April 26, 2019 Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Finally! This village, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, (and its wines) is one of our reasons for choosing this area to explore. The wines made here are probably the best known of the region when talking to Americans. Buying these wines in the US comes at a cost. We are hopeful they may be less expensive at the source.

The town, as most in this region, features a sturdy hill topped with a castle (this time the Pope's summer palace, prompting the name Châteauneuf - New chateau). Spreading out below it are endless acres of vineyards.

Châteauneuf-du-Pape spreads out below its castle

The drive across the countryside is beautiful and relaxing (at least if you're the passengers). The sun is shining, the roads weave through picturesque agricultural lands.

By agricultural, we mean mostly vineyards...

...but the vistas are beautiful.

The clouds are dramatic today and we can see rain over parts of the plain. Mont Ventoux and the Dentelles de Montmirail move in and out of the clouds.

The sun lights various parts of the landscape, leaving others darkened by clouds. The lighting is dramatic, making the afternoon even more glorious.

The château beckons us.

The Dentelles de Montmirail are in sun in spite of the increasing clouds

Our first goal is the château, in ruins now, at the very top of the hill. We took a road from the center of town that wound its way narrowly up the hill. (By narrow, I mean that if you meet a car from the other direction on this two-way road, one must find a few inches of grass or gravel, or a driveway, to pull over in order to let the other car pass.) As the road wound around the hill to the top, we were treated to extensive views over the landscape toward the mountains on one side, and the Rhone River three miles away on the other.

looking towards the Dentelles de Montmirail 

vineyards looking toward the Rhone

The Rhone River is only 3 miles away.

The south wall of the donjon (keep)

The château was built as a summer palace but also as a fortified residence to protect the popes. Constructed in about 5 years, the castle was built by order of Pope John XXII in 1317. It would have had a complex of buildings to house the Pope, his staff, and his household. After the popes left Avignon, it was ignored as being too large and expensive to maintain as residence for the Archbishop so the castle fell into disrepair and its stones were used locally as building material. In the 16th century French Huguenots (protestants) occupied the castle for several months during the wars of religion, then burned the archbishopric apartments on leaving.

After the French Revolution, only the donjon (the keep, a fortified tower) remained and at the end of WWII, the Germans, who occupied the tower as an observation post, tried to blow up the keep. Only one wall fell and what remains today is the south wall of the keep. Still, it's a pretty spectacular wall.

Winding our way back down the way we came, we searched for parking. As in all these villages, parking is at a premium and cars are parked where ever one can legally stash a car, even if it sticks over some no parking lines. If one can't find parking, one leaves the car in the middle of the street with flashers on and completes the errand while other cars wait behind for traffic to clear in the opposite direction in order to pass by the car blocking their lane. A few swear words might be uttered, but in the end, that's how it is in France and one moves on.

Parking found on a back street not too far from the tourist office, we made our way to the main street of town and the Office de Tourisme. Maps in hand, with English explanations, we headed on the Discovery Tour of the old town along with lots of other tourists - it's Easter vacation and we heard Italian, Dutch, and French. There was a group tour of Americans who scattered about the town when given their freedom from their guide to shop or taste wine.

Before plunging up the old street (can one plunge up?) We looked at the fountain at the bottom. As usual, this was the town's main water supply and location of the lavoir (laundry basins as we've seen in other towns.) This fountain dates from the 17th century and the lavoir is missing, as is the entrance gate that would have led up to the walled town.

La Grande Fontaine

We passed the Hôtel de Ville (which always sounds more elegant than Town Hall). It's old.

We learned about "soustets" or narrow passages. In the densely populated medieval town, multiple families share one house (which was divided up into, basically, apartments). A soustet allowed families to get to the entrance to their part of the house.

This dark soustet gives you the idea of how crowded, dark, and dingy it would have been in medieval times.

The church is at the top of the street, behind which a steep path leads up to the castle on the summit. Today called "Notre Dame de l'Assomption", the original 11th century church was built at the same time as the town's first defensive walls. Much remodeled over the centuries, the church has only a small part of the chancel that reflects the original construction.

The church portal is buried in the side of the church with another building beside it

the church bell tower is hard to see as everything is so close together at street level

the nave is romanesque

On the left of the church, steps led to the path up to the (now ruined) castle. The lovely house at the top of the steps sported this cute cherub in a niche on the corner of the house.

the little cherub in the niche

Across from the church is a street that made us smile. While its official name is "La Rue de l'Église" (Church Street), the locals call it  Rue "Rompe Cul" (Break Your A**) because the steepness and treacherous footing on the cobblestones has caused many falls (with accompanying curse words) over the centuries. The signage at the top of the street tells us "You've been warned."  We didn't try to walk down this street.

la Rue Rompe Cul

Heading back down and around the back of the church, we discovered the only gate still existent in the city, "la Porte Rouge" (the Red Gate) which isn't really red at all. Just mistranslated in Napoleon's time from the Occitane name "Porte Ourouse" (Windy Gate - because in the winter the Mistral blew through town via this northern entrance to the town).

We wound our way around some other narrow back streets to work our way back to the tourist office where we had started and "Voilà!" What do you know, we ran right into the "Maison des Vins" for Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

the end of our tour - the building above on the left is the Maison de Vin for Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Maison de Vin for Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Our hostess spoke excellent English

They were open (and empty of other visitors). We tasted 3 versions of Châteauneuf-du-Pape whose grapes came from different "terroirs" (the soil where the grapes are grown - generally sandy, limestone, or rocky).

Rocky soil called "galets" 

We only bought one bottle because these wines are still the most expensive at 34 Euros per bottle. It's a special occasion bottle. (Which could mean dinner tonight.)

Did I mention that there were options to taste wine everywhere in town? We passed dozens of signs in our brief sojourn around Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

sign along the street on an ordinary looking building for a winery

Seems like there were wineries every 50 feet

Back to the car, we decided not to visit any other wineries today. Driving home by a different (but equally beautiful) route, we could look out the left side of the car and see dark menacing clouds and rain.

Out of the right side of the car, the late afternoon sun was gilding the landscape and the mountains. The weather here is different than the forecast at least to us. Today was to be partly cloudy. Well, it is partly cloudy, but the wind and the rain in some of the clouds makes both temperature and views unpredictable. Luckily, it only sprinkled on us and the only real rain happened while we were in the car.

So, as usual lately, we have our apéros inside in the living room. But so what? We're in France, we have wonderful food, great wine, and good friends with whom to explore the region. What could be bad?

À votre santé