After reading the ship's tour list, we decided a trip to "Le Castellet and A Taste of Provence" was
a good option. Le Castellet is a feudal village that again houses art galleries, craft shops and many restaurants.
It was a picture as we approached as it was high up on the hill surrounded by vineyards and the like. To enter there are two famous gates, "Le Portail" and "Le Portalet".
Once inside we noticed the beautiul doorways covered with colourful vines, wonderful signage and stone walkways.
In the village the highlights would be the town hall, a castle, an 11th building and the St Sauveur Church. Wonderful views from
the walls of the village were just delightful and gave us an idea of the country around us.
The next part of our day was planned to visit the "Domaine de Souviou", an olive farm and wine producing property.
We were very excited as the grounds looked brilliant and the olive trees and vines were everywhere to be seen. Our hostess
took us on a walkabout and explained how the olives are grown and how they are processed. Some of the trees were hundreds of years old
and still produced fantastic olives. This section of the trip was so interesting but the next was to learn about wine production.
We had a fantastic lesson on wine tasting and then how to tell what it was made of by checking the bouquet! Left the winery a
little worse for wear but thoroughly enjoyed our visit.
Back to Toulon for some free time and bit of exploration. Wonderful place this - something around every corner. Gary found some new friends to share a beer
and then just around the next street was the most magnificent three storey mural on the side of a building. Looks like it was a historical scene and was just awesome.
Toulon boasts a background of naval history and as such has many statues and replicas of things associated with the sea. Toulon
is the capital of the south of France's Var Region and gives access by many forms of transport to the Riviera and also to Provence.
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