Day Six - Tournon and Vienne France

After breakfast -- we're off on a Cotes du Rhone wine tour -- to the villages of Cornas and St. Peray. Our Guide is Celine,  originally from Paris and our wine expert is Martin, originally from Brussels.  Martin has a just purchased a small plot of land and is in the process starting his own wine business -- apparently a difficult task in France because of all the rules about how the grapes must be grown and harvested.

In the village of Cornas, Martin tours us around the vines which are just beginning to bud explaining that in the Cotes du Rhone region regulation dictates that everything be done by hand from planting to weeding to harvesting the grapes.   I must admit I had no idea how complicated wine growing is  so with new respect for this profession we are off to see how the wine tastes.

The bus shuttles us to the village of St. Peray (population 6,000)  to a shop where we taste five wines -- one Rose' from 2012, three rouge from 2011 and one rouge from 2012.   Martin  knows his grapes and is so adorable that all the ladies are hanging on his every word.  Prices for the wines we tasted range from 7 euros to 30 euros -- the most expensive  is from grapes grown on 60 year old vines.  I liked the 7 euro and the 30 euro the best -- I'm not sure what that means.   The afternoon is spent cruising the Rhone --

At dinner --  along with two other couples -- the four of us have been invited to dine at the Captain's Table.  Joining us are Lee and Linda from Scottsdale, Bob and Linda from Vancouver, Rachel our Cruise Director as well as Captain Danny.   Captain Danny is 27 years old, a bit shy,  newly married to Daniele who works the front desk and  a wonderful captain -- very visible.    Rachel,  originally from Brazil,  reminds Dave of "Charo" for all of you of a certain age who remember her.   Our dinner is lively and lots of fun.

After dinner Phil, Patte, Dave and I take a walk around Viennes -- a town with Roman monuments scattered liberally throughout the city.

Another good day cruising the Rhone.

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