We arrived in Vouvray and checked into our gîte late one afternoon in early October 2000. We were pretty exhausted and jet-lagged after an 11-hour flight to Paris from San Francisco and then a four-hour drive from CDG airport, northeast of Paris, to Vouvray, about 150 miles to the southwest.That means you have to cope with some Paris traffic.
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Vouvray is a wine village (pop 3,000) where fine white wines — sparkling and still; sweet, semi-sweet, and dry — are produced. It's not a prettied-up place. Producing wine is agricultural and quasi-industrial. It's interesting to see. (The Champagne region is like that too, by the way.)
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Another feature of the village is that it has quite a few troglodyte houses (cave dwellings), like the one on the right below. We took our cameras with us on our walk that first day. When we got back to the
gîte, Sue said she was going to have to find a place to buy some more film. She hadn't expeced Vouvray to be so picturesque.
Here's a link to a web page about a troglodyte gîte in (or near) Vouvray, with photos. It's interesting to see. It sleeps 3 and rents for about $500 a week.
ReplyDeleteGood idea to walk around and soak in the French-ness, instead of driving somewhere, the first day... aaaaaahhhhhh.... France!
ReplyDeleteYou deserved a rest after driving so far after your long flight. Walt and Sue look happy to be in Vouvray.
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