Hotel Les Negociants Valence

... a sign for ¨degustation¨(tasting). We ended up in teeny villages with specatular views and even better wine. And these places are not like the wineries back home. It's usually somebody's garage or cellar (you literally walk into a cave sometimes) where they pour bottles without labels, for free of course, and have their kids help them with the paperwork. When talking about how long they've been around, they don't speak in terms of years; but in ...

found a great little town in Provence.. and as they say "when in Rome (Provence)"... we had a great meal in true french restaurant... happy to be away from tourist food... and had some very nice red wine........ just a stopover but a friendly little place and nice hotel...

on the road again...

Après un été bien au chaud c'est bientôt le départ vers l'Orient...
Si je suis encore le nez dans mes valises ma tête est déjà partie.
Dans une semaine je serai de nouveau autour de Shanghai pour rencontrer des sculpteurs de racine. Sculpter des racines en Chine est un art presque codé; on doit d'abord trouver une racine d ...

... belles boiseries 19ème siècle. L'immense table a été forgée par le maître des lieux ! Et puis n'oubliez pas d'emprunter la volée de marches qui conduit au petit boudoir situé en haut de la tour pour y découvrir la vue sur le Rhône et la vieille ville. Sérieusement, vous aviez ...

... e de forêts, de vergers et de vignes qui marque une douce transition entre la montagne et la plaine, les Alpes et la Provence. A découvrir: le Palais du facteur Cheval, les vignobles de Tain l'Hermitage et la capitale de la chaussure (Romans).
Royans-Vercors - Un paysage inoubliable: panoramas grandioses, routes audacieuses, rivières ...

Bonjour mes ami,
This will give you some idea of where we are and what sort of countryside is around us -
We are living about a km outside of St Barthelemy on the road to Lamastre and about 7 km from Lamastre. St B is very small and has little except for houses, school, a mairie ( the council which each town has) and a bar which is also the post office and bread depot. Each town by ...

Possibly the most romantic destination EVER, the Chateau Du Bijou is very beautiful and totally away from it all, but only just! We spent the weekend exploring the Ardeche and Drome
areas, situated either side of the Rhone Valley, which are both also really beautiful
and unspoilt holiday destinations. No crowded beaches, but fresh rivers
for ...

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Only for Brenda! Driving down the upper Ardeche gorge on the outside of the road with 1m retaining walls and vertiginous views. Big lorries using all the bend were coming the other way ...

... a trip in to town. Nothing too exciting- just a stop at the post office to mail a package and our absentee ballots (the postal worker was super excited to be a part of the American election- it was sweet) and a stop at the grocery store. Life is nice. Halloween is coming up this weekend and we bought some toys and candy for the farmer's twin 7-year-old daughters. It will be fun to share that with ...