Like many of you, I am a huge fan of the Rick Steves Guidebooks. I love his rich descriptions, his knack for finding charming small towns, and his reasonably priced accommodations.

On one of our open days in Provence we found ourselves near the “Self-Guided Driving Tour” in his South of France book so we decided to go for a ride.

We fueled up on breakfast before heading out. I had my usual: bread on bread on bread! I seriously had no self-control in France!And then we were off! The self-guided tour brings you through the Cotes du Rhone wine road. As you can see above, many of the vineyards grow at angles. Apparently they are planted this way to compete with the strong mistral winds.Our favorite stop on the tour was the little town of Suzette. We lingered around this tiny hilltop town and took in the views of Mont Ventoux. The sun was shining bright that day making everything more colorful and vibrant. We did several wine tastings throughout the tour. To be totally honest they were a bit underwhelming so I’m not going to recommend any of the places we went. All of the tastings we went to were free, which was nice, but the experience was rather cold. I don’t doubt that part of the problem was the language barrier, so if I visit again I would do a little more research on wineries with positive tasting experience reviews.

That said, the wineries were beautiful and the wine itself more than made up for my sour feelings.

On a side note, the self-guided tour was fun, but it would have been REALLY fun to hire a van or driver so we could have enjoyed #roséallday instead of having to be responsible!:)

Happy SaturYAY!!!

Jenny