Terrance’s Wine Tour (Vaucluse) May 2025

This well thought out tour/experience that Terrance and Emmanuel created was a wonderful introduction to Southern Rhône Region.
It was well planned and extremely well executed sojourn.
The facility was delightful. We felt as though we had entered a time different than today’s hectic pace. For Poppi to open her home and embrace travels with her charm and entertaining stories added to our special experience.
The well appointed and comfortable rooms made a place rest and recovery from the full but well paced itinerary.
The icing on all this delicious cake was the baker, chef, guide and driver, Emmanuel. Gourmet meals, well paired wines, gracious guiding and smooth transportation to our tour locations put positive punctuation on the entire trip.
I recommend this unreservedly as an unforgettable experience.

I originally met Terrance about 7 years ago on the train to Normandy with my late husband. It was a very serendipitous meeting as it turned out he was an old friend of a friend of mine from Mpls. Who knew? The unexpected joys of travel. I found him completely charming and he was a bit mesmerizing with his abundant knowledge of France and the French people (their history, their culture, food and their wine.) I would follow his column but it wasn't until this year, when I would take one of his trips with my friend (the same friend) from Mpls. We decided to embark on this adventure as she felt, at 85, she had one last big French excursion in her.
I can not say enough about this short but jam-packed tour! Arriving in Paris, all 8 of us met in Gare de Lyon for the TGV train to Avignon. There we were met by our local host, driver and chef exordonaire, Emmanuel. It was an incredible 3+ days; winery tours, tastings, sumptuous breakfasts, special and exquisite lunches in the country, time to relax before wine and dinner, and then, another fabulous meal and more wine at Le Bastide Rose by Emmanuel. Always, always lively conversations with two couples from California/Paris,the two of us from Minnesota, Terrance and Monica! It was totally enchanting tour; delightful banter, informative discussions, well-paced activities and very well priced for so much 'entertainment.' Emmanuel was a kind, generous, funny, and thoughtful host plus chef. His mother, Poppy, was the former wife/widow of Pierre Salinger. She added the most amazing spice to our days, through her entertaining tales of life. The Salinger Museum was fascinating but her stories of a young French woman who was pursued by film director Roger Vadim on a ski slope, being an international journalist, meeting Pierre at the 1968 Chicago Democratic convention, their time in Washington DC,  life at the White House during the Kennedy years, deciding to create a B and B in Provence and her four marriages kept us spellbound for hours.

The wineries Terrance and Emmanuel selected were small, family run for several generations and had an interesting array of whites, roses and reds from the Provence region. I truly expanded my expertise. I could even select a wine at another dinner later that week that I had previously tasted. C'est magnifique!

Terrance kept everyone laughing and his musical interludes were always so perfect for the moment. He is the original energizer bunny (can you say that in French?) Terrance treats everyone as his dearest and oldest friend, even if it is someone he just bumped into on the street or the train station. He is the real deal in every way, as they say.
I can not wait to join another tour or two in the years ahead!