The vines were heavy with their rich fruit, soon to be made into wine.
I compared them with other vines that I saw on my daily walks where the precious fruit was wrapped to protect it from hungry birds.
Many of "my" vines were covered with a large net over the top more like this.
One day, I was surprised to see that the fruit was gone from some of the vines. I was surprised because I had not noticed anyone working in the vineyard at all. But it was clearly time for les vendanges (the grape harvest) to begin in earnest.
Still, most of the vines were covered with a net - that is, until about three weeks ago. As we were driving into Geneva for our literary tour of the Old City, we saw that the huge nets covering the grapes were being removed.
It was quite a process so we stopped for a few minutes to watch.
The next day, I noticed that there were people picking the grapes manually, so I dropped by to get a few photos ...
trying to stay out of the way.
There is an industrious laborer behind the vines in this photo.
The grape harvesters were from Portugal. While they were picking the grapes, I could hear that they were singing out loud the words to "Stand By Me" in English. They appeared to be enjoying themselves very much.
When they stopped for a moment, I asked them why they were singing in English. "We were just joking around," they laughed, "we really don't know all the words in English, but we love the chorus."
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