Boared at Le Château d’Astros

Trip Start Sep 25, 2012

Trip End Oct 16, 2012

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Flag of France Taradeau, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
Saturday, October 6, 2012

The first part of this lazy day was spent playing with Feelie, a neighborhood dog who visited us on the terrasse. Where did he get that singular name, you might well ask. Well, we did. Carole said that the neighbors told her that the year that they registered their new dog, all dogs' names had to begin with an "F." Seems unlikely to me, but that's what they told her, and if it were true anywhere it would be in France. At the time the whole family was crazy about the song "Feelings," covered by many singers including (according to Wikipedia) Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Engelbert Humperdindk, Johnny Mathis, and the Muppets. So "Feelings" morphed into "Feelie," and Feelie it was, and is. Despite his peculiar name, he was a very sweet dog who provided us with hours of entertainment throwing his ball over the wall of the terrasse, which he dutifully retrieved.

Finally, as dusk began to darken the crispy air, we decided to travel somewhere further away than the terrasse. So we drove to Vidauban and walked around the extensive grounds of the Ch�teau d'Astros. D'Astros is a combination winery and apple orchard. They specialize in pinova apples, originally bred in Pillnitz, near Dresden, Germany. This provided another point of contact for our German cousins between the Var and Germany.

Standing on an elevated dirt roadway, we looked down into a vineyard and in the gathering gloom saw a whole sanglier family, mother, father, and 4 or 5 boarlets, munching on the grapes. Sanglier is French for wild boar. Dark brown and hairy, they are very common in this area. Their scientific name is Sus scrofa.

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