Day Five - Grignan and Tournon France

Our guide today is Usha and our driver is Laurent -- as we drive from Vivier to meet the ship to continue down the Rhone to Tournon. Along the way we travel through several villages on our way to Grignan a small town with a population of about 1550 and a castle that dates back to around 1250. During the 17th Century the Count of Grignan (twice widowed) married Francoise-Marguerite de Sevigne who corresponded with her mother Madam de Sevigne who lived in Paris. Because of these letters much is known about this Count such as -- he liked to spend money and in 1680 he built a terrace for use by castle inhabitants on top of the Church roof. Townspeople were horrified saying "people are walking on God's head".

After a walk through this lovely Medieval town and a visit to a shop or two -- we're off to La Rabassiere, a 75 acre Truffle Farm. We meet Walter, a third generation owner who explains the complicated process of producing truffles -- as Usha translates. They are quite the team -- Walter is appropriately dramatic as Usha provides us with the information we need to understand the process. Apparently the odor of the truffle is what makes it special -- there are black truffles produced in winter and white truffles produced in summer. Dogs are trained to dig up the truffles -- we meet Aimee one of three dogs that Walter uses in his operation. A tour of the field and a demonstration by Aimee of how she (female dogs work better) finds the truffle, digs it up -- and how Walter must be sure that Aimee does not eat the truffle by giving her a treat for each truffle she finds.

Walter and his wife have a lovely repast set out for us near the small shop area -- red and white wine as well as olive tapenade, truffle pate, truffle butter and truffle oil with wonderful breads. -- all samples of what is sold in the shop. Phil, of course, purchases some wine and spreads -- as if we don't have enough food and drink on the ship.

Back on board -- I sleep for a good part of the afternoon. After dinner we take a walk into Tournon -- a lovely town. Phil and I walk across a pedestrian bridge built in 1825 -- to Tain-l'Hermitage another small town. Up in the hills we can see a statue of the Blessed Mother on one side of the river and a small church on the other side of the river --- all lit up.

We've had a good and busy day cruising the Rhone River.

Thanks for Reading.