Easter Wine

Having completed a highly successful weekend at the international crime-writing festival, Quais du Polar, at Lyon, we had a day to kill before events in a school and a library at Annonay in the Ardèche tomorrow.

So we booked a room in an auberge deep in Rhone country, some miles from Annonay, and on the drive there decided to visit the village of Crozes-Hermitage in search of lunch.

I have been enjoying wine from Crozes-Hermitage for years, so it was something of an Easter pilgrimage. Unfortunately the only restaurant in the tiny village was shut, but I was amazed by the way the vineyards here have been terraced, making use of every centimetre of south-facing hillside on the banks of the river.

We finally found a restaurant open a few miles away, with a terrace right on the river. Entertainment during lunch was provided by three fishermen on a tiny boat who managed to land the most enormous fish I have ever seen caught on rod, a carp that took two of them to lift. After being photographed with it by the third fisherman, they lowered it gently back into the water and let it go.

I did manage to photograph it through the window, but it was really too far away to make a decent blip. So I give you the vineyards of Crozes-Hermitage instead, and am happy to say that we each raised a glass of it at lunch.

Santé!