I went to France. After spending some time in Paris we took the TGV (fast train) down to Provence. Zoom. It was fun because I am not used to fast trains. Provence reminded me a bit of southern California, because they are both Mediterranean climates, except France has Roman ruins, rivers with water in them, ancient palaces that were once inhabited by popes, city walls, tiny streets, berets, little free-standing public pay toilets sitting in random locations, fantastic food and lots of vineyards. OK, so it wasn't actually that much like California. California has lots of vineyards, though. Anyway, we hired a small day tour in a minivan. The first half of the day was just us, the second half we had a group of Chinese girls with us. During the first half of the day we visited the old Roman theater in the town of Orange, and then headed for wine tasting at Chateauneuf du Papes. The crumbling walls of the Pope's winter palace were still visible (it had apparently been rather damaged during WWII and there wasn't much left). And there were the vineyards. Acres and acres. Or hectares and hectares. Rows and rows of wonderful green vines. Note that the vineyards aren't dirt, but a unique gravel or stone. Apparently, this is one of the few places where wine grapes are grown in this kind of rocky soil, and it has a unique impact on the flavor of the grapes and wine. To quote some random web site: "Small drift boulders (galets roules), rounder rocks from the ancient river bed are a key aspect of what makes Chateauneuf-du-Pape wines so distinctive with the rocks reflecting heat back into the vines at night thus increasing ripeness and reducing acidity." I wished I could have spent an hour just wandering around this area taking photos, it was so different. The rocks were beautiful, the plants incredibly green. Grapes were growing and showing in various stages of readiness. The sky was clear and blue. It was also really hot, maybe 90 or 95 degrees (35 C) and humid. But the minivan driver kept looking nervous and checking his watch, so it was clear we were on a schedule and needed to keep rolling. So I satisfied myself with about 5 photos, and then climbed back into the van and we went down the hill to the cave where we tasted some truly awful wines.