May 6, 2019: Hike and visit to the Cave of MonTirius

Today is still cold, but sunny, and less windy by a lot than yesterday. Still,

Evie & Penny on the balcony

not a comfortable touring day, but not enough to keep us from doing stuff. Katie, Randy and the girls slept in after their trek across the ocean and late arrival yesterday. We had breakfast about 9 but as the girls were still sleeping, it was decided that Randy would hike with Dave, Janis, and Clark. It was 11:30 before the girls woke up, chipper and ready to run. After the girls ate their breakfast, we went outside to play while Katie packed their gear. There was lots of running in circles around the pool area. And then there was collecting stones. And checking out the balcony.

The hike, labeled easy, was from a tourist office brochure called Le Plateau des Courens at Beaumes-de-Venise, 4.9 km, 190 meters climb.This climb started in Beaume-de-Venise and passed by the chapel to Notre Dame de l'Aubune. (We visited this chapel previously by car.)

Notre Dame de l'Aubune from above

There were steep uphills, not much more than goat paths, rocky and difficult to climb.

The "path"

The reward was coming next to the pierre du diable (Devil's rock) that was supposedly being pushed onto the chapel until Mary interceded and stopped the intended damage.

Devil's rock. Clark said he could feel it move. Now if the rock falls on the chapel below, it will be Clark's fault.

From there, the walk continued along the plateau of the rocky outcropping with views across the valley and its vineyards,

views of vineyards, with Dentelles behind

as well as the Dentelles de Montmirail, finally descending back down to the village of Beaume-de-Venise.

Easy is not an attribute that the hikers would use to label this hike.

When the hikers returned, we ate lunch and got Randy and Katie on the road. I had made reservations the day before to do a wine tasting (in English) at one of the local Sarrians wineries (MonTirius, AOP Vacqueyras), which was a quick drive to the other side of town.








A new intern (Nicolas) greeted us and was very knowledgeable for being at MonTirius only 2 weeks. We had sampled these wines in our local restaurant and learned just how local they were. We tasted 4 wines, bought a few bottles, and had our photo taken by the vineyards outside the tasting room.