My wife and I will be spending 3 days in Vaison La Romaine in late October. Before I make any further plans I was hoping to get some feedback on what others most enjoyed about their time in Vaison la Romaine. Prior to out three nights in Vaison la Romaine we will have two days in Avignon, with one of those days being a wine tour.
We are most interested in learning more about the wine of the region, so any tips or recommendations will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Cason Love
I love a good market day; Vaison's is impressive on Tuesday mornings. You can also visit the Roman ruins there (house and theater) without many crowds. Our tours choose this town for a nice-sized, walkable, low-key home base that's handy to the wine road. It's also served by bus from Avignon. If you have a car, it's easy enough to stay in one of the smaller wine villages.
Try visiting Domaine de Mourchon outside Seguret. Great wine, great view, great people.
We loved staying in Vaison La Romaine. As Rick suggests, we arrived on a Mon. and woke up to an amazing open air market on Tues. We spent all morning exploring this exceptional market. Stayed at the lovely L'Eveche Chambres located in the upper medieval village. Our hosts, Aude and Jean-Loup where delightful. Enjoyed the delicious provencal food served at la Fete en Provence, La Lyriste, La Tournesol and La Bartavelle. Be sure to visit the Notre-Dame de Nazareth Cathedral and cloister in the lower town as well as the Roman ruins.
If you would like a change of pace stay at the wonderful L'Ecole Buissionerre B&B in Buisson 5 minutes from Vaison la Romaine. Great hosts, breakfast, ambiance amid beautiful vineyards in a French country house. John, the owner, is an expert on what to do and see in the region and helped us plan each day as well as making our dinner reservations for us. You won't regret it if you stay there. One of the best places of our entire trip and it was 69 Euro a night!!!! Even a cool dog to play with who will walk the vineyards with you.
The area is famous for it's Red wines and they are wonderful everywhere. Wineries and tasting rooms abound. We also liked the Armand Winery which had a few Whites that were very good. Unusual for the area to even taste white wine.
We enjoyed dinner one night on the square of Villedieu. Was a wonderful outdoor setting which fills up the entire small square. A good restaurant we really liked was Le Tourne au Verre near the Armand Winery in Cairanne. The whole area is spectacular and fun to drive around. The market in Vaison la Romaine was very big and interesting with just about everything you could imagine and we really liked it but were happy where we stayed.
we spent a week in buisson also (in a private home we rented; not the previously mentioned b&b) and vaison la r. was our home base for shopping, eating, etc. the market there is fun; many interesting little restaurants on/near the main square.
took day trips to orange (AMAZING must see roman theatre there, nothing much else to write home about), the ruins (and some of the best wine of all) of chateauneuf-du-pape, sablet (one of our best meals out), and nimes (near-perfectly preserved roman colloseum and other roman sites/sights). we also ventured further afield one day to l'isle-sur-la-sorgue, which is a romantic town with lots of antique shopping.
i'd go back in a heartbeat.
you will see many, many wineries just driving any direction along the road.
