A friend in Boston reminded me that I never finished blogging about our trip to France! I got distracted. So sorry!

Day 8! We got up early ate quickly and were all on the bus by 8:30am. So much for sleeping in on vacation! We drove through a town named Orange to Chateauneuf-du-pape. On the way we stopped at a Triumph gate and an old theater that were built by the Romans.

When we arrived in Chateauneuf-du-pape, we went to a winery for a wine and chocolate tasting. We had dark chocolate with thyme and another with rosemary. Paired with crisp white wine and smooth reds, oh my gosh SO good! It was the best wine tasting I have ever been to.

We went from there to a castle ruin that the pope built a long time ago. It was beautiful. So awesome to see things that were built so long ago. We found an olive tree with olives so we picked some.
We left the castle and the bus took us to a huge vineyard. French vineyards are so interesting. The ground is covered with rocks that came from the Rhone river. The plants are kept very small and short which is so different from American vineyards. The smaller vines allow them produce less quantity, better a much better quality grape.

We picked some grapes that had been left on the vines. Yummy!

The boat was stuck in a lock so we came back to the boat and had lunch and waited to get through. We napped all afternoon as we sallied to Avignon. Avignon is a walled city. It looks so medieval. I expected there to be a moat. After dinner we wandered the city for a little while. Nothing was open. The French towns are all so deserted at night. Barely anything open. No people wandering around. It was so odd. But we explored for a while and then went back to the boat. Ready for a new day of adventures!