Wine tasting in the Argens valley

Trip Start May 14, 2008
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Trip End May 28, 2008


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Flag of France  ,
Saturday, May 24, 2008

Up at the crack of dawn (well, more like 9) to go find the elusive almond croissant for Lynnae (unsuccessful) and to brave the toll roads to find the more pastoral, rolling landscapes of Provence.  We headed West on the A8 and spent a while exploring Frejus, the oldest Roman settlement in France, founded by Julius Caeser in 67 BC.  There are still some ruins of aqueducts and an amphetheater in town, and though it is more modern than most of the hill  towns we've explored, it was charming in its own way.  We strolled through the public market (more like a flea market) in the square and paid to look at the old cloister and baptistry of the cathedral (from the 12th and 5th centuries, respectively).  Getting hungry we moved on to find Roquebrune-sur-Argens, which lived up to its reputation as very beautiful and quaint.  The houses around the center are over 400 years old and the streets are narrow and twisting.  We bought a sandwich for Lucas and went to look for Notre Dame chapel to eat lunch at its famed view, but never found it The cloisters of Frejus
The cloisters of Frejus
 .  Instead we parked in a small suburban development and ate in the car.  Can't win them all.
On to Les Arcs, headquarters of this region's wine country.  After a bit of backtracking and trying out our minimal French to ask directions, we finally found the Maison des Vins as recommended in our guidebook.  It turned out to be very cool (though it didn't have the promised winery maps).  There were hundreds of wines from all over the region categorized by district. We met a very knowledgeable man who lived in the US for seven years and was a Celtics fan.  He gave us a few rose wines (didn't like them) and some whites to taste.  We loved some of them and bought a few bottles (pretty cheap 5-10 Euros a bottle).  We did get directions to a couple Chateaux for tasting.  Chateau Sainte Roseline was very nice and we tasted some reds--a bit pricier, but not bad.  One of the hosts sized us up as prime American venture capitalists or movie moguls up from Cannes and offered to give us a tour of the winery (they don't usually do that on the weekends).  We followed him to a room with a bunch of barrels piled up and he told us they change the barrels every three years. Then he left to go back to the bar--tour over!  The other chateau we visited was up a very long, narrow road through vineyards and forest, past old rock walls and ancient olive trees.  Finally we reached the Chateau Font du Broc ("Chateau at the End of a Very Long Skinny Road"), which was spectacular.  Apparently a very old residence, it had beautiful rose gardens, a view to die for, an elegant tasting room and a hostess who spoke not a word of English.  We tasted a few reds and didn't like them, then spent a long time trying to explain to the girl that her wine was like the swill of a swine pen and we weren't going to buy a 40 Euro bottle at this time, maybe next trip.  After tasting, we went back to the square at Les Arcs to have a cappuccino/white wine and watch the pigeons putter for a while. 

We decided to eat back in Nice at the Cours Saleya where the market is in the mornings (at 1 they hose off the whole thing and pull out about a thousand chairs to make it into the worlds largest outdoor restaurant.  We finally tried Chez Freddy's, who had been handing us cards every time we went to the square, and had their prix fixe meal, which was a great deal and very good too.  I had the piranha pictured below (John Dory, actually).  The only sour note was that Lucas and I ordered beer from their list that sounded innocent enough, but had some sort of lemon liqueur added to it (who would add liqueur to beer!).  Not our favorite.
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