Back on the saddle again

We finally leave Grignan and hop on our bikes again. But before doing so, we partake in the local market - yes, we finally time it so that we hit one!

The weekly market
Some towns have markets once a week, sometimes twice in higher season. In these markets you can find fruits, vegetables, herbs, meat, cheese, fish, flowers, plants, crafts and other artesian treasures.

The cutest part was watching this petit chat that was the roadie for the fish stand. It just sat there, looking up at the fish, and even refused to move when a dog came by. That's dedication.

After our browsing we ended up with some cheese, cured meat, figs, lavender oil and herbs du provence (much cheaper than the tourist stuff). A great start to the day!

Ooooh, I squished it
Snails are everywhere, which means that they're in fields where there is no water. They're found on tall grass, fences and the ground. They're nothing grand, but are only smaller white creatures, sort of like barnicles - certainly not worth eating.

When dismounting our bikes on the side of the rode to take a picture, I heard a big crunch. Looking down I saw a larger snail squirming beneath me. Zut!

Closing the loop
Making our way back down the loop towards our starting point, we ended up in Vaison-la-Romaine. The day was slightly windy, slightly cloudy, and slightly sunny. There were more rolling hills and picture-worthy moments around every corner. Moving away from lavender fields, we were back in wine country.

We tried stopping at several caves. The first we hit was just fifteen minutes after noon, and the last one we passed was about thirty minutes before two, so I was out of luck. Still trying to figure out french time, it turns out the wineries were closed from noon to two pm. At least there was one cave in town to quench my thirst.

Must make sure to hit the wineries first thing in the morning tomorrow. And yes, that still just sounds wrong.

Vaison-la-Romaine
This was a much larger city than our previous night with much more to see and do. (Yes, we are again questionning our tour company's wisdom as to why we wouldn't have our rest day here.) Since Romaine stands for Roman, there are many Roman ruins about the town. There are also a lot of tourists, which is odd after being in such a quiet town. Our night was spent away from the tourists in the medieval part of the city, falling asleep to the sound of the fountain outside.