10:48PM | Violès | France
A cloudless summit of Mont Blanc greets us on our final morning in Chamonix. After breakfast in a streetside café, we pack our car and head east, out of the Alps and into the Savoie. We drive past orchards, cows, and vineyards as the dense forest behind us fades into flower-filled meadows.
We pass into the Rhône Valley as the sun dips in the sky, and the light strikes warmly off Mont Ventoux in the distance. Once off the highway we circle the Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellation, with its unmistakable galet roules-filled vineyards. We pull into the sleepy town of Violès, and find our charming old apartment, complete with a stone sink and small garden courtyard.
Dinner is ten minutes away in Séguret, member of the “Prettiest Towns in France” group; quaint cobblestone streets are lined with rose bushes and flower pots. Drinks and dinner on a veranda overlooking the patchwork of vineyards; steak frites and a bottle of Séguret under honeysuckle and the setting sun.
