POST-TRIP THANKS, AND A FEW LAST PHOTOS

    We’ve now been back from France for a full week.  While my blog postings mostly featured the scenery, chateaus, and wine (plus a few cats and ice cream), there was one other thing that made this trip especially memorable: the wonderful people we met throughout the trip.  So I want to thank all of the people we met who helped make this trip so special, including the following:

    Corinne Lannaluc, proprietor of the apartment in Lyon that we rented at the start of our trip, who was kind enough to pick us up at the train station and drive us to the apartment, as well as give us tips about the city.
                       
    Patrice and Francoise Reverger, proprietors of our gite in the Ardeche, who invited us into their home for a delightful evening with their family, gave us a fine bottle of Chatus wine and a lovely late-harvest Viognier from the local cooperative to which Patrice sells his grapes, and also suggested that we visit Domaine Mazel in the village.

    Jerome Mazel, Ardeche vigneron extrordinaire, who poured his wonderful wines for us on several occasions and chatted with us about the winery and his background, and also Jerome’s parents, who gave us a tour of the winery on our first visit.

    Melanie and Sebastien Juillard, proprietors of our gite in the Jura, who gave us some insights into the fascinating wines of the Jura, and also gave us a wonderful bottle of Cremant de Jura from a small producer that we would never have discovered otherwise.

    Dominique and Valerie Fender, and their two children, Leanne and Samuel, a family from Alsace who rented the gite next to ours in the Jura, with whom we spent several hours over aperitifs and local cheeses, and who shared a bottle of a fabulous Alsatian Gewurztraminer they had brought from home.

    The woman managing La Bonne Auberge in Segny in place of her vacationing son (the owner of the auberge), and who, among other things, lent us the use of her refrigerator and a corkscrew, as well as a couple of outdoor chairs, so we could enjoy some local wines in the delightful setting of the auberge.

    And finally, Andy and all of the staff at the Hotel de Savoie in Annecy, where we stayed for 3 days at the end of the trip after getting stuck in France due to the Iceland volcanic eruption, for being so friendly and helpful.

    I also want to finish this last posting with a few more photos.  While I wrote a fair amount about wines we tasted, everyone knows that one can’t live on wine alone; there’s also cheese, bread, and pastries.  So here are a few photos.