A Wonderful Reunion

"One of the nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever we are doing and devote our attention to eating." - Luciano Pavarotti 

Even though our destination was Corsica, we couldn't come to the south of France without visiting our dear friends, the Peyraud family of Domaine Tempier.  Jean Marie Peyraud, who's lovely wife, Katherine, passed away last December, was our destination on our first day. He lives in a beautiful house on the top of a hill overlooking the Bay of Bandol.

We arrived at Marseille airport, rented a litttle red Fiat 500, and drove to his house, arriving just as it was getting dark. Jean Marie cooked us a wonderful dinner of fresh oysters from La Rochelle, lamb steaks, a gorgeous cheese plate and local figs. This was washed down with (in order), a Lasalle champagne, a 2016 Domaine Tempier rose, and a 1990 Cabasseau, an amazing red wine made from the mourvedre grape. It was a great dinner, where we ate great food, drank scrumptious wine, but missed our dear friend, Katherine. 

The next day we were able to get a small hike in before driving to Le Castellet. There is a great restaurant here, called Le Pied du Nez. On the menu was a charcuterie plate of ham and salami, straight from Corsica, a delicious andouillette (a grilled sausage of pork tripe, not for the faint of heart, but marvelous all the same) and a sheep cheese. This was all washed down with a lovely 2015 rose Bandol wine from Domaine Gros Nore. From the terrace of the restaurant, we had a beautiful view of the vineyards of a Bandol. 

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From here we went straight to Domaine Tempier for a small tasting of the recently bottled 2014 Tourtine and Migoua, two distinct vineyards of the Domaine. Then we went to the house to see our dear Lulu, the matriarch of Domaine Tempier. Lulu is now 99 years old and is still as feisty as ever!  She leaned over to me at one point and said, "Excusez-moi d'être indiscret, mais avez-vous voté pour Trump?"  I just laughed and said, "Of course not Lulu, Trump is a nightmare!"