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Beautiful bright and sunny morning. We ring to change our ferry booking to give us a few more days, there is a surcharge of £1.10. Bargain! Ali did a small bit of washing and hung out and then went down for the degustation with Nick and Grete. Les Tourettes was built in 1930 and is now a family enterprise producing wine and oils from olives, truffles and raisins. We leave at 12:20 and enjoy a relaxed and pretty ride along the flat valley floor with the huge chalky white and brown escarpments of the Montagnes des Cengles rising up ahead. Lots of poppy fields and lavender along the way and we stop at a roadside vegetable store near Strets and join the motorway for a few miles before stopping north of Marseille for lunch. We turn north through generally flat country and long straight roads lined with epitomy trees.
On reaching Avignon we drive around the newly restored city walls in very heavy traffic before crossing the river and parking on the opposite bank. From the park there are good views of the old city and the famous bridge. Everyone tries singing "Sur la pont Avignon" but nobody gets past the first line.
Our last few miles are through long rolling vinyards to the Passion at Vers Pont du Gard. We approach the village from the wrong side and squeeze through some very narrow streets between the yellow stone buildings and walls before arriving at Domaine de Valseniere run by three generations of the Family Ducross. They produce Cote du Rhone, Gris and various home-made fruit jams. The evening turns very cloudy, windy and muggy but madame tells us the strong wind is coming up from the Rhone Valley and assures us it will not rain.
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La femme fatale Sur le pont d'Avignon, L'on y danse, l'on y danse, Sue le pont d'Avignon L'on y danse Tous en rond.