I emerged from the Columbus Circle subway station, maneuvering past the slow-moving sidewalk traffic with the dexterity and intensity of an Olympic track star.
I was being a typical New Yorker – in a major rush – on my way to the Museum of Art and Design on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. I was attending the first-ever Provence Iconic Panel and Experiential rosé wine tasting sponsored by Vins de Provence.
Provence had really been through the wringer. After being occupied by Greeks, Romans, Christians, Barbarians, Arabs, Spanish and the French, the region had faced a series of extreme highs and lows.
It was battered by war, devasted by a plague and practically neglected by most of France by the late 1700s.
The region was viewed as a backwater, underdeveloped rural fishing village that was inconveniently inaccessible to most people in Paris and other parts of France. Therefore, it continued to stay out of sight and out of mind.