Life in the south continued

So having left Lyon we are now hanging out in Annonay, a smallish town in the north of the Ardèche. This is where I spent my AFS exchange year and it hasn't changed a lot in the last 10 years. It's claim to fame is that the Montgolfier brothers (inventors of the hot air balloon) lived here, and it is also famous for its paper making plant. We are staying with a family I was close to during my exchange year and we have also been seeing a lot of my host family, after a somewhat shaky start - we turned up to surprise them at their bakery and got a fairly underwhelmed reaction, despite not having seen them for 3 years. Things have been going well since then, though, and we have got to sample some of the bakery's delicacies.
The family we are staying with are the ultimate hosts, and they always have extra people around. We've been getting lots of French practice and have been enjoying some of the local Ardèche wine (and a 1976 Bordeaux) and homemade saucisson.
Our host, Yves-Marie, has also been taking us hiking in the hills above Annonay. Apart from the stunning scenery and mountain air, one of the great aspects of these walks has been the wild berries growing beside the track. Wild raspberries, blueberries and blackberries, all bursting with intense flavour and way out of the league of supermarket fruit. The blackberries didn't even have a hint of the usual sourness. Yves-Marie joked that foxes had probably peed on the fruit (while happily tucking in himself) but hey, it may have just added to the flavour!
As for the picnic after our walk...the French have a reputation for liking wine at any time of the day, and even my French high school teachers had wine with their lunch, but it did seem ridiculously French to be sitting in the middle of nowhere eating a picnic lunch and drinking Bordeaux. Gotta love the French!