Well Folks, I am back in Paris after a 10 day visit to the South of France. I went to the Universite du Vin, seen above - the Chateau La Suze - (http://www.universite-du-vin.com) for a 4 day course on Wine Tasting (Degustation). I learned an incredible amount about the complexities in creating a wine to taste a specific way and whether to make a wine to keep or to drink young and then all those choices can be pointless because Nature is more powerful than all the rest! There is a whole world of aromas in wine, well not all wines, and we spent our time diving into that world with our noses and our mouths...and our eyes, since you must analyze the color and the density as well.
I drove along a windy road along the hillsides of vines during one of my only sunny moments there.
This is my work space. The first day we were in the chateau and the rest of the time we were in the Medici Laboratories part of the university.After the wine education, I drove East to Forcalquier, the town I lived in from birth till 7 years old, and visited every year for many years after. It's in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and wow was it gorgeous. It had been years since I had been in that region in the Springtime. I am used to everything being all dried out and hot and there it was all verdant and the poppies were out in full bloom! Seen below are Les Mourres - funny, geological remains of rock composites. This used to be all underwater and you almost feel like a fish swimming between the rocks.
And here is Forcalquier, perched on a hill with its citadelle on top. Please visit my photo album to see all the photos of my trip and especially the poppies!!