A Walk to Meet a New Friend

Wednesday evening we enjoyed the company of our neighbors, Pierre and Albert.

With the help of Amy and Matt, who speak superb French, we learned more of the history of our house and village.  Pierre would visit his grandparents here during summer vacation (their home just two doors away).  Each morning he would venture down the road to Le Tonnellerie to watch the barrel making process.  He, during all of his visits to the building, had only been about ten feet inside the door.  Oil stains remain on our fireplace from the barrel maker's tools and our ceiling still has soot from him burning the inside of the barrels.

I decided I needed to introduce myself to the former owner of our home. 
Early Thursday morning, I walked down the path,

Past the ancient walls dripping with ivy,

Seeing doors opening to ?????,

Peaking over the wall to the garden of the chateau,

Viewing the empty fields waiting for the summer's seeds,

Walking over the once very busy railroad tracks,

Down the rain soaked road,

To the cemetery.

I walked slowly down the grand allée

to anxious meet Victor Brouzet, my new dear friend and former proprietor of  La Tonnellerie.

Amazingly, Victor and I had met in this same place two days earlier when I had visited, but we didn't know what we know now.

Can you imagine how many barrels those hands have produced to hold the wines of the Côte du Rhône?

I was so pleased to meet and talk with Victor.  I would like to have a glass of Amy's Rhone wine with him. Now, our home has a personality.
Thank you, Pierre and Albert.

À la prochaine,
Cindy