We waited 3 hours for our next flight and then it was time to board. We had row 26 which ended up being the last row in the aircraft. It was quite small with only 2 x 2 seat configuration and 26 rows.

Just before the plane was to leave they called my name our and I went up and they had changed our seats to row 3.

As I was walking up we could see that almost all of the passengers were from about row 12 to row 26. And only a few up the front so we moved and that was good. No bigger but it felt better sitting there.

We arrived about 9:30pm and collected our bags, it appeared somewhere from Marseille they had cut our locks off the bags – but there was no note/reason and nothing looked stolen.

We were quite tired by this point and caught a cab to the hotel – 47 Euro – quite steep, more than the 35 euro we were told by the person at the information desk at the airport.

It was still lively outside the hotel when we arrived, and because it was almost 10pm when we got to the hotel door and pressed the buzzer we were told the reception had closed and we had to go down to another hotel to pickup our key. It was only about 80 meters away, but it was odd dragging our bags around on the cobbles while people were eating at the café’s.

We got the key and trundled back to our little hotel door and up to our room. It is definitely very small, about the size of a small bedroom but not too bad with a partial view over the river only 30 meters away.

Since it was so late and we had not eaten much except for some bread in the morning we were keen to get some before everything closed. Well we looked around at a couple of places and then checked if they were still serving food. 3 restaurant's said they were no longer serving dinner and we thought we were out of luck but we found a little place that was still serving dinner.

I ordered a Salmon & green lentil dish, and pam ordered Pig Checks cooked in Pinot with Potatoes.

We ordered a couple of beers and could start to relax again. The dishes came quite quickly and they were very full so the kitchen was working overtime.

The food was good, and the beers were slightly sweet but enjoyable, more so for me than Pam who was looking for lighter beer.

We arrived back at the airport in Marsielle and found that our flight was no longer – not just cancelled – deleted at some point in the past.

We have managed to get onto a flight to Paris and then another to Strasbourg 3 hours later.

We left Sablet (pronounced with a silent t) around 11am and basically drove to Marsielle along the A7 – 130KM/h. This is a toll road and cost 7.50 euro for the 80km or so we used.

After this we decided to drive somewhere as it was only about 12:30pm

We drove to a place called Carro – a little fishing holiday spot by the looks of things.

It was only about a 20 minute drive there and they have a large (well huge) market on a Tuesday each week.

Pam bought a few things and I just bought some scallops and a couple of spoons.

A war memorial showing the names of people of the village who died in the first and second world wars.

The Roman Bridge at Vaison-la-Romaine is a Roman bridge over the river Ouvèze in the southern French town of Vaison-la-Romaine. The bridge was built by the Romans in the 1st century AD, with a single arch spanning 17.20 m. It is still in use, and has survived severe flooding that swept away some more recent bridges.

We then drove to the old medieval town center which had a pretty village.

We went to the market at Vaison la Romaine which is about 25 minutes dive away as they had a market and we wanted to buy some food and of course Pam wanted to look for bargains in the clothing stalls.

I bought 4 Scallops at 29.90 euro per kilo, which worked out at 1 euro each. Pam does not eat scallops!

They were lovely with some chargrilled asparagus.

Next up was the duck, it was a very large duck breast – about 650 grams, along with a beetroot salad, more asparagus and roasted potatoes in duck fat with a sauce I made.

 

A nice sunset, and it was warm so we sat on the deck for dinner with a nice Muscat from Beaumes de Venise region.

Saucisson is the French equivalent of salami, saucissons are cured pork sausages. A mixture of lean pork and pork fat, salt, sugar, spices, and sometimes alcohol are combined to give the saucisson its unique flavour, but the different recipes for saucissons from different parts of France vary according to the region. They can be sliced and served cold.

Here is a video of how they are made (38 minutes)

The basic recipe in the video is:

• 2 KG of Pork Belly coarsely minced.
• 1 KG Pork Fillet from the neck area coarsely minced (too much fat if only pork belly used) – not too thinly minced – course
• 53 Grams of Garlic (Exactly), cut vry thin, and then used the blade of the knife to make a fine puree, removing the green bit there is one.
• 225 Grams of Medium Bodied red Wine, not too light, not too heavy for curing and moisture.
• 7 grams of freshly ground pepper.
• 60 Grams of salt (not sure what type).
• Lumps of fat – just what looks right. So hard to say how much.
• Mix by hand
  
• Add Pepper corns – about 50-100
• if you add hot paprika now – it will make chorizo, but needs to rest for 2 days in the refrigerator.

The result after blending should be sticky because of the red wine.

Add Red wine if a but too dry

You need OX sausage wrapper, but I am sure you can used any type as long as it is about the same size as an OX sausage.

Use a piping bag if you do not have a mincer to fill the sausage wrapper.

Hang for 24 hours to dry

cover so no flies get near it with muslin for 24 hours.

hang for a further 1 to 4 months with not too dry humidity.

It should have some mold (keep flies away with some muslin)

• I think I have to try this when I get home, maybe a bit less in the quantity but it sounds simple enough.

The last winery on our walk was Domain Souverain, which we found by accident after leaving the previous winery.

We saw it and thought that maybe it was open, just as we were to take a look the wine maker drove up and opened up for us.

He had a few good wines to try, I tried 3 reds and Pam has a white or was it a Rose?

I bought a couple of wines from him, the reserve which was a 2012 – no idea what we paid for them. I think I had had enough by then.

He saw I was loaded up with wine and seen that we were walking so he offered to put the original purchases in a 6 pack box, and then put on a sticky tape handle.

We then walked home, happy with the day.

The next winery we visited was called Le Gravillas, this is visible from our balcony.

This is a larger establishment than the previous winery we visited. Upon entering you can see the large barrels which you can buy your bulk wine from. The prices ranged from 2.60 Euro per litre for a Cote de Rhone White, 2.50 Euro for a Cote de Rhone Red, the dearest was about 25 euro per litre and the cheapest was a Vin De Pays at 1.15Euro per litre.

I asked if I could try this 1.15 per litre product, and it was better than a bottle we tried which was 4 Euro.

But there were other wines for us to try, Pam did not like the whites, the reds were very nice, I bought two Le Gravillas, Sablet, 2011 Venanges for 7 Euro each.

I am drinking one as I write this and it is about 2pm on Sunday.

It is very mouth filling, spice, with a mineral character, 14%.

Probably needs some food really, maybe I will get some cheese and salami.

I also enjoyed the very aged Le Gravillas Gigondas Vendanges 2006, a bit more expensive at 14 Euro but oh so much nicer. I bought one of these as well.

http://www.cave-le-gravillas.com/