Another cold but brilliant, sunny day greeted us this morning for yet another adventure in Provence! Today, we went down to the seaside community of Bandol to meet friends for lunch and then tour their family winery. Bandol is located southeast of Aix between Marseille and Toulon. The trip, mostly on the auto route, only took us about an hour. We arrived at about 12:30, met our friends and strolled along the waterfront of this quiet village. In the off season, this place is full of tourists but, today, we practically had the town to ourselves. There was little activity along the the water and all the boats were docked and empty. But, there were plenty of clothing boutiques, souvenir shops and restaurants open-we figured they were hoping for some last minute Christmas shoppers to come along.
Once we had our group assembled, we stopped at a small restaurant for lunch. We were a party of 10, many of us were meeting for the first time and we didn't all speak the same language so we were a boisterous, but merry group!
Most of us ordered the "plat du jour"; a Provencale-style couscous with white fish, steamed vegetables, curry and herbs, all laced with a tomato based sauce. It was ok, however many bowls were left unfinished partly because of the over cooked veggies and bland fish. Paul, Francoise's father(in the red sweater), ordered some Rose from his winery, Banon, and that made up for the mediocre food!After lunch we drove up to the Banon winery, in the hills of Bandol. What a magnificent spot! Not only for a winery and one of it's vineyards, but also to live! Paul and his family came here in the early 60's after they were forced to leave their native Algiers. Francoise and her brother, Laurent, grew up here. There is an amazing view in all directions-even all the way out to the sea!
The house was also really wonderful....
check out this fabulous two sided fireplace...so cozy!
We wandered down to the winery for a tour with Didier. Even though Real Estate is his profession, we thought he was a VERY knowledgeable tour guide. Laurent, who works and lives with his family at the winery, joined us and added to the tour. Just to give you an idea of size, Banon produces 600,000 bottles of wine each year. 30% of their sales are right on the premises with the remainder distributed in France, and exported to the US and even to New Zealand!
Red wine here....
Rose and white here...
Red wine awaiting distribution here.....
After our tour we went to the tasting/sales room and got to sample some of their finest wines! They even have their own olive oil produced right here. Afterward, cup of tea was just what we all needed so we retired to Paul's house before heading home. Nicholas had a great time 4 wheeling with Theo, Didier and Francoise's son.
Before we left, Nick gave Theo a set of NevadaJack's chips as an early, Christmas present.
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