Our lovely estate agent Helen met us at the vineyard and Dominique the current owner showed us how to prune or Taille the vines. He showed us several times and supervised our selections of which latte to leave, which to cut for next year and which to remove completely.
He then left us to it until around 6pm when he came out and marched down the row declaring "bon" "bon" "trop long" and snapped the tops of several and then invited us in for aperitifs.
Over the course of Fri pm to Mon lunchtime we pruned 9000 vines with another 9000 or so still to go. Dominique and Annie showed us such hospitality, clearing out the little house that is going to be the gite and everyday putting fresh coffee on and several bottles of wine on the table and indeed coming out on Sun am to help us speed up.
I hurt in places I didn't know it was possible to hurt! My pecs for example creaked for days and Tues application of alcohol gel at work was not a pleasant experience on my open cuts and scrapes.
It was lovely though, although hard work, to be among the vines, hear the birds and watch the deer ambling about.
So now we just need to sell our house here.... anyone want a lovely house in Hampshire?
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