Tournon

We spent last night in Tournon. You can see some of the pictures both from inside and outside of our cabin below. The city is surrounded by granite hills which produce the wonderful wines for which the area is famous. 

Our excursion for the morning was a wine and chocolate tasting in the city castle sponsored, I think, by the wine tourist association. I can’t remember all the details from the wine tasting. In fact, I find myself at a loss to determine either the bouquet of wine or the taste of wine. I seem to never be able to ascertain the “fruity” taste that the experts find. To me, it tastes like wine—some tastes good and others not so good. And of course they find that the wine has the smell of “fresh flowers,” or sometimes “white flowers.” How long has it been since I smelled flowers of any kind? For some reason, our agricultural experts seem to have taken away the once pleasant aroma of flowers. They all have a similar sort of clinical smell these days. Anyway, to me, the wine just smells like wine; sometimes a good aroma and at other times not so good.

The expert chief, as designated by his signature France flag stripes along his collar, told us how he systematically pared certain wines with certain presentations of chocolates. He had a delightful lecture and was truly an expert—one of the best in France. He said some chocolate recipes worked with the selected wines while others didn’t. The whole process is a cultivated art, but all I knew is that they tasted really good together. I am not by any means an expert on either wines or chocolates, but I do like both and find that they taste well together. This is probably all wrong, but I also enjoy a Pinot Noir with a Hershey’s dark chocolate. Wonder if that is any where near acceptable?

The afternoon, was another day of sailing, but without very good light I’m afraid—lots of grey skies.