Big blue chair

And so, for the final day of my holiday, my sister-in-law and I took a trip inland to Sonoma County , a major centre of wine production in northern California. Once you leave the wind and fog of the city, which sits right on the Pacific and boasts its own air conditioning system , the climate really changes, becoming hotter, drier, more arid. Drive over the Golden Gate Bridge at this time of year and you enter hills baked bread brown. But one thing I've noticed is that the sun in this part of the world isn't just hotter than the average British ray, it's brighter, whiter than any sun ever seen back in Britain.
We stopped for (get ready Frank!) coffee in Cornerstone, an unexpected little assembly of art galleries, coffee shops and sculpture workshops, where I took the opportunity to sit in a big blue chair. There's a sign right next to said big blue chair, just out of frame. It reads 'The Big Blue Chair', and includes an arrow, just in case you're in any doubt about the outsized azure furniture in question.
But our destination for the day was a champagnerie just a little further up the freeway - an impressive but obviously ersatz French villa that looked oddly out of place amidst the dry hills. We sat underneath a canopy on the grand terrace, sampling various champagnes, tittering over the extravagant tasting notes while eating local cheeses and exotic salamis.
And so that's more or less it....holiday almost over. My bags are packed and the airport looms!