Antiquing and wine tasting

Sunday morning is the antique and farmer's market in L'Isle sur la Sorgue. I decided to ride there while Rosanna planned to drive. I took off without a map because I had studied the route quite carefully. Unfortunately, I did not take account of the fact that some roads labelled as highways on the map (i.e. with the D prefix) might not be signed. I was off course within 5 kilometres, but I had a spectacular ride. It started with about 5 km uphill, some of it kind of steep, and then a 35km descent into Carpentras. There I got completely turned around and went well off course, getting myself almost all the way to Avignon before getting directions from an excellent communicator. Somehow I managed to still arrive in the destination town at the same time as Rosanna, although her trip by car was roughly half of mine by bike (63km). I must say that was far enough to ride in the heat. The temperature hit 37. The place was even more packed than usual with pedestrian traffic as it was the weekend of the semi-annual antique fair. Our meeting location was ill-chosen for someone who was arriving wheeling a bike and walking in cleats as it required negotiating the narrowest of the market streets. I finally just shamelessly let a man with a baby stroller blaze a trail for me.

We had a nice lunch (I had salmon because it is good for me and it was quite tasty) in a lovely little restaurant right on the bank of the river, but the service was quite terrible. The young servers simply let themselves be pushed around by the bossy older French women who had seen too much sun (and too many surgeon's scalpels) and had no time for the less-demanding and more well-behaved patrons. After wandering around the town and the antique market and having a coffee in one of those noisy men's bars where the glasses of pastis are bottomless and the swagger of the patrons is tiresome (Rosanna's choice -- she likes a rough coffee bar -- she thinks it is authentic -- I only take her to nice places) we headed home where I continued my reading of MFK Fisher Two towns in Provence. I think it was originally published as two separate volumes -- one about Aix en Provence and one about Marseille but now they have been reissued together. I am reading the one about Aix and now I want to go there again, although not on a market day when there are too many people and not enough parking and one cannot see the place properly, nor get a table at a decent restaurant. I am only interested in one restaurant -- Les Deux Magots -- where she pent many hours during a 3-year sojourn in the city. Later in the evening we went to Vaison to fetch Crystal and Sandra from the bus. When we got there, my phone signalled that I had a new text -- they were coming to Carpentras and not Vaison and would arrive at 8pm (which was when the message arrived). Carpentras is sadly in exactly the opposite direction from Vaison. Rosanna took over the driving (as she is speedier) and we headed off, with me attempting to text a reply. For every 3 characters I generated, 2 were erased as we went around each curve (of which there are many). I was also dubious that they would receive my reply as their message appeared to have been sent from a French telephone. I will spare you the suspense. They had of course borrowed another bus passenger's phone. There had been an earlier mysterious moment when my phone rang but no one was there when I answered it (Sandra had called me on an expired phone card). After I shrieked hello several times and then disconnected the call, my phone inexplicably began providing me with all my menu options in English. That was a bonus although perplexing at the time. They did call back and provide us with a street in Carpentras where they were standing, but of course it did not appear on the city inset on my map of the region (and I had not thought to bring a Carpentras city map as we were going to Vaison after all when we left the house). We had to stop at the Best Western for directions, but eventually we found them, a bit tired and rumpled and hot on a forlorn corner of (it must be confessed) a not very attractive town (and one where I had already had a negative experience that day). Then we had to really fly so we could get to Villedieu where I owed the boss money for my lunch and where he would now think I had skipped out on that bill and made a reservation for dinner for 4 that I would not be honouring (we were a full hour late). We arrived at last and there was space and the pizza was delicious so that was a huge relief.

Today (Monday) was very uneventful. Slow start. I rode my bike to town for croissants for breakfast and then we went to the Bedoin market, then to Carpentras to Chez Serge for lunch and then a bit of a winery tour -- Domaine La Monardiere in Vacqueyras and then Grapillon d'Or in Gigondas. The wines at the latter were particularly delicious. We bought 6 bottles of the 2007 1806 wine. In Vacqueyras we bought a couple of the rose. Then we came home via Beaumes de Venise, Lafare and Suzette, which provide the very best views of the Dentelles de Montmirail. Just on the outskirts of Malaucene a mistral suddenly blew up. It is now (or was a few moments ago) raining. I am hopeful that that may cool things down for the cycling. I have been left here at the Cyber cafe while Rosanna fetches her bruised bike from the repair shop and the other two go to the bank. They will be coming back to fetch me shortly. Not sure what tomorrow holds in terms of a group actibity, but I am determined to get a lengthy ride in in the morning.