Napa 2

Day 1 (Friday 25th July)

We started our few days in Napa with a lazy morning and a quick walk into town, which is only 10 minutes away. It's a small town but has a nice centre with lots of boutique shops. We went to a winery for a picnic lunch on their lawn (leurs pelouses) and then went to Robert Mondavi Winery, a fairly large company that made many different wines. we had a tour and a tasting of three wines but here in napa you have to pay for most tastings so it's not as good as France! Plus it's all very modern so there are no impressive chateaux to look at, although the scenery is still beautiful. (it is also very very hot in the afternoons).
After this visit Florian and I took the convertible (decapotable) car (I felt so cool driving a convertible in California!!) to a factory outlet store, where major brands (les marques) sell their products cheaper than in normal shops, plus there was a summer sale (les soldes) so we got some great bargains: Levis jeans at 20 euros, Calvin Klein shirts at 18 euros, Quiksilver shorts at 20 euros... Florian hasn't bought so many clothes in one day in his life!
That evening we cooked lamb on the barbecue and enjoyed a late night hot tub with Nick and Kate, including beer, chocolates and cool underwater flashing lights.

Day 2 (Saturday 26th July)

Florian and I hired a tandem today and rode along the Silverado Trail, a road that runs north-south along the valley and has many wineries along the way. It was hard work riding the tandem, especially up hills and in the burning heat. To refresh ourselves we stopped at a winery and tasted champagnes and wines for free, the last free tastings in the valley apparently. That was nice and gave us enough power to head to Mumm for a look at their art gallery (air conditioned thank god) and to taste their champagne in the little bar overlooking a vineyard. It was very nice to cool off for an hour before getting back on the bike and heading back to the hire shop. It was a great (40 mile/60km!!) ride and we are happy to have finally ridden a tandem, we always wanted to!
We went to a restaurant for dinner and went to bed with sore bums and aching legs (les fesses douloureuses!!)