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(This is a continuation of my travel journal from Provence. Please
start there for the complete story, and full entertainment value. If
you've already read that, stay here. You're in the right place.)
We got started the next day, driving along a nice little French road
that you typically see in magazines or catalogs. We stopped to take
pictures of a couple of wooden casks (barrels that age wine) when a man
in the house behind us called us over to join him and his family for
some refreshments. We accepted, and over the next hour, we learned about his
background: his family owned this vineyard for over 500 years, and
had original documents to prove it, all them signed by famous rulers
of France including Napoleon. As each new king assumed power, the family
would receive a document indicating that they still owned the land
they lived on. It was also accompanied by a document explaining the
amount of "property tax" they owed, which was never really that much,
unless you take inflation and exchange rates into account. I took a bunch
of pictures of them, their wine, their food, more of them, and all with
a glass in my hand. After we were too drunk to drive, we left. Happy.
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