Grignan and Dancing

Sunday, July 22.  Day 5 of our continuing adventure aboard the AMA Amadagio.  The Minstrel is still with us, however the sun is shining bright.  It is this Minstrel that chases the clouds and makes the sky clearest blue that drew the Impressionist painters to this particular part of Provence. With the light ever-changing artists, such as Van Gogh,  painted the same subject again and again with different colors.  On to our travels today...

After a delicious breakfast we boarded our bus for a trip to Grignan Castle, passing fields of lavender and sunflowers, with their heads turned to the sun. Grignan Castle is situated on a rocky plateau dominating the Drôme provençale countryside.  Our wonderful guide, Sandrine Mas, explained to us that this Renaissence palace was where the Marchioness de Sévigné lived in the 17th century.  The palace is filled with lovely tapestries, fine art and period antiques.  We were only allowed to tour the grounds, however, the views were breathtaking!  Grignan Castle is still used for many musical, literary, and theatrical events. After our tour we made our way down to the small quaint town for some shopping, stopping along the way for cappuccino and the most wonderful almond croissants Liz, Cindy and I have ever tasted.   Others settled for other French breads from the bakery, and didn't know what they were missing!

Grignan Castle amid lavender field

Market in Grignan

We again boarded our bus, riding through the plane tree lanes, viewing the so beautiful countryside on our way to La Rabassiere, the truffle farm owned by Corinne and Serge Aurel, a most delightful couple.  They are the 5th generation owners, and M. Aurel explained through Sandrine the workings of his farm with such passion and truly joie de vie (joy of life) that we were all caught up with his enthusiasm.  He explained that truffles are underground mushrooms or fungi that grow on the roots of the white and black oak trees.  M. Aurel plants white and black trees alternately in preparation for growing truffles 20 or so inches below the ground around the roots of the trees.  The truffles are harvested in both the summer and the winter, and the winter harvest produces the best truffles, about 60 kilos, for which he makes 10,000 euros a kilo.  He has a wonderful helper, his Italian bred dog, Amie, who has been trained to search for the truffles, dig them up, and carefully present them to M. Aurel.  She was a wonderful little dog who loves truffles and biscuits!  M. Aurel also cut us fresh lavender bouquets from his lavender garden.  Madame Aurel and her son prepared trays of French bread with assorted truffle toppings for us to taste along with a glass of new red wine.  Meeting M. Aurel and his family will be one of the highlights of this adventure.  As we bid goodby to the Aurel's and started our way back to the Rhone River, a car passed us and flagged the bus to stop:  to our surprise M. Aurel jumped out of the car bringing Kay's glasses that she'd left at his farm!  How nice is that???

Our hosts, Corinne and Serge Aurel, along with Amie, the truffle dog

We set sail in the afternoon for Tournon and had a great ice cream party on the way.  After dinner the Captain, his crew and Peter Whitehead, our cruise director, hosted a 60s party!  I hope someone has pictures of Linda, Joe, Joanne, Rebecca, Marion and Trish,  Vikki, Brenda and David, really doing a great job on dance floor.  (Sorry if I've left any one out---the dance floor was very crowded!).     Bon nuit and a demain.....

Ginger and Fred Astaire (aka the Bolins) at the 60's party Sunday night