetches a good price), and the region is strictly defined about where the grapes can be grown, it would be stupid for a wine maker not to cover every square inch with vines. It was interesting too look at the different vinyards on the way up. There is obviously tons of rocks in the soil, but some growers have let grasses grow around the rocks and produce a little bit of soil whereas others litterlly till piles of rocks and somehow a vine is growing there. I know the theory is that the rocks absorb the sun better during the day and then release that heat slowly at night, creating a more even "soil" temperature, but I don't know why some growers let the weeds go. Maybe the cheaper houses just don't till as much? I didn't really get a good answer from the folks I talked to in town.
Anyway, so my timing arriving was horrible. I got in right at noon just as all the caves were shutting down for lunch. So I decided to find a restaurant, read my book and have lunch to wait it out until 2pm when the caves opened up again. Oh right, I need to explain the caves. So the streets in Chateaunef are solid wine caves. The cave is basically a place where you can get free tastings of some of the wines. Some of them are run by the winemakers themselves, whereas others are run by negotiants or middle men, who then will let you try wines from a few different producers. So yeah, the town is completely stuffed with caves and lording over the whole thing is the broken papal castle that was burned down most recently in WWI.
So after taking some pictures, I sat down to lunch. I figued I'd do the full menu of the day. Tip, if you go to southern france, always get the special of the day. It's a lot cheaper that picking things and if you go for the menu, you'll get appetizer, entree, dessert and coffee usually for a very reasonable price. In this case I was looking at 15 euros where my appetizer was a salad and a slice of quiche. This plate looked exactly like what you'd order in the states at a french bistro for lunch and it was only the appetizer. For the main, I had a steak with a pepper sauce accompanied with sauteed vegetables and bread. I was surprised by the steak because they barely seared the thing. Almost mooing and delicious. I didn't have dessert because at this point I was stuffed even with a good morning climb up the hill to get there.
After lunch, I went to a few caves, bought a bottle of wine for aging and some spendildly mild goat cheese. I spent a lot of time talking to this lady from one of the vineyards about how they make their wine. They sell a Cheteauneuf and a Cotes Du Rhone and the vinyards are right beside each other, so you're not getting that much of a difference in raw grape quality. However, because of the way the market works, they can sell the Cotes Du Rhone for 10 euros and the Chateauneuf for 20. So, the Chateauneuf gets coddled because they can afford to do so. They pick all the grapes and lay them out on a table. Then they manually inspect everything and if the grape isn't ready, into the garbage it goes. She said about 20-25% of grapes get thrown out in this step. Then, since aging the wine in oak is expensive, they only do that to the Chateauneuf, but not the Cotes. A note, many new world producers that have cheap, oaky wines like Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon will get the oak by throwing woodchips into the stainless steel vat while the wine is maturing. Anyway, back to France :-) I tasted their 2006s side by side to see the difference and it was absolutely huge. The Cotes was super fruity, one might even say a fruit bomb, but I'm hesitant to say that because I've been having so much french wine lately that my pallate's probably shifting. The Chateauneuf on the other hand had a nice oaky and smoky complexity to it that slowly gave way to the fruit in the finish. It was excellent, but for 30 euros a bottle I couldn't justify it especially when I had already found a bottle down the street for 17 that needs aging, but will most likely be just as good.
So after my wine lesson up on the hill, I went north down the other side to get to Orange. The ride itself was beautiful if short (10km). It was through the vineyards and you could see for miles. In the distance, Mont Ventoux was visible with a crown of clouds lording over all the golden leafed vines. There were other cyclists on the route too who were just doing either a training, or a fun ride on road bikes. It's really easy to see why this area is popular for riding even at this time of year when it's ever so slightly chilly with the wind.
In Orange, the reception for the hotel was closed, but I expected that. It's Monday and a lot of toursit places are closed or have short hours on Monday. Hey, they need a break too right? Especially when most of these places are just family run affairs. Anyway, they had already given me the keycode to get in and my room key was on the desk at the front. I honestly think that I'm the only person in this hotel tonight, which is kind of eerie. It's a great place, especially for 32 euros a night. Clean and brightly painted and has all the basics you need even if the bathroom and shower are shared with a bunch of rooms. I'd much rather be in a place like this than pay three times as much for my own can. That would be silly.
Orange has more roman ruins. They're all over this area. In this case, the most striking one is the Roman theatre. It's huge! Oh and it's still used as a theatre :-) I kind of want to see a show there although I'm not here at the right time to do that. Maybe when I come back with Catherine. They're playing a kockoff of Phantom of the Open called Phantomes du Theatre. Oh and there's a new fancy theatre just down the street, but I like the old Roman one personally.
I wanted to save some money on dinner tonight, just I bought a kebab from a street vendor and a merangue for desert from a patisserie and then enjoyed some of my goat cheese with goat sausage and wine bread. A good way to end the day.
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