The Vendange

We were lucky enough to be invited to participate in the Vendange, which is the grape harvest.  Some friends of the lady who owns the gite where we are staying has some vines and always asks around for assistance in the harvest.  The payment is a long lunch afterwards with wines from previous
harvests to be tasted.  Some of us ( not Alan) eagerly agreed.  Let me tell you - "there's no such thing as a free lunch!"  It was darned hard work and two days later I still know I picked grapes!  Altogether, between about 30 people we picked just short of 7 tonnes of grapes.  By hand!  It was a terrific opportunity though and one I was pleased not to have missed.  We also got to meet a lot of other visitors as well as local residents.  One lady we met is writing a book on oral histories of people who have stories to tell about the Resistance in this area.  We have invited her to dinner on Monday to tell us all about it.