Lesson Number One: Believe ones Wife

My wife has kindly informed me for many years that I am always making errors. In particular that I do not listen to her when she is telling me things that she knows are correct. So today was one of those moments.

To make sure we have the van on a level we own two ramps. Each ramp has four steps so that the wheels can rise about 2 or 3 centimeters each step. My job is to back up (or drive forward) onto the ramps and stop when she orders. I have often said that she is a little cautious when we have to do this so we usually stop on step two and in no danger of going over the back.

So today I carried out my part of the bargain but, unfortunately did not stop and over the back we went. There were horrified looks on Meryl's face as she surveyed the problem: both ramps had been raised up into the space between the wheels and the body and were now firmly trapped, not moving and locked quite tightly in the space.

It took a lot of digging, a bit of ingenuity and the help of a man with a large car jack to extricate the ramps. It seems we did not suffer any damage to the van and the ramps are intact. However, I did learn something about the soil here. On our drive we had seen some evidence to suggest that bricks may have been made but assumed that the area was mainly sand and rock. Digging, or actually scratching in the ground showed that there is plenty of clay here.

So: I must do as I am told or I have to do the digging next time!

Lesson Two: Wine Writers

Decanter Magazine ran an article on Rhone Wines and I got a copy to bring on this trip. The details, I thought, would help us find some decent wine but rather cheaper than in the UK. But when you get here the scope of the problem becomes clear. There are a hyuge number of producers and working out what the wine writer actually means is a matter of learning. They write in a short hand, based on a presumption that one understands his particular language, or the langauge of wine writing for the public. Thus when he says that a good Cotes du Rhone is La Romance he means that one has to find that Domaine to purchase it. Now every area has a co-operative and this assists small 'vignerons' press grapes and so on. And, even though the man who runs La Romance it is a member of the local cooperative, they do not sell his wine. That's what the nice lady told us. Until you study a web site that is not his but it does tell you the co-op. does sell it, but under another name! Then you cannot find it on the co-op web site which, in French is at least a year out of date, and if English dates from 2007!!

Oh dear! Pursuing other producers, now in the knowledge that one must look for domaines, or chateau, or clos, one can identify quite a few; but trying to get an idea of price - well that's something different. To say its frustrating is to underestimate the hunt!

Actually the Co-operative at Chusclan was very helpful. We could have parked overnight for free but it was not ideal. the showroom was large and the two ladies were very helpful and friendly. Two other campers had not been very impressed but we had a very different viewpoint. Anyway, we had a 'degustation, and tried three whites of increasing quality so we now own another twelve bottles. Happily nine need to be drunk soon!

More importantly, when we talked about to producers they did not sell they helped us find the necessary address and printed it from the Internet. What service!