I've been traveling a lot for work lately, usually at least a 2 day trip per week. It starting to get old going to the same places over and over again, so I was really glad to see we'd signed a new contract with a customer in Southeast France. Finally a new region to explore!
My new client is located in a small town called Saint Marcellin, which is mostly known for the very stinky cheese it produces. Unfortunately there were a few mishaps and I didn't get to explore as much as I had liked, but on the advice of my client, I did take the time to go have dinner in Saint Antoine de l'Abbaye, a small medieval village about 15 minutes away.Saint Antoine de l'Abbaye was also recently added to France list of "most beautiful villages". I was a bit skeptical because I've seen a fair number of villages in my day, but this one really did blow me away. There were tons of little winding streets leading up to the fortified walls. And once inside, there were a million little things to take pictures of. I almost didn't go inside the church, because I kind of felt like "If you've seen one church in Europe, you've seen them all". But it really was amazing inside.The Abbey also had a variety of free museums inside (though they were closed by the time I arrived). I had a lovely dinner in the square, and watched the sunset behind the church spires. My dinner was a local specialty - really tiny raviolis with a walnut salad. I had one of the best red wines I'd ever had - and unfortunately failed to write down the name of it, so I guess I'll have to go back. The owner was really friendly, and gave me a free shot before I left. It looked like there was a layer of Get 27 and Baileys, and I was a bit suspicious, but it tasted exactly like one of the Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies. Yum.So I'd definitely recommend stopping by to visit if you're ever in the area. The one thing that did strike me was that I heard at least one group of people speaking American English per day. I was really surprised since that area really isn't a major tourist destination - so maybe they were all locals?