Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - Day 5

We went off to Vaison La Romaine late this morning to visit the market and to do a bit of sightseeing. We got there late and most of the vendors were just starting to pack up. However, we still got some nice produce including some really cool looking baby eggplant that will be cool roasted whole. Most of the vegetable vendors have eggplant, but this was the first baby eggplant. I've also seen baby artichokes that I'll have to give a try.

Since we arrived in France I've been searching for a Croque Madame sandwich for lunch to no avail. It's odd because every brasserie in Paris has these, but not down here. This sandwich is basically a grilled ham and cheese with a bit of béchamel sauce on top, like a Croque Monseuir, but it has a fried egg on top. Well anyway, I found a brasserie in Vaison La Romaine that had them on the menu, so that's where we had lunch. Jan had her first steak frites off the trip. A pleasant bottle of the local Ventoux wine for 12 euros topped everything off. Oh, except that we had to stop afterwards so Jan could get a crepe with chocolate sauce.

Since we were in this area, I wanted to visit the winery Domaine Escaravailles. I have some of their wines in the cellar and they're always great. We let them know this as we started the tasting, and they were very receptive to opening some of the excellent 2009 and 2010 vintages to taste instead of the current vintages that they normally have for the tasting. I didn't know they make a white wine, which was very pleasant. We ended up buying two bottles each of three wines, including the white.

They offered to take us through the winery, which we gladly took them up on. It was a short tour as it's a small producer, but we got to see the vinification area, which also included the barrel cellar for the Syrah they produce.

On the way to La Romaine we had seen a castle in the distance at the town of Le Barroux along with a sign about an abbey, so we decided to stop there on the way back. It turned out to be a great stop and one of those things that you miss if you fill your schedule with things.

We first stopped at the Abbey St. Madelaine. It's been there for centuries and is run by a small cloister of Trappist monks. We stopped at the gift shop first and Jan spoke with one of the monks running the shop while I grabbed a bunch of products that the monks make like olive oil and different breads and jams. Since we were there late in the day, the monks invited us to go to the church for Vespers, which was going to start within 20 minutes. That's an offer that can't be turned down!

As we started to walk up to the church, the bells started to ring announcing Vespers, which were going to start in 15 minutes. They subsequently rang at 5 minutes before and then at the appointed hour while the monks filed in, which is an interesting site to see. You'll find a short video of the bell ringing here.

The Vespers service was really pretty amazing. It's chanted in Latin and sounds cool and a bit creepy at the same time. But what I found really amazing was the age of the monks. I expected a bunch of really old guys similar to the ageing of the Catholic clergy in the US. Instead this group ranged in age from about 30 to mid-50s. It's interesting to see so many younger people entering the church. Many had the weird hair halo cut on their head while others didn't, so this must be a symbol of stature. The whole thing was pretty cool.

We then stopped at the castle we had seen earlier in the day. It dates back to the 12th century and was for the lord of the area. It had closed by the time we got there but we could still walk around the area and got some photos. It was interesting that the castle had been restored once but then got heavily damaged by the Germans when they occupied it in WW2. However, the German government now has offered to help pay for the new restorations.

Another simple dinner at home, with the monk's bread with some cheese and salami from the market. Oh, and a bottle of red wine too! We've eaten at home more on this trip than we have in the last couple of months at home.

Here are some photos from the day, consisting of Domaine Escaravailles, the abbey and the castle.