As evening came on so did rain. I was basically exhausted by the day’s glories and decided to drive an hour or so and then to stop at the first agreeable looking auberge.
These women exemplify a common experience – you just stop and then you have three new best friends. The ladies were from Belgium. They had spent the last month sunning themselves in Portugal and that day drove through Portugal, through Spain and into France on their way to Belgium the next day. Between them they spoke a dozen languages and we chatted away the evening.
And oh yes, they were smuggling home a Lot of Portuguese wine. They had taken the wine directly from barrels and funneled it into big plastic water jugs. After dinner they poured this wine into water glasses and shared Freely.