The hotel had 2 lamps - 3 is best but not available in this town. It was passable for a night's stay. We walked to the nearby town centre through the town gate - the only surviving of the original four. We found a fish restaurant in the old town. The waiter was originally gruff but on discovering that we were Irish, he couldn't do enough for us! An excellent meal especially the seafood chowder, which tasted of the sea even though we are many miles from the sea, in the Rhone valley!!
This morning, after an excellent breakfast, served in a most friendly manner, we quitted the hotel and purchase the noughat, for which the town has a reputation.
We continued to the Rhone valley south. This is a larger and less exclusive area than Cote du Rhone north , we visited yesterday.
The signage left a lot to be desired and we spent an hour or so traversing the area in the vain attempt to visit Gigondas. Eventually, we arrived at Chateau Neuf du Pape which, if your church history is up to scratch, you are aware that at the beginning of the 14th, Pope Clement V migrated to Avignon to escape political turmoil in Rome and Avignon became the capital of Christendom for almost a century. Pope Clement certainly knew how to choose a location for his chateau, a site overlooking the town of Chateauneuf du Pape on one side and the stately River Rhone on the other. Today the town is very touristy in comparison to all other towns we had visited on the Route du Vin.
We purchased some Chateauneuf at a Domain outside the town and had to drive due north again to the towns of Gigondas, Vaqueras and Beaume de Venice, where we sampled and purchased accordingly.
It was now time to head for Arles - tonight's destination. We quitted the area more expeditiously than we entered it and soon arrived in Arles. We had difficulty driving to the hotel as we came across a pedestrian barrier! An elderly lady with no English and my poor French, eventually sorted the problem. We arrived at the hotel in the spectacular old part of Arles. The hotel is excellent and in tune with the ambience of the area so we have checked in for a further night.
The hotel receptionist recommended three restaurants - One was closed tonight - it appears they had a feria here at the weekend , with a bullfight and the place was thronged, yet tonight both of the other restaurants were full and we had to wait a half an hour to be seated!
In the interim, we adjourned to a local hostelry, who took us to their hearts when they discovered we were Irish. I had to disabuse them of their belief that we got the wooden spoon in the Five Nations this year!
We repaired to the restaurant, where we enjoyed an excellent meal... Tomorrow a tour of the Camargue.
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